The Naming Ceremony

One afternoon our WestAf neighbors had a huge party celebrating a baby boy born in the community. It is their tradition to have a naming ceremony and large gathering 7 days after the child is born. All afternoon Mama Musa’s house was swarming with other Muslim ladies and their dozens of children. Even I ended up with a baby eventually, and I wasn’t even a guest at the party. 

Completely unsuspecting I headed out of my house with a bucket to get water. To get to the faucet I walk right in front of Mama Musa’s house, stepping around whatever work is going on at the time. Usually there is a charcoal stove going, a big bin of dishes, or maybe a baby sitting in a bucket getting a bath. But today I was in for a surprise. There were about 12 or 15 colorfully clad ladies gathered around, each one working over a pot or dish of some kind. There was so much food everywhere! Some of the ladies looked at me curiously, but Mama Musa told them who I was and they went back to their work. She is always very kind to me (Orcxance made a great impression on them so he paved the way nicely for me). 

I stepped over and around things to get to the faucet. It was a special day for me too, because I got invited into Mama Musa’s home for the first time. While my bucket was filling she told me to come see the baby. It was her relative Awa’s baby who the party was for, but she is due in a month or so as well! Mama Musa promptly handed the baby over to me. I held him for a while and when I went back to my house a bunch of the kids came over. So while all the moms were busy cooking and talking, I entertained the children in my house. They speak a mixture of Lingala and other languages - mostly Bambara and French. They colored and looked at books and I gave them pieces of donuts I had made. There was a slight argument when some Congolese children appeared at the door and the WestAf kids didn’t want to let them in. But I managed to keep the peace and the Congolese neighbor kids joined in the coloring party too.

Then one of the little girls brought me another baby (slightly older) who was happy to be held. He eventually fell asleep so I laid him down on the couch until his nap was over. Meanwhile I was cooking plantains and trying to keep the large crowd of kids from tearing the house apart (I limited them to one coloring page each and they could look at one book at a time). 

Eventually I told them it was time to go, and I went out myself, to return the baby and give Mama Musa some cinnamon rolls for the party. She sent over a big container of food and some coke and fanta for me. The assortment of food she gave me was plantains, hard-boiled eggs, cabbage, green onions, peppers, eggplant, cous-cous, roasted cassava and some kind of meat. All of it was quite delicious, although the meat was a bit hard to chew.