The tale of Taraba’s malnourished children

A large size aluminium pot is standing on three big stones under which there is burning coal. Peeping inside the pot a middle-aged woman clears perspiration on her face even as she battles with the cloud of smoke that surged from the fireplace towards her face. She is preparing local groundnut cakes called kuli-kuli in […]

A large size aluminium pot is standing on three big stones under which there is burning coal. Peeping inside the pot a middle-aged woman clears perspiration on her face even as she battles with the cloud of smoke that surged from the fireplace towards her face. She is preparing local groundnut cakes called kuli-kuli in Hausa. Smaller clay pots, wooden mortars and pestles also lie about elsewhere just as logs of firewood lean against the ‘house pillars’ formed by live tree trunks.
The interior is as damp as the bushy, murky marshes that surround the thatched compound. The dingy corners inside provide sanctuaries for teeming multitude of malevolent mosquitoes and even rodents. No doubt, the occupants of this shack, looking more like a medieval cage complain they are constantly faced with the sights and sounds of their amphibious neighbours who breed and luxuriate in the stagnant waters around them.

Breeding in acute poverty
Musa and his wife, Hauwa, including a granny, are occupants of this sprawling settlement located in Mutum Biu, headquarters of Gassol local government area of Taraba State. They are poor peasant farmers who barely manage to eke out a living. Even in this state of poverty and squalor the couple have not ceased to answer nature’s call to produce children.
They were full of joy and gratitude to God for the safe delivery of a new bouncing baby girl into their family early this year. At birth the baby came out healthy with normal weight and showed no traits of abnormality. This gave the parents and indeed other family members a cause for celebration.

Malnutrition
But three days later things began to change with amazing rapidity. Aisha, as the baby was later named, began to show signs of ill health. With bulging stomach, swollen and discoloured skin on her arms and legs, baby Aisha began to grow thin and pale. Like a child fed grudgingly by a cruel foster mother the baby started exhibiting profound apathy and loss of appetite.
For Musa and his wife, the sudden change in the physical and mental condition of their new-born baby was a serious source of concern. It was for this reason that they contacted a medical practitioner within their neighbourhood who examined and prescribed some drugs for the ailing baby.
“The health of our baby [Aisha] deteriorated because the drugs prescribed by the doctor could not help,” said the mother, Hauwa, who narrated the story of the baby to Sunday Trust.

The baby is evil
When several weeks passed by without improvement, Musa and his wife decided to consult a female native doctor who told them that their baby, Aisha, was possessed by evil spirits. “Four day’s after visiting the female native doctor, we woke up one morning and discovered that the clothes  the baby had on before going to bed at night were no longer on her body”, Hauwa told Sunday Trust.

The baby is evil
When several weeks passed by without improvement, Musa and his wife decided to consult a female native doctor who told them that their baby, Aisha, was possessed by evil spirits. “Four day’s after visiting the female native doctor, we woke up one morning and discovered that the clothes  the baby had on before going to bed at night were no longer on her body”, Hauwa told Sunday Trust.
 For the next couple of weeks that followed, Musa and Hauwa moved from one medical practitioner to another [both orthodox and traditional] in an attempt to find a solution to the worsening condition of their baby. In the process they came across another native doctor who suggested that the “evil baby” be taken and abandoned by the river bank to disappear and return to the evil spirits.
“The native doctor also requested us to provide two white fowls aged one year old each and a piece of black cloth with which sacrifices would be offered by the river bank for the “evil child” to permanently disappear”, recounted Hauwa.

Division in the family
Musa and Hauwa were divided over this last request by the native doctor. While the former subscribed to it the latter kicked against it because, according to her, she did not want to lose the baby she carried in her womb for nine months. “My husband suggested that we should comply with the request made by the native doctor but I refused because I was not ready to part with my only baby,” Hauwa said.

The ‘evil baby’ delivered
It was in the course of their disagreement that Hauwa came in contract with the Nutrition Officer in charge of Gassol local government area who examined the baby and discovered that Aisha was actually suffering from severe acute malnutrition. The stunted baby who was almost giving up the ghost was then introduced to therapeutic feed for severely malnourished children supplied by UNICEF.
Less than a week after being fed with the therapeutic food supplements from UNICEF baby Aisha gradually regained her health. Her bulging stomach disappeared together with the discoloured swollen on her arms and legs.

Similar case a tragedy
The story of Aisha’s survival from severe acute malnutrition sounds like a fairy tale. The parents are full of gratitude to UNICEF for the food supplements they supplied to revive their malnourished baby. But a similar story ended in tragedy in another family of petty traders also living in Mutum Biu. Mr and Mrs Salisu Abdulmumuni also had a baby with symptoms like Aisha.
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