WUNRN
Cameroon
Her sister says a young
mother died in childbirth because she did not receive proper medical care in
Village scene in
BAI KUKE,
Cameroon (WOMENSENEWS)--Paulina Mosaka, a 73-year-old widow, was peeling
plantains to cook for the many grandchildren living with her. Between ages 2
and 15, they played happily outside in the muddy backyard.
Mosaka
used her walking stick to inch gingerly to the porch off the kitchen of her
dilapidated wooden house in this village in the southwestern part of
At the
mention of her late daughter, Rebecca, Mosaka began to cry. Rebecca recently
died at age 30 in the hands of a traditional midwife after more than 14 hours
of labor with her eighth child.
"Ma
pickin, this place wey we shidon so, na for dey wey Rebecca be sleep die body,
for down here so, like say yi be be na beef," she said in Pidgin English.
Her words
meant that this porch was the exact spot where Rebecca was laid the day she
died, as if she were a dead animal. Overcome by emotion, she summoned her other
daughter Penda Mokossa to continue the "bad luck" story.
"They
said my sister died of witchcraft because she died in labor," said
Mokossa, 36, who is married with six children. Mokossa blamed her sister's
death on poverty. "She did not attend antenatal clinic even for one day
because she did not have money to attend clinic."
But she
said the community attributed her death to "swine witchcraft."
Among the
Oroko ethnic community here, traditional belief holds that swine mystically
inhabit the bodies of some women, who are capable of witchcraft and morph into
swine at night. When these women become pregnant, they give birth to baby swine
in the bushes and risk losing their lives if they try to deliver their babies
in the real world.
In line
with this belief, women who die during childbirth are at high risk of being
shunned as witches and deprived traditional burials.
Mokossa said that after her sister died, the family placed her corpse on a
bed, in standard preparation for burial.
Village Leaders Intervene
But
village leaders disrupted that. They told the family that the corpse couldn't
stay inside. It had to lie naked on the ground outside, with just a cloth
covering the body.
Mokossa
said an older brother was asked to cut her stomach in order to remove the dead
baby, as tradition demands.
"I
did not see anything because I was pregnant myself," she said. "It was
said that pregnant women do not come close to such activities, as they may be
bewitched just at the sight of the corpse."
Her mother
broke in to say it was a "big, big disgrace" for the family.
Mokossa
said that the mother and baby were buried separately within a few hours of
their deaths. "Tradition demands that such corpses are supposed to be
buried as fast as possible to avoid the spread of ill luck to members of the
community."
Mokossa
said her mother cries a great deal now and wonders who introduced her daughter
to witchcraft. Some villagers have accused the mother of doing so.
Oroko
community leaders defend their tradition of ascribing witchcraft to women who
die in childbirth.
Benjamin
Mbando, 65, the chief of the Oroko community in Bai Kuke, said tradition was
part and parcel of a people and they must practice it in order to ensure
continuity.
"It
is very true that most women who die while giving birth have witchcraft,"
he said. "Swine is a common witchcraft practice among the women of Oroko
origin."
Mbando added that while outsiders might not understand the practice, they
must respect the community's traditions.
Calling it Lack of Care
But health
professionals are striving to explain it as a simple lack of proper care, not
witchcraft.
Pauline
Koi is the superintendent of nurses at
"Most
women who come for delivery in our hospital did not attend antenatal clinic,"
she said. "Most of such women always suffer from some delivery
complications, and some even die in the end. And if they die, they are labeled
with witchcraft."
The women
could be saved by medical checkups that could detect severe problems and in many
cases save women's lives, she said.
A local
nonprofit insurance program, the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province Health
Assistance, pays 75 percent of its clients' medical bills. One of its goals is
to help pregnant women and lower maternal mortality.
"We are
making progress, especially in the direction of pregnant women," said
Nshom Bali, 38, a spokesman for the group's Buea branch. "And we are
gradually erasing stereotypes. This is our goal."
Some
lawyers advise families to prosecute community leaders who pressure them to
disgrace the corpses of women who die during childbirth.
"If
anybody sees or hears that some people somewhere are carrying on such a dirty
practice, they should call me, and I will go there immediately," Bobga
Mutong, a barrister and human rights activist, said angrily. "If I
discover people doing that, I will take necessary steps to make them understand
that what they are doing is very wrong."
Peter
Mbenga, 39, lives in Munyenge Trouble, a village about three miles from Bai
Kuke. His wife died immediately after giving birth to their son. Mbenga said he
was shocked to see how his wife's corpse was treated.
"My
wife was laid on a bare ground far off from the home, and she was covered from
head to toes with a [cloth]," he said. "She was buried a few hours
after she died in an inhuman way."
Mbenga
said the tradition was cruel and must be revised.
"There
is no proof that as to whether such women have witchcraft," he said.
"As a result, their corpses should be treated with respect as other corpses
are."
ATTRIBUTION: Adapted from original content published by the Global Press Institute. Read
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