Christians fighting losing battle against infanticide in Ethiopia

Far from modern civilization in Ethiopia's Omo River Valley, ancient tribal practices are part of everyday life. Tragically, one of those practices includes the murder of babies that villagers declared to be cursed.

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA (Catholic Online) - A baby may be considered cursed for any number of reasons. It may be born out of wedlock, or it may have a deformity, or it could be something as simple as its top teeth growing before the bottom teeth -- for these trivial reasons and more, their young lives have been thrown away by superstitious locals. And until now, very little has been done about it.

Thanks to the intervention of a small group of Christians that live in the region, some of these children have an opportunity for survival. Still, as activists and the government turn their attention to this disturbing problem, the practice shows little sign of abating.

The tribes that practice this ritualistic infanticide are the Kara, Banna, and Hamar of Ethiopia. Children are examined at birth, and as they grow. For any number of seemingly trivial reasons, tribal elders may suddenly declare that a child is "mingi" which means cursed. According to traditional belief, cursed children must be killed or else tragedy will strike the tribe. Mercy is discouraged lest the sun grow hotter, the rains quit falling, or the crops refuse to grow.

Until recently, the killings were done in the open, a normal part of widespread regional tribal practice. Commonly, children would be suffocated or drowned. Many children were simply thrown into the crocodile infested waters of the Omo River. Others might have sand poured into their mouths until they suffocate, and still others simply abandoned and left to starve.

Recently, the government has started to pay attention to these ritualistic killings and has outlawed them. A tiny handful of people, only a few, have been arrested in connection with these killings and have been given minor prison sentences. However, the government is seen as a distant agent in the tribal regions where government officials rarely travel. Rather than halting the practice, the new laws have simply driven it underground. Today, mingi children are simply left to die upon birth, usually in the huts they were born. Their mothers are forbidden to touch them lest they become cursed to and must also be killed. It is impossible for anyone from the outside to say the child wasn't stillborn. 

Tribal shamans, if they are somehow able to predict that the child will be mingi before birth, (such as in the case of pregnancy out of wedlock) may be able to prepare an herbal potion that will cause the woman to lose the baby before it is actually born. But most of the time, the children are either murdered shortly after birth, or as toddlers.

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Because government intervention is virtually ineffective, regional Banna Christians have taken it upon themselves to save the lives of these mislabeled children. An orphanage has been established and is quickly filling with the unwanted babies. 

Many mothers, not surprisingly, do not want their children to be killed, however tribal superstition is merciless; to allow a mingi child to live in the villages is to invite disaster. Now, the Banna orphanage is providing an option, at least for some. Many local women are asking tribal elders for permission to send their children to the orphanage rather than letting them die or killing them. And on occasion, the tribal elders relent and allow the child to be spared.

Infant mortality is high in that part of the world, and children die all the time. With death so commonplace, tears are not long shed for the victims of these murders. But growing international attention, and government pressure is making clear to the tribal people that this practice is backward, superstitious, and unacceptable. Workers from the Banna orphanage often circulate through the villages and race to save babies they hear may be declared mingi. Typically, workers from the orphanage find babies near death, either neglected, their mouths filled with dirt in an effort to suffocate them, or in some other contrived peril.

As the orphanage grows, it is hoped that these rescue children will have an opportunity to grow up in safety, obtain an education, and realize their potential as human beings. It is hoped that is the tribal peoples begin to see the success of the children from the orphanage, they were realize that their practice of declaring children mingi is a backward superstition, one that should be left to die so that children may live.

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