Double blessing or trouble? Here’s how African communities handle twins

Rendile, Kenya

For the Rendile, twins are a bad omen and must be killed.

They are classified together with children born of uncircumcised women and children born out of wedlock, who are fed cow dung, snuff and tobacco and left for dead and abandoned in the bushes to die respectively.

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A woman who bears twins is not only abandoned by her husband, she is also considered an outcast, who can only be reintegrated into the society after specific rituals have been carried out.

Part of this ritual is for the mother to kill the twins. Most women abandon their twins on river banks to be carried away by torrential waters.