In West Africa, in the nation of Burkina Faso, there is a tribe called the Dagara and they believe every mother dreams her child into being. In her book, Welcoming Spirit Home: Ancient African Teachings to Celebrate Children and Community, child development author, Sobonfu Some, describes how, for the Dagara, the life of a child doesn’t begin the day they are born. Nor does it begin just after conception. Instead a child is “born” the day it first becomes a thought in the mind of its mother. Once a woman feels it’s time for her to have a child, she walks off by herself and finds a tree. Under its shade, she sits and waits, until she hears the song of her child. Soon as she’s heard it, she returns to her village and finds the man who will be the father of the child. She teaches him the song. And while they make love, together, they sing their child’s song, inviting it into this world.After the woman becomes pregnant, the mother teaches her child’s song to all the other women of the village.
When a woman is ready to give birth, she will be accompanied by a group of women outside the homestead. They will assist her during her labour. Immediately after the child is born, the women return to the homestead. The mother and child then spend a week at a special shelter built to the side of the headman’s hut, near the sacred fire, under special protection of the ancestral spirits. After the week has passed, the child is brought to the sacred fire and introduced to the spirits of the ancestors by the headman. The child is given names from the patrilineal and matrilineal lines, ensuring that the origins of the child are known
On the day her child pushes out of her womb, all the women gather together and sing the child’s song, welcoming it into this world. As it grows up, whenever the child gets hurt, any villager can comfort the child by singing their song to them since each member of the tribe knows everyone’s song. Later, when the child is older and has done something worthy of praise, the tribe will sing the child’s song to him or her. And when they’re ready to undergo the rites of puberty, the tribe will gather and sing the child’s song. When a child becomes an adult, and they get married, the bride and groom’s songs are sung together as a way of linking their lives. Finally, at the end of their life, as the child prepares to die, the tribe gathers and sings the child’s song to him or her, for the last time.
【Welcoming Spirit Home: Ancient African Teachings to Celebrate Children and Community
By Sobonfu E. Some
This is an amazing book ,In it, Sobonfu Some shares some of the ancient traditions and rituals of her Dagara tribe - mostly around child-bearing and -rearing - and also offers some modern ways to implement the rituals here in the West to help renew a sense of connectedness and community.You will love the idea that a baby is "spirit" coming "home," and that a family needs to prepare a place for spirit and welcome it. 】
-Sobonfu Some’s book on Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/Welcoming-Spirit-Home-Teachings-Celebrate/dp/1577310098
