Unbelievable: Meet Namibian Tribe Where Children Are Conceived in Mother’s Mind

Africa is full of interesting and inspiring traditions. The vivid example is the Himba tribe of Namibia. These people believe their children are conceived from the day the mother thinks about them in their mind.

The birth date of a child is counted not from when they were born, nor from when they are conceived, but from the day that the child was a thought in its mother’s mind.

When a woman decides that she will have a child, she goes off and sits under a tree, by herself, and she listens until she can hear the song of the child that wants to come. And after she’s heard the song of this child, she comes back to the man who will be the child’s father, and teaches it to him. And then, when they make love to physically conceive the child, some of that time they sing the song of the child, as a way to invite it.

When the mother is pregnant, she teaches that child’s song to the midwives and the old women of the village, so that when the child is born, the old women and the people around her sing the child’s song to welcome it.

As the child grows up, the other villagers are taught the child’s song. For example, if the child falls, hurts its knee, someone picks it up and sings its song to it.

When the child does something wonderful, or goes through the rites of puberty, then as a way of honoring this person, the people of the village sing his or her song.

In the African tribe there is one other occasion upon which the villagers sing to the child. If at any time during his or her life, the person commits a crime or aberrant social act, the individual is called to the center of the village and the people in the community form a circle around him. Then they sing their song to him!..

The tribe recognizes that the correction for antisocial behavior is not punishment; it is love and the remembrance of identity. When you recognize your own song, you have no desire or need to do anything that would hurt another.

And it goes this way through their life. In marriage, the songs are sung, together. And finally, when this person is lying in bed, ready to die, all the villagers know his or her song, and they sing – for the last time – the song to that person.

What do you think about such a tradition? 

Oodera