Yorubyte: The African science of tying a woman's pregnancy

YORUBYTE: THE AFRICAN SCIENCE OF TYING THE PREGNANCY OF A WOMAN

“Won o ni de Oyun mo e ninu o” is a very serious prayer which you hear many pregnant women shout AMEN to. Loosely translated into English from the native Yoruba language, it means “May your pregnancy not be tied using African voodoo”.

If you have been opportuned to watch either Ogunde’s “Aiye” or “Jaiyesinmi”, you would have seen where a woman was pregnant for 2 years (24 months) and she still was not due for delivery, causing great pains, anguish and suffering for the lady. The inexperienced would dismiss it and say it’s merely a film. Just film Ke? Aiye o! Akamara! Ta’motiye! (I can’t find an adequate translation for those words than to say DANGER!). Please do not be mistaken, it’s no mere film, it’s REAL! The African fore fathers really knew and had the science to ensure that a pregnant woman does not give birth. This is why some people call our fore fathers diabolic or demonic. I smile, for it is not so. I would explain in a jiffy….

Medically, there is a condition called Cervical incompetence (or cervical insufficiency). This is a medical condition in which a pregnant woman's cervix begins to dilate (widen) and efface (thin) before her pregnancy has reached term. This causes miscarriages in women. Some women are so unlucky that they have these miscarriages severally. Medical science has recently learnt to solve this problem through a surgical procedure called CERVICAL CERCLAGE, a surgical technique that reinforces the cervical muscle by placing stitches above the opening of the cervix to narrow the cervical canal and the woman can NEVER have a natural delivery except the cerclage is removed. That is, her cervix is tied, blocked. Simply put, THE PREGNANCY IS TIED. Personally, I know at least 3 ladies that have subjected themselves through this painful procedure.

Our African fore fathers had been performing this “Cerclage” long before medical sciences learnt about it. And the best part is that when done the African way, it requires no surgery, neither is it a painful process. It can be as simple as just putting on a ring that had been specially prepared with herbs that can lock the cervix just by contacting the body. Then, our fathers say “A ti de oyun e” – we have tied your pregnancy. Tying the pregnancy was actually done by our fore fathers to assist women, not to cause them pains. Whenever a pregnancy was so tied, the antidote is always handed over either to the woman or her husband. It was a more efficient, less painful treatment than the current medical procedure. Most of all, it is non-intrusive. The pregnancy would never come down until the antidote is invoked. For example, removing the ring after the 9^th month.

The Recipe for Pregnancy Tying includes Ogere Epo (Palm Oil top layer), Ewe Padimo-Padimo (The padimo-padimo leaf – It’s a leaf that once you touch, it closes up. We used to play with it while we were kids), and the most important of the ingredients is ………..

As usual with most inventions, the GOOD art of “Pregnancy Tying” has been learnt by wicked people and they are using it to cause evil in the land.

I repeat again, may you or your women never need to have your pregnancy tied. Either using the painful oyinbo method or the painless African method.

Africa my Africa. A people with advanced science long before the advent of modern science.

PS: Thanks to Araba of Ipakodo that gave me the recipe, unfortunately, he didn’t disclose the last ingredient to me. He said to me “what the elders eat the corn-meal with is kept under the leaf”.

follow Olufemi on twitter @ffadairo