Traditional African tribal customs: Make puppets for dead babies and take good care of them for good luck

Figure 1: The father of the tribe carries the puppet of his deceased child. In a tribe in West Africa, the infant mortality rate is extremely high, and there are always children who die of malaria and other diseases. At the same time, multiple children are also common in the tribe. About one in 20 women who are born will give birth to a set of twins. Given the importance of twins in Benin, people in the tribe will carefully make wooden statues for the children who died of twins and take care of the daily life of these wooden dolls like their own living children.

They believe that the souls of dead children live in puppets, and that if they are not treated well, the entire family will be cursed. Therefore, taking care of these wooden statues to eat, bathe, sleep and even go to school is seen as a practice that can bring joy and good luck to the entire family.

Picture 2: Mother puts a pair of puppets on her chest. French photographer Eric Lafforgue went to Africa to record the life of this tribe. He said: "Three months after the twins were born, if they were still alive, parents would be able to receive gifts from other family members in the area." If one of the children or both twins died prematurely, the mother would tuck their statues into her chest, walk around with plates on her head, and people in the tribe would donate money or food to her.

Figure 3: The dragon and phoenix puppet sits on a small chair preparing to have "lunch" Eric once visited a family in southern Benin. They had a total of 9 children, one of whom had died. When Eric walked into the house, he saw two figurines in colorful clothes. His mother Hounyoga introduced the pair to him as if they were still alive. At lunchtime, the two puppets are placed on iron mini chairs, with a plate of beans soaked in red palm oil placed in front of them, and they are usually served with water or drinks.

Figure 4: Here, the best is always reserved for the twins.

As night fell, the mother would lay the "children" on a straw mat with clean white sheets and lay herself on a dirty mattress under an old mosquito net. In short, in this tribal culture, the best is always reserved for the twins. If a woman in a family cannot take care of these puppets, the male member will assume this responsibility. If neither parent has time, they will leave these puppets in a "nursery".