Abiku

A Abiku is a changeling, which comes from the spirit world and is born as a human being.

Origin

Abiku are known from the stories of the residents especially in Nigeria Yoruba people in West Africa. You belong to a ghost people from the unseen world ( orun ), which yearns for closer contact with the material world. Therefore, they send their children off to the people who are then brought to the world of normal human women.

Fate

Although distinguish the newborn Abiku at first glance no different from other infants and toddlers later, they fall quickly to the fact that they get in touch with invisible playmates from the realm of the spirit world. Some Abiku long for a return to the spirit world and the here and try suicide attempts or serious illness to escape. Often Abiku children are reborn again after such a death by the same parent, until they end up accustomed to the human world and are willing to stay. Then they grow up to ordinary people and lose their magical heritage.

Swell

• Abiku. In: Microsoft Encarta Online
• Gertrude Jones: Dictionary of Mythology Folklore and Symbols. The Scarecrow Press, New York 1962.

• Religion of the Yoruba