Acholi Part 2 Birth Customes-Uganda acholi-Acholi of Uganda,Acholi music uganda

Acholi Part 2 and all you need to know about Acholi Birth Customes-Uganda acholi-Acholi of Uganda,Acholi music Uganda.

The Acholi people recognized two distinct birth customes namely the normal birth and the Jok Anywala (godly) birth.

Normal Birth

men were advised not to be away form home. There were no special arrangements for birth and there was no fixed place of delivery.

When signs of labour were detected, a lacol (midwife) was sent for. The Lacol was in most cases an old experienced woman.

If a lacol was not available, two of the women present were called upon to assist.If the expectant woman happened to be inside a hut, she could hold the center post for support.

A woman would support her from behind. The Lacol knelt in front of the woman and, if it was a straight forward birth, she would receive the baby in her outstretched arms.

The baby was then washed with cold water. The Lacol would then cut the umbilical cord with any available instrument. Knives, spears, arrowheads, bamboo, slices of reed cane or sharpened stones could be used.

The remaining part of the cord was tied with fiber.The placenta would be buried outside the home under the woman’s granary, in the bush or by the river.

Care was taken that the placenta was buried out of reach of those who might use it to charm the child.

Among Many Acholi people clans, the Lacol was not supposed to touch the ground with her hands when they still contained blood from the placenta because it was feared in such an event that the mother would become barren.

After washing her hands, the Lacol would put the mother and the child in the house.

If the mother was giving birth for the first time, the house would have been specially constructed for her.

Payment for the services of the Lacol varied considerably. Sometimes she rendered free services but some times she was given a sheep.

After the whole process, the Lacol was given awar me lakwnyi wino (food or beer) the food would be partly cooked to symbolize the child’s birth.

If the woman had problems during labour, the medicine man was invited. He would administer the medicine and then rub the belly and back of the woman. A baby who would be forced out that way would be named oyat (boy) or Layat (girl).

If the won yat failed, the jwara (diviner) would be consulted.

She would give treatment involving the insertion of a bamboo stick into the woman. She would then hold a chicken by the legs and flutter it around the expectant mother’s head while uttering a prayer.

As a result of such a straggle, the jwara would direct the umbilical cord to be buried in a special place to appease jok.

Then a child would be given a special name on account of the place where the cord was buried.

For instance Odwong (boy), Ladwong (girl) meant that the cord was buried under the Odwong tree.

Odur (boy), Ladur (girl) meant that meant that the cord was buried in the rubbish heap.

The mother and the child would remain in the house for three days if the child was a boy and for four days if the child was a girl. During this period, the mother’s food was cooked and given to her by a young female relative.

The food was salt less because it was believed that if the mother touched salt, the child would go blind. No one was allowed to enter the mothers’ house during that period except the cook.

If the child’s genitals were touched, it was believed he would grow up to be infertile. Therefore the mother could only speak to her husband.

Besides, she was not supposed to look at the sky otherwise the child would become impotent.

Alcoholic drinks were not allowed in the house. Reasons for this practice varied. Some believed that the child would grow up to be a drunkard; others believed that the child would die.

The birth ceremonies varied from clan to clan and others from village to village.

Godly Birth

The child was named after the third or fourth day. The process of naming the child went as follows;

inside the house would be the mother, the child and some relatives.

The delegation from the child’s paternal and maternal relatives led by the old woman who acted as the midwife would come to the house carrying adero (winnowing tray) in one hand, carrying ogwec (a knobbed stick used for stirring simsim into cooked food) in another hand.

In addition, she would also be holding olobo kwon (a ladle used for stirring millet bread).

The old woman would knock on the door and in the process of opening it for the delegation.

She would suggest a name for the child. There was no criterion for deciding which name the woman would choose.

However, in abnormal circumstances, the mother’s choice would be given preference. Such a name usually told a lot about the circumstances of birth or the state of the family at the time of birth.

For example, the name Otto suggested that many brothers and sisters had died; Oketch means that one was born during a famine; Odoki means that the mother had threatened to go back to her parents.

Bongomin means without brothers; Olanya means that the mother felt abandoned.

After all the ceremonies, the mother would ease to put on her unmarried girl’s belt if that was her first born.

She would begin to be addressed by the name of her first born child, e.g. min odoki (mother of Odoki).It is then that the woman would be accepted fully in the husband’s clan.

In some clans, the husband would not eat the food prepared by the mother for several months.

It was also common among the Acholi people, women to refrain form having sex until after weaning the child. All the ceremonies relating to normal births were not addressed to jok.

The abnormal births were said to be godly. The most common of such births were twins.

Others were those born with physical deformities.

They were given special names; for instance, Ijara (boy) or Ajara (girl) was given to a child with more than five fingers.

If the mother was convinced that the deformity was so severe that child would not grow up to live a useful life, she would drop it in a river as if by accident.

Many severely deformed children were killed in this way. When such children lived, they were never abused for fear of jok’s wrath.

When the twins were born, various ceremonies were conducted.

Such ceremonies are now becoming outdated. The first of them was known as bilo jok. The ceremony was conducted around the abila (family shrine).

Umbilical cords off the twins were cut and put in a baked clay pot called laum.

In the morning when the ceremony would be performed, the laum together with the other objects which were used during the twin’s birth were placed by the abila.

The mother sat on the skin with her back to the abila and her legs stretched.

In the acholi people,the first born of the twins was placed on her mother’s lap nearest to her while the second born was put on her knees.

The people present would stand in a line in the order of their age and offer prayers and sacrifices in the abila.

After this, the leader of the ceremony would hold a white cock and allow it to flap its wings violently over the mother and the twins.

The act was repeated in turn by every one present. The feathers that flew out from the cock would be stuck in the ground beneath the abila or beneath the okongo tree.

Then a white hen was also brought and a similar process was repeated.

Then one by one the people would dip their hands into a calabash full of water and sprinkle it over the mother and the twins.

Besides, they would smear the necks and the bellies of the mother and her twins with moo yaa (oil form the yaa tree).

With this, the ceremony would be over. The mother was then lifted up with the skin on which she had been sitting, with her twins still on her lap and carried into the hut.

The women present would then go through the motions of making love to the father of the twins making jokes that they would also like to have twins. Thereafter, people would go out and drink and dance.

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