I heard about this but couldn’t believe that this could actually happen. For me having twins would be a double blessing. I would be so thankful to God for giving me double the joy. Growing up I always found twins fascinating. My Dad had twin brothers and I had school friends who were twins. Having twins was something I considered–preferably a boy and girl like Brendan and Brenda in 90210 but it didn’t happen for me. God blessed me with a boy and for that I am eternally grateful and thankful.
How could anyone think that twins are a curse and want to kill them? Imagine babies being left at the back of a compound to starve to death because they are twins or parents having to give their babies away or else they would be killed if they kept them. Thankfully, there is Orphan’s Promise, a Christian organization which is saving these children from their horrible fate. In the video, the couple was helped by the organization. Their twin girls are happy and well cared for.
Killing of twins is nothing new. It was happening centuries ago during the time of Mary Slessor. She was a Scottish woman and Sunday School teacher who became a missionary in Calabar, Nigeria. Un- deterred by constant bouts of illness or the danger around her, she lived with the tribes, learned their language, and traditions and earned their respect, She even put an end to some barbaric practises, such as the killing of twins. She adopted many Nigerian children (particularly twins) who had been left to die.
The birth of twins was considered a particularly evil curse. Natives feared that the father of one of the infants was an evil spirit, and that the mother had been guilty of a great sin. Unable to determine which twin was fathered by the evil spirit, the natives often abandoned both babies in the bush. Slessor adopted every child she found abandoned, and sent out twins missioners to find, protect and care for them at the Mission House. Some mission compounds were alive with babies.[4] Slessor once saved a pair of twins, a boy and a girl, but the boy did not survive. Mary took the girl as her daughter and called her Janie.
After they are delivered, twins were poisoned or strangulated after being forcefully taken from their mother by masquerades that the women were not allowed to see. The twins are killed and then offered as a sacrifice on an altar to the spirits and to ward off the twins from returning.
This practice was supposed to have been abolished however, just last year, The Current broadcasted a story of missionaries in a remote village who saved twins from being sacrificed. You can listen to it here. I must caution you that the content is very disturbing.
Let us pray that this barbaric practice of killing twins is abolished. God created them too and they deserve a chance to live. Pray that the government will do more to protect innocent lives and to stop this practice.
Sources: The Current, Mary Slessor; Mary Slessor – Wikipedia; Bella Naija
Notes to Women 