The Beng people of Africa believe babies are reincarnated, have spiritual power and are capable of understanding human language.
This is one part of African culture that Alma Gottlieb, an anthropology professor at the University of Illinois, shared Thursday evening in her presentation to kick off “Engaging Africa: A Symposium Exploring the Future of African Studies.” The free event, sponsored by the University’s Oregon Humanities Center, continues today with panels and presentations in the Gerlinger Alumni Lounge.
The symposium will feature presenters from throughout the world and will cover such topics as globalization, African studies and how to be a writer in underdeveloped countries.
Steven Shankman, an English professor and director of the Oregon Humanities Center, said the purpose of the symposium is to highlight the importance of Africa and how central the country is to university study.
“We’re trying to get Africa on people’s maps,” he said. “We have a large African-American population that has really put a stamp on American culture, so we really need to know about Africa and care about what’s going on there.”
Gottlieb’s presentation, “The Wisdom of Children: An Anthropological Perspective on Engaging African Modernity,” centered on the beliefs of the Beng people, an ethnic group of Africa’s Côte d’Ivoire, and how Americans need to recognize other groups’ modernity.
“When thinking about the modern world, we need to expand our thinking,” she said.
She said it is important to study African children because there are more Africans than any other race on the planet. She said it is also important to study them because thousands of African children live on the streets, are fighting in the country’s wars and are physically ill.
“Ignoring the children of Africa would be ignoring the continent,” she said.
Gottlieb spent several years in Africa, researching the Beng people.
She said they believe when babies are born they are still in the Wrugbe state, which is both the afterlife and the before-life.
Gottlieb said the group believes children are reincarnated and have a great deal more mental and spiritual power than adults realize.
“To them, babies have desires but are unsure how to communicate them directly,” she said.
Gottlieb said she learned of one Beng family whose newborn baby was unhappy and constantly crying. Spiritual individuals in the village told the parents the baby was unhappy with his name because it did not reflect his name in his former Wrugbe life. She said the family changed his name and the baby seemed happier.
“The children need to be viewed as respected people because that’s the way it was for them elsewhere,” she said.
Gottlieb said the Beng people use another belief to explain the country’s high infant mortality rate. She said they believe that if parents mistreat their babies in some way, either physically or mentally, the Wrugbe people will reclaim them. In other words, the children die to return to their former lives, she said.
Monica Price, a senior anthropology major, attended Gottlieb’s presentation and said Americans often have a common misconception that other countries aren’t as developed and modern as their own country. She said the independent beliefs of the Beng people show that they are more advanced than others might think.
“Both West Europeans and Americans have consistently seen themselves as more modern but clearly we’re not better than anyone else,” she said.