It seems Mary Slessor shouldn’t have died.
What fear would make a mother give out her 4 days old baby to a rescue home? What can make a mother pray against the benevolence of nature, so as not to give birth to adorable twins? This is the fear of a tribe located in Gbangede, Kwali Area Council of the FCT where infanticide and twins killing is practiced on large scale.
Twins are adorable beings which numerous families around the world wish for but in the culture of some FCT indigenes, twins are not adorable instead, they are considered as evil and not worthy of living. It is believed that when a woman gives birth to twins, such twins should be put to death.
The process of killing them varies; they might decide to euthanize the twins to death by giving the twins concoction which is specifically brewed for such cases. According to experience the concoction is so lethal to the extent that even when the twins were rescued by a rescue home and properly diagnosed nothing was said to be medically wrong with them but after sometime they would start vomiting, depreciation and shrinking until they die. There was a true life situation were a twin who was given such concoction, narrowly survived after one year of intensive medical care.
The second method is used in rare cases when the mother of the twins reluctantly refuses to release her twins to the gods. The community will invite a masquerade (names Putoci) which according to their culture must not be seen by a woman, this masquerade enters the woman’s homestead, due to her belief she runs out leaving her child, then the masquerade then picks the child. The masquerade is said to strangle the twins with a rope and then goes to bury their bodies in the forest.
After the killing of twin their wrath is heavily visited on any child born after the twins because they are of the belief that the third child sent the twins into the world, so the third child is severely dealt with.
Another barbaric practice is that of infant sacrifice practiced by this community. This is a story of a girl named Joy who was rescued from the practice of human sacrifice in 1995 after her father had used four (4) of her elderly ones as sacrifice to their gods for good farm harvest, out of fear of the girl been used too, her mother cried out to the rescue home (who visited the village regularly) to take the girl and keep her safe. Joy is now of age and is in the University.
On the 27th of April 2014, the Nigerian Federation of Catholic Student (N.F.C.S) University of Abuja chapter visited the rescue home known as Heritage Vine Rescue Home in Kiyi, Kuje Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory which was situated previously in Dagiri, Gwagwalada Town to celebrate their Easter with the kids with such predicament.
This rescue home is basically focused on rescuing children ranging from four (4) days, four (4) month, and six (6) months depending on the situation. When the family or community decides that these children should be murdered, the home collects these children who have been sentenced to death majorly through persuasion and pleading. They do not use force but diplomacy, because any use of unorganized force or threat will make the community retreat more into the interior thereby abandoning their present home for a farther place. The people push further into the bush as civilization and development comes closer to them.
According to verified statistics, there are more than 30 villages in the FCT (Gwagwalada, Kwali & Kuje) Area Council, Abuja were barbaric traditions are been practiced with impunity under the very nose of the government and year in year out it still persists and lives of innocent children are being lost.
I am using this medium to call on the government of the affected Area Councils to re-invest their time meaningful on project like this because everyone is specially made by God for a purpose in life.
#STOP THE KILLING OF TWINS IN F.C.T. AND EVERYWHERE
