Traumas of the African woman

Amadi and his wife Nkoli were a very happy couple who lived happily in a village of Agu. The had been married for 5 years without a child. Amadi didn't seem to care. He loved his wife and kept caring for her. Then she got pregnant, it was the happiest moment in their lives. He pampered his wife more than ever during the period of her pregnancy. Didn't let her touch a thing. 

After 9 months Nkoli was due for delivery. Excited Amadi and friends were waiting anxiously in the sitting room, while Nkoli was with the village midwife in the bedroom going through the pains of birthing. A piercing cry announced the birth of a baby. There was a great shout of happiness from the other room. Just when they thought it was over, Nkoli  went into another round of labor and delivered another baby. Amadi rushed in to see his wife, but the shocked and sad look on the midwife's face gave him a pause. When he drew near to see his wife and baby, he found out the reason for the look. Upon seeing those two babies he started to shake violently. He fell and started to cry. The able men around carried him out of the room. 

image source

Everyone who came to see the newly born babies all left with a sad look on their faces. You see, in Agu village. It was an abomination for a woman to give birth to twins. It was seen as a bad omen, and those children are said to be evil and are to be thrown into the river after seven days. The gossip was all over the village. Some felt pity for Nkoli while others felt indifferent as it was none of their business. 

On the seventh day, the high priest of the village and the people of Agu gathered at Amadi's compound. "Bring out those abominations"  they shouted, The babies were snatched from their mother's arms and placed in two different pots and the pot was placed on a wooden tray. The mother was asked to carry the tray on her head and into the river where she is supposed to dump those children. Nkoli went about it with so much pain, "how can a mother lead her children to their own deaths", she thought. But there was nothing she could do about it. It was the tradition. If the children were left alive, it would make the gods angry and the wrath of the gods would fall on her family.   

This was the case in the olden days in some African countries, using Nigeria as a case study. Many ethnic groups in Nigeria practiced this wicked tradition. The Igbo society viewed twins as a bad omen sent by the “Gods.” They considered twins as evil beings that could bring devastation to society. 

In Chinua Achebe’s acclaimed novel, Things Fall Apart, I learn that the Earth goddess had decreed that twins “were an offence on the land and must be destroyed. And if the clan did not exact punishment for an offence against the great goddess, her wrath was loosed on all the land and not just on the offender”  The tradition to kill twins, was stopped by Mary Mitchell Slessor thus becoming an iconic person in Nigeria. I wonder if this tradition was not stopped, how Nigeria would have been?

image source 

During those, the believed that a child is a gift from God, why didnt it occur to them that twins could be double gifts from God. If twins like the famous and celebrated Psquare (Peter and Paul) were killed at birth, Nigeria would have lost great talents. Many twins with great potential would have been wasted. 

I personally see twins as a miracle, a wonder. And I will love to have them one day. To all my twin friends out there, I love you all.  

image source

image source