Status not stated
Naming a child
The author’s files hold two accounts side by side. In the homestead paper the midwife seats the child in the birthing hut and gives a name that reflects the arrival. In the ritual record the father announces the name. Bark rings of omugolo were once tied on newborns.
- Who
- Midwife, mother, father
- When
- From the first days after birth
- Where
- Osakalwa, the birthing hut, and the mother’s hut
- Why
- A name places the child in the story of the house.
The author’s paper does not say whether this is still practised today, so no status is shown.
Summarised from Professor Petrus Angula Mbenzi’s Oshiwambo rituals and ceremonies, The Oshiwambo Traditional Homestead and Aawambo Ethnobotany.
This is a doorway, not the full account. The complete description stays with Professor Petrus Angula Mbenzi until he releases it. Read it in his books.