Inside Ghana’s Mafi-Dove village where childbirth is banned

Ever heard of a town or village where all its inhabitants were not birthed there?

How about a village where pregnant women have to be rushed out when about entering labor because an age-old tradition bars birthing in the town?

How about a town where there is no cemetery because burials are outlawed?

Well, in Ghana’s Mafi-Dove community in the Central Tongu district of the Volta Region, located along the Accra- Aflao road, lies such fate for inhabitants.

Comprising largely peasant farmers, Kwame Tsiditse Gbenua, a community elder informed BBC that the founding ancestor who discovered the land while on a hunting expedition was instructed by a voice from the sky that the land was holy.

Thus, while it could be inhabited, there ought to be no birthing, rearing of domestic animals nor burials on it.

With the custom in place, pregnant women have to walk long distances or be transported to other villages to deliver their babies.

At the moment, the younger women in the village want the law scrapped to enable them to deliver their babies in the community without the associated hustle of having to be rushed to a neighboring town just to avoid violating the taboo and offending the gods.

A female resident of the community, Hannah Kosinah, has appealed to the Togbui or chief of the town to abolish the custom, noting that other towns with similar rules have scrapped theirs to reflect modern contingencies.

Thanks to the curious taboo, no domestic animal can be spotted in Dove except for birds in the sky.

It remains to be seen if any woman in the community will dare brave having a baby in the community to see what fate might befall her or the baby. The elders, however, say that any baby born in the town will be deformed.