The Yoruba "Abiku": The Child Who Always Dies Young and Always Comes Back

In West Africa, Nigeria, the Yoruba people have a word called "Abiku," meaning "born to die."

The Yoruba say there is a type of child whose soul actually belongs to the world of spirits. They are sent to the human world just to play for a while. After staying for a bit, they find it boring and want to return to the spirits' side. So such children are always sick, always weak, and die young within a few years. What is even more painful for the mother is that after they die, they are reincarnated and born again from the same mother's womb, to get sick and die again, over and over.

If a mother gives birth to several children in a row, each dying before a few years of age, she begins to suspect that she is bearing Abiku.

How to deal with them? The village witch doctors offer a few methods.

First, give the child a name. There is a whole set of names for Abiku: "Kukumo," meaning "will not die"; "Malomo," meaning "do not leave again"; "Durojoye," meaning "stay and enjoy life." Giving such names is a plea for the child to stay.

Second, make marks on the child's body. In some places, the practice is that after the child dies, a small piece is cut from their corpse, such as a finger, or a cut is made on the ear; after burial, when the next child is born, if there is a birthmark in the same spot on the body, it means it is the same Abiku.

Third, put iron rings, bracelets, anklets on the child, with small bells hanging on them, called "binding." Some say that this way, the spirits cannot take him away.

The Igbo people have a similar belief called "Ogbanje," with a similar meaning.

Modern medicine explains it this way: in many parts of West Africa, infant mortality was historically very high. Sickle cell anemia is common there; children suffer repeated illness from a young age and die young. If both parents carry this gene, it is entirely possible for a mother to give birth to several such children in succession.

This kind of name is still used among the Yoruba people today.

#Paranormal #网络转载 #非洲