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Ethiopia's cursed kids fed to hungry crocodiles
Buko Balguda, 45, from Duss, a Karo tribal village in southern Ethiopia\'s Omo Valley, is alone and devasted as her seven sons and eight daughters were all killed at birth by village elders who decided that the children were cursed.
- 15 children OF Buko Balguda (left) were declared cursed by village elders and murdered at birth
- ‘Cursed’ children are killed by throwing to crocodiles or left in the bush for hyenas
- Although outlawed by the Ethiopian government, 300 children still die this way each year
Buko Balguda, 45, from Duss, a Karo tribal village in southern Ethiopia's Omo Valley, is alone and devasted as her seven sons and eight daughters were all killed at birth by village elders who decided that the children were cursed.
'I lost five plus five plus five babies - 15 in total,' she explains. 'I had seven males and eight females. During this time, our tribal traditions were very hard. I did not respect our traditions, so they killed my children.'
And Balguda is not alone. The concept of 'mingi' or cursed children remains a tenet of tribal life for the Hamer and Bana people, with elders insisting that mingi infants are killed before they can bring the rest of the tribe bad luck. As a result - and despite efforts by the Ethiopian government to ban the practice - cursed children are murdered every day, whether by being left alone to be eaten by hyenas, thrown to hungry crocodiles or simply starved to death in a locked hut. For Balguda, the problems began before she even married, when her future husband failed to take part in her tribe's traditional bull jumping ceremony - an initiation rite for men which has to be completed before they can marry.
When he married Balguda anyway, village elders declared that any children would be considered illegitimate and would be killed as soon as they were born. But illegitimacy isn't the only reason for a child being declared 'mingi'. Others are deemed cursed because of disabilities, because their parents didn't get permission for a pregnancy from the elders, because they are a twin and most cruelly of all, because their teeth develop the wrong way. But help is at hand for some of the children. In 2012, Karo tribal elders finally agreed to put an end to the mingi tradition - in part as a result of the efforts of Lale Labuko and John Rowe, the founders of Omo Child; an NGO.
