Manlafi

Well here’s something I’d heard of, but never saw until this morning.

Sometimes, when a woman has had a child die in the past, when she has a new child, it is tradition to try to trick God into thinking that she doesn’t want it, and hopefully God won‘t take it. This can be done by naming it “Manlafi” which translates to “Don’t Want” or “Don’t Like.” Or, the family can bring the baby to the bush or the trash heap and leave it there. They then return to deliberate whether or not they want it, then sometimes leave it again, then in the end they take it home.
This morning I was at the neighbor’s house, attending a naming ceremony. They had shaved the baby girl’s head, named her Fatumata, and then we had all eaten porridge. Then, a bunch of older women put the baby in a bucket. She was swaddled and padded with lots of shawls, but she was still in a bucket. Women gathered around and sang and danced to the baby, then an old woman put the bucket on her head and announced that she was going to the market to sell the baby(for how much?, I asked. 100 dalasi. Roughly 4 USD). A crowd of women all went with her. Along the road they would occasionally put the baby bucket down, deliberate whether they wanted to sell it, then they would decide they did, and would continue down the road. I did notice, though this woman had doubtlessly been carrying things on her head her whole life, and could carry whole jugs of water, pans overflowing with cassava, and piles of firewood all with no hands, she kept a hand on the baby bucket on her head at all times. All the while, the people at the party kept assuring me that the baby would be back, they wouldn’t sell it, it was just tradition, etc. In the end, yes indeed, the baby did return.
I also thought this was funny, because when children piss me off, I threaten to sell them all the time. But I usually start with the low price of ten dalasi. You don’t ask too much for a stubborn child.