Abiku is a Yoruba word that can be translated as “predestined to death”. The word is from (abi) “that which was born” and (iku) “death”.
Abiku refers to the spirits of children who die before reaching puberty; and the spirit, or spirits, who supposedly caused the death are being also called Abiku.
Varying from tribe to tribe, the abiku child is called different names like Ogabanje in the Igbo community. It is believed that the spirit of the abiku torments the mother b returning to be reborn multiple times.
It is also a belief that the spirit does not ever plan to “stay put in life” so it is “indifferent to the plight of its mother and her grief.”
These children are believed to belong to a fraternity of demons living in the woods, especially about and within large Iroko trees; and around the trunks of huge silk trees.
Once they leave their “Ẹgbé” – a gathering of lost children who live within the Iroko tree – they make a pledge to return to the fold at a specific time which is usually before they are even mature.
The ones fortunate to live longer usually have issues getting married or if it’s a lady, have difficulties in conceiving. It is believed that they have a spirit husband or wife in their world and can only be with them.
If an Abiku female gets married in this life, her spirit husband will not allow her to enjoy her marriage, if she gets pregnant, she will encounter a miscarriage until she appeases her spirit partner.
Instead of bringing joy to their parent, abiku children bring untold hardship and pain to their parents. Their process of departure into the spirit realm kicks off with a heavy bout of strange sickness and convulsing fits which the Babalawo (native medicine man) sees as obvious signs of “Àbíkú”.
After days of constant fever and convulsions, they finally give up their physical attachment to the earth and return to their mates in the spirit world.
So, how did the mystery of the “Àbíkú” start?
medicine men with abiku child
The concept has been in existence for as long as the Yoruba ethnic group has been in history.
It was discovered by traditional medicine men who named them thus because of the short life span the Àbíkú possess, and their ability to have recurrent earth lives, which torment their earthly hosts.
Once they die, these children are buried in an evil forest or deep inside a dense forest with lacerations on their bodies. The reason for the slash or cut is more as a punishment and disgrace – to have them tarnished as they return to their spirit mates, and also to instantly recognise them once they come visiting earth again.
Apart from the inflicted punishment marks which give them away when they are re-born, they also bear special and specific names to distinguish them. Names such as:
Durosola (stay and enjoy wealth)
Durotimi or Rotimi (stay with me)
Banjoko (sit with me)
Kokumo (this will not die)
Kashimawo (let’s wait and see)
Yemiitan (stop deceiving me)
Malomo (do not go again)
Kosoko (there is no hoe anymore). This refers to the hoe that is used to dig the grave.
