My baby is a snake

TEENAGER CLAIMS A SNAKE FATHERED HER SON
BY FRANCINAH BAAITSE

A bizarre claim by a 17-year-old girl that the father of her two-year-old child is a snake, has left the small village of Tshimoyapula in the Central District in a state of shock and wonder. The teenage mother, who gave birth while at a tender age of 15, has refused to single out the man who fathered the child, and has stuck to the story first peddled by the traditional doctor that her boy child is a snake, because the “father is a snake”. But the villagers swear she has a boyfriend.

The girl (whom because of age would stay anonymous) came to reveal the long kept “secret” to her shocked family last year after a traditional doctor told the family that the baby was not human.

The girl who was unofficially adopted by a Veterinary officer some eight years ago, told her parents that for all that time, she was made to sleep with a snake at the adoptive grandmother's place in the Shorobe cattle post in Maun area.

The girl repeated the same bizarre story to The Voice team at her mother's place in Tshimoyapula on Monday. She said she always hears a male voice calling out her name and asking her to come to Maun and her suspicion is that the snake is calling her. Narrating her nightmares, the tearful teenage mother said:

“I was sleeping one night when suddenly the floor started rising. It was as if the whole house was being uprooted. So I took matches and lit the lamp and was met with a horrifying scene. A huge head of a black snake was peeping out from a crack in the floor. Fear just escaped me and I watched with a bit of shock however.”

She said she left the hut and went to narrate what just happened to the old woman, but instead of coming to investigate, “she screamed back from inside her hut and commanded me to go back to sleep.”

When she returned to her hut, she alleged, the snake was now resting its head on her blankets.

“It looked like a normal snake to me except for the abnormally big eyes. I ignored it and got into the blankets. When I woke up in the middle of the night it was sleeping right next to me but I was not scared and went back to sleep. When I woke up in the morning my underpants were removed and it felt as if I had been sexually used during my sleep,”

The girl explained that in the morning she left the snake sleeping and continued with household chores and cooked breakfast. This, she said, was the beginning of the long affair with the snake.

“It was almost natural. Nobody told me to put the food in the house. I just cooked and put the food in the house and left. I'll return a few minutes later to consume the leftovers. When I complained about the snake the old woman became irate and her children did not believe my story,” she said.

The ritual she said, continued for years until she became pregnant and was taken back home for delivery period.

According to the girl’s mother, Oipoletse Otsile, 53, the child was abnormally born with a fully-grown skull without a soft spot (phogwana). Confused, they took the baby to a traditional healer who then revealed that what they had brought before him was not a human being but a baby snake.

It was then that the girl “confessed” that she did not give birth to an ordinary baby but a son to a snake.

“As the boy grew he started acting like a snake. At time he would lie on his belly and start moving forward in wriggly motion of a snake. When he does that he cries,” explained Otsile.

The family now fear for the child's life, as he is already a discussion point in the village and stigmatised. Even more traumatic is the revelation by the traditional healers and prophets from the African churches have told them that the snake is waiting for the child to grow and it would take him away.

“I believe them because sometimes he wakes up in the middle of the night and crawls outside. I once saw him standing with the snake, which then retreated into the darkness when it saw me,” pointed out the teenager.

Despite rumours of a boyfriend, the girl's father Kehaletse Tsapaletsile buys his daughter story.

“What we have discovered is that it has turned people’s minds and makes them see him as human although in actual fact he is a snake,” Tsapaletsile said.

He had lodged the case with the customary court and demand that the Veterinarian’s family bring forward the boy who supposedly impregnated his daughter.

“They said they will come back to pay for the damages (tshenyo). They told us they know the man or boy who impregnated her so they have to bring him forward together with his parents so that we talk this thing over,” added the teenage mother’s aunt Shadi Kebonyemotho.

Kgosi Lenkagetse Keipheditse of Tshimoyapula asserted that the case is going to be tricky to handle.

“Superstitions and witchcraft issues are difficult to solve because they do not have solid facts. However, we have spoken to the District Commissioner and we are hoping to bring the parents together and resolve the matter,” revealed the chief.

The Veterinarian (whose names and that of her family members is withheld) said she does not know anything about the snake because after “borrowing” the girl from her mother she passed her on to her sister who stayed with her in Maun.

“But the girl refused to go to school and always went to the cattle post with my parents,” she said.

The Vet’s sister remembers the girl complaining about the snake but insisted that she never said she was having any sexual contact with the snake. “What we know is that she had a boyfriend at the cattle post and she told us he is the one who made her pregnant. We confronted the boy and he admitted that he is the father to the baby,” said the lady whose family is accused of being responsible for the snake affair.

The child is human – Dr Mazonde

The child looks like a normal two-year old boy except for a bit small head. Medical science has a different take.

Dr Patson Mazonde, a paediatrician at Boitekanelo Children's Clinic in Gaborone revealed that it is a normal occurrence for a child to be born with a fully developed skull although it is an unhealthy condition. The condition, he said, is called Craniosynostosis and can be fatal if left untreated.

“They should forget the fear of the snake and take the child for medical attention. Usually children with such a condition have small heads. Because of the hard skull their brains do not develop well and they can die if the skull is not opened up to create space for the development,” he explained.

Furthermore, said Mazonde, it is utterly impossible for a human being to give birth to any other creature than a human being. “It was a human being she slept with,” he corrected.

Craniosynostosis is a condition in which one or more of the fibrous sutures in an infant skull prematurely fuses. This results in restricted skull and brain growth.

Because the brain cannot expand in the direction of the fused suture, it is forced to grow in the direction of the open sutures, often resulting in an abnormal head shape and facial features. Some cases of Craniosynostosis may result in increased pressure on the brain and developmental delays.

It is estimated that Craniosynostosis affects 1 in 2 000 live births. It can be the result of an inherited syndrome or sporadic. In sporadic cases, the cause is unknown.

http://www.thevoicebw.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2263:my-baby-is-a-snake&catid=34:news&Itemid=53
(Submitted by Brian Chapman)