Powers, Problems, and Paradoxes of Twinship in Niger

Abstract

Among Hausaphone Mawri communities of Niger, twins are powerful yet dangerous beings endowed from birth with extraordinary abilities. While they are welcomed by parents who interpret multiple births as lucky, twins are feared because they kill offenders and perceive things which normal people cannot see. Twins are also fiercely jealous of each other. Defusing this rivalry entails treating both children identically, lest they hurt each other. This essay explores how the Mawri deal with the paradox of double births through practices that emphasize the magical powers of twins or, conversely, stress their vulnerability. It also discusses how, with the emergence of reformist Islam, the meanings and implications of twin births are being reassessed through debates over morality. (Twinship, West Africa, Islam, reformist movements) Soon after my arrival in the Hausa-speaking town of Dogondoutchi in Arewa (southern Niger) to conduct fieldwork, my neighbor Houre took me to the house of Salamatou and Abarshi, who were celebrating the birth of their twin girls. Outside the walled family compound, the men who early that morning had come to share the joy of the new father and to receive kola nuts were now gone. The two rams slaughtered in celebration of the twins' birth had already been cut up and their meat apportioned between different family members and patrons. The courtyard's messiness betrayed the unusual degree of activity that had taken place in the last few days. In one corner, two women were engaged in the careful division of cooked millet balls into communal portions that, with sauce, would be later served to guests. Upon entering the room where the new mother sat surrounded by the female friends and neighbors who had come to attend the naming ceremony, Houre and I deposited our monetary contributions into the mother's hands before sitting on a mat next to the barber who would soon shave the infants' hair. In a corner, a young schoolgirl was busily tallying the gifts of money in a rumpled notebook, the Carnet de Sante (immunization record) of Salamatou's first-born (a girl who had died in infancy), that would help the young mother keep track of each visitor's contribution.(1) Meanwhile, we were each handed a small plastic bag filled with fried cakes covered with powdered sugar, the usual counter-gift whose lengthy preparation had absorbed the neighbors and co-wives of the parturient for most of the morning. As is customary for a biki (birth celebration), the walls of the crowded and stuffy room were decorated with the colorful handwoven blankets Salamatou had received as wedding gifts. A couple of griots (praise singers) standing in the doorway were singing the praises of the newly named babies, Hassana and Housse, each of whom lay in a pair of arms, unaware of the turmoil generated by their recent arrival. One of the babies is so much bigger than her sister, I remarked to the woman sitting next to me. Shhh! she exclaimed before I had a chance to finish. You must never say this! Let's hope they haven't heard you. Puzzled, I asked her why I should hope that the babies had not heard what I assumed to be an inoffensive comment. If she feels jealous, she will try to kill her twin, the woman answered softly before she was asked to trade places with the midwife, who, following conventions, would hold one of the babies while her pagan hair was shaved away. I soon became too immersed in the aski (shaving) performance to pursue inquiring about twinship, but later found ample confirmation that in Mawri society twins are powerful beings endowed from birth with special capacities that make them at once, more than and less than human (Turner 1969:47). These special capacities, the practices that have traditionally surrounded the treatment of twins, and the emergence of a new moral framework for dealing with the problem of twinship are discussed here. This article explores how the experience and interpretation of twinship have recently become the focus of local debates over the meaning of Islamic identity, marriage, and morality. …