PREGNANCY
Within the context of African religion, pregnancy
is always a special, much hoped for, and therefore
cherished event. Although marriage is certainly
one of the critical moments in the human life
cycle, along with birth, puberty, and death, the
main, if not only, purpose of marriage is procre-
ation. In fact, in some African societies, marriage
is not considered final and complete until the cou-
ple’s first pregnancy has occurred. This is the case
because so much emphasis is placed on the affir-
mation and perpetuation of life as the highest
value and priority in African culture.
Pregnancy is of critical significance for women
in Africa. Indeed, it marks the passage from the
status simply of “woman” to that of mother.
One’s demonstrated ability to bear a child con-
firms one’s creative power as a female and, thus,
one’s ability to participate in the cosmic drama of
life transmission and regeneration. From this,
African women draw a sense of self-worth that
can hardly be underestimated; they also gain a
new identity and great social prestige. Conversely,
a woman’s failure to achieve pregnancy will be a
source of great sorrow and sometimes a cause for
divorce. Clay pots are commonly used, in a
metaphorical sense, to represent the woman’s
womb waiting to be filled with life. It must be
remembered that clay is widely associated with
the stuff of life, with human beings often reported,
in creation stories, as having been molded out of
clay.
Men’s social identity is also, of course, greatly
and positively affected by pregnancy. Pregnancy
enables a man to establish his virility. Among
the Manyika people, from the Eastern Highlands
of Zimbabwe, for example, a man’s failure to
have children will preclude him from becoming
an ancestor. In many other African societies,
childless men will not be entitled to full burial
rites, if any at all. Certainly, because one of the
primary duties of children is to remember their
parents when the latter die, childless men (and
women) cannot expect to continue being mem-
bers of their community much longer after dying
because there will be nobody to speak their
name.
Finally, pregnancy is also quite important for
the family and the community as a whole because
both are expected to be strengthened by the
arrival of a new member. Pregnancy, therefore, is
never the concern of just the couple, but also of all
those who surround them.
Children, and therefore pregnancy as well, are
believed to be gifts from the ancestors. In fact, in
many African societies, a child to be born is an
ancestor returning. As a result, many will seek, with
the help of a diviner, to identify that ancestor. When
the child is born, he or she may bear the name of the
reincarnated ancestor or a name linking the child to
that ancestor. In the case of infertility, the ancestors
are also, quite predictably, automatically suspected
of interfering with a couple’s ability to get pregnant.
Appropriate rituals will be performed to appease the
ancestors’ anger and get them to change their mind
and allow a child to come.
Given the importance attached to pregnancy,
it is easy to understand why pregnant women
become the object of much care. Failure to main-
tain spiritual balance could result in the abortion
of the pregnancy or the death of the mother.
Thus, many steps are taken, throughout African
communities, to protect the unborn child and the
mother. Among the taboos associated with preg-
nancy, one must mention those related to sexual
intercourse. Although some societies will not
permit a pregnant woman and her husband to
have further intercourse after the pregnancy is
discovered, other societies may permit sexual
relations to continue up to a certain point. For
example, among the Gurunsi of southern
Burkina Faso and northern Ghana, sexual rela-
tions are prohibited between a pregnant woman
and her husband beginning around the third
month of the pregnancy. At that time, an elabo-
rate ritual, known as thelegumeritual, is per-
formed by the husband’s sister or the sister of the
husband’s father to protect the pregnancy. Shea
leaves are thrown onto the couple lying in bed.
Their hair is then shaved or cut shorter, while a
bow is placed at the man’s feet, as a metaphori-
cal acknowledgment of his virility. It is under-
stood that when the legume ritual has been
completed, sexual abstinence must be observed.
The violation of this proscription, it is believed,
could result in the death of the child.536 Pregnancy