David and his twin sister, Davida, have been labeled as wicked by their community, the Kaida village on the outskirts of Abuja, Nigeria. People from the Bassa Komo ethnic group slaughter newborns there. Twins are said to possess evil souls that will bring calamity to their communities.
Suffocation, crushing, poisoning with a lethal concoction of plants and herbs, or being allowed to die are all methods of executing these “evil” newborns.
In 2004, Christian missionary Steven Olusola Ajayi founded the Vine Heritage Home, a sanctuary for “bad” children – twins.
“I don’t think any of the twins would be alive if they weren’t here,” Ajayi added. Twin infanticide has stayed for centuries.
Ajayi has been working with 40-plus groups in the Abuja region with ritual twin infanticide customs for over 20 years.
Twins, triplets, and other multiple-birth infants; albinos; babies born with cleft palate; children with oversized heads; kids whose upper teeth show before the lower teeth; and babies whose mother died during or shortly after childbirth are among those considered wicked and slain.
“They think that if they leave a child who has lost his mother, he would spread the evil that he used to murder the mother among the locals, thus they don’t want him to survive,” Ajayi explained.
Ayamma, as she was fondly called by her husband, was worried over her childlessness. Her husband’s family had called her…
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