Welcoming A Baby, The Traditional Way in African Communities

Children are an integral part of the community and the birth of a child is a sacred and auspicious time for your family. Rituals and beliefs surrounding this important rite of passage often vary from one culture to the next in African communities.

Some of the common traditions to welcome a new baby in the African community include male circumcision, shaving the hair, eating the placenta, and feeding the infants honey. While these rituals are not approved medically, they provide a road mark that African traditional communities observe.

Here are some of the rituals that welcome a newborn baby among three tribes in Kenya.

The Kikuyu community

When a child is born in the Kikuyu community, it usually takes 3-4 years before the baby is weaned from the mother. When the baby is born, a professional midwife has to be present to assist in the delivery.

The midwife helps to cut the umbilical cord to separate the baby from the mother. She announces the child’s birth through ululations and songs of joy. 5 ululations signify the birth of a boy and 3 ululations represent the birth of a girl.

After the child is born, the mother is supposed to carry the child with her everywhere she goes. And in rare occasions when she decides to leave the child, she has to leave the child under the care of an elder daughter or a co-wife. After the child learns how to walk, it always tags behind the mother and would always hide under her clothing when a stranger approaches.

The strong bond that exists between the mother and the child is broken through a ritual ceremony to announce a second birth, which signifies the return of the first child inside the mother’s womb. Before the child is between 3- 4 years, he is presumed innocent and doesn’t carry any sin according to the Kikuyu community.

That means that any misfortune or sin that arises was the parent’s responsibility. In such a case, the child has to undergo a purification ceremony to shed away the sin. After the second birth, the child is solely responsible for his own destiny and doesn’t carry the sins of the parents.

The child thereafter graduates to become a “kahii”, boy or “kairitu”, girl. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean the child was genderless upon birth. It simply means the child is old enough to perform simple chores like fetching items and so forth.

Both the mother and the child usually have a difficult time disengaging that bond from one another. In the Kikuyu community, those who decided to have other children before their small children had reached a certain age limit were considered irresponsible.

The Luo community

In the Luo community, shaving the baby’s hair is done after birth. Shaving is usually done by an older woman or grandmother who comes from the same clan. To prepare for shaving, it is essential to have a traditional calabash, known as Agwata, and a traditional herb and razor. The calabash should be filled with water to prevent the baby from obesity. Elders used the traditional herb to prepare a soup that was consumed to welcome a new baby.

And children who were born at a specific time were named depending on that time. i.e. Atieno/ Otieno represents children that were born at night. Akoth/Okoth were children born during the rainy season. On the other hand, Akumu/ Okumu represents mothers who delivered without seeing their periods.

Naming children after their ancestors is now a thing of the past. However, the Luo community still names children after the seasons, living relatives, and time of birth. After the birth of the baby, friends, and relatives are required to pay a visit to the mother to welcome the newborn. During the first visitation, many rituals were performed.

The first ritual was done by the mother’s young sisters. The sisters carried both cooked food and uncooked food. Some of the cooked food include meat, Ugali, and indigenous vegetables like Mitoo, Dek (Spider plant), and Osuga. During the ceremony, the cooked food is served cold in a basket known as Adita. After birth, one of the sisters attends to the mother throughout until she regains her strength.

Beads are then tied around the mother’s neck and wrists to symbolize blessing and provide protection from witches. The visiting family member further helps to make the community stronger.

The Maasai community

Often, the Maasai children are welcomed by ululations from their mothers. Children are delivered by an experienced midwife. She is responsible for delivering the child and separating the umbilical cord from the mother. After birth, she pronounces the following words to the child; “I’m responsible for my life, and you are responsible for yours.

The mother speaks of the challenging world that awaits the child, which is a stark contrast to the mother’s warmth and softness. This helps to make a separation between the child and the mother. Both the child and the mother are carefully washed in a mixture of water and milk.

The child’s sex also matters. For example, the father is immediately informed of the child’s sex after delivery and cannot be present when the mother is delivering. When the newborn is a boy, the father is asked to take blood from a bull and then pretend as if feeding it to a heifer. But if the newborn is a girl, blood is poured into a small pumpkin container.

Anyone present during these rituals can easily tell the sex of the child during the ceremony. The mother is required to drink blood from the heifer and blood mixed with a small quantity of warm milk. And in the room where the baby is delivered, it is vital to kill a ram or ‘’olkipoket’’ and village women gather around to enjoy the meat together.

After the child has grown up and can look after the pasture, he is circumcised together with boys of his age group. During these ceremonies, the breaking of twigs is done to anoint the boys and the newly circumcised are under the supervision of those who are slightly older.