Ch.+19+Infant+mortality;+twins+-+Liz

= Infant Mortality and Twins =

**Bottom line; in ancient Igbo tradition, THEY KILLED TWINS!**
==== Up until the late 19th century, twins were thought of as an abomination and that they should be killed immediatly if a mother bore them, or any other multiple births. The Igbo people believed that humans should only produce single births. They beleived that only animals should be associated with multiple births. In some extreme cases, the Igbo people killed single birth animals as well! ====

The Igbo people didn’t know how or why the mother had twins. Their limited knowledge on science, biology, and human anatomy led them to beleive that the babies involved in multiple births were evil!
**__Twins were sent to the "evil forest" to die__**

==== Babies were either killed instantly or abandoned in an "ojoo ofia", which translates into "bad bush". This place was known as the "evil forest" to the Igbo people, which was the dark place they dumped everything that wasn't acceptable in their culture. Then the mother had to go through rituals to "clense" herself from the "nso ani", or "abomination against the earth". Sometimes the mother might be killed as well. The reason why so many rituals were performed was because they beleived that twins interfered with “uwa mmadu”, or their own physical world, and “uwa mmuo”, or world of the spirits. They felt that they needed to make sure that these worlds were kept separate. ==== ==== The irony; the yams that the Igbo people ate had phytoestrogen in them. This chemical stimulates the ovaries in woman, and causes an egg on each side to be released. This results in fraternal twins. So, the people that had a very high number of twins thought that they were an abomination and killed them. ====

__**Infant mortality is extremely high in Africa, even today**__

**For further information on infant mortality in africa, go to**

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Works Cited

Bastian, Misty L. ""The Demon Superstition"" //JSTOR//. Web. 8 Nov. 2010. <[]>.

"Igbo Culture." //Academic//. Web. 8 Nov. 2010. <[]>.

Mason, Barry. "UNICEF Report: Infant Mortality Rates Still High." //World Socialist Web Site//. Web. 8 Nov. 2010. [|.

"The Material Culture of Twins in West Africa." //SFU.ca//. Web. 8 Nov. 2010. .