On the back of my mother

Jordan here: One of the things you’ll see here in Ghana, especially in rural and/or northern regions is babies on backs of their mothers. There are no fancy designer baby-carrying backpacks, no ergonomically constructed car seats with built in seat belts, no Jumping Johnnys, no sterilized pacifiers, no teathing biscuits, and no technologically advanced no-leak guaranteed “disposable” diapers. Only a piece of Ghanian fabric that measures 1 yard by 2 yards attaches (and separates) babies to their mothers. Babies definitely get a different view of life as they grow up that they would in America. Wherever the mothers go throughout the whole day, the young children are there as well. There are very few opportunities for child care and hence all of the hard work that women are doing, they’re also doing it with another life on their back. On market day, women trudge their goods by hand (or more likely on their head) to their place in the market grounds, lay down their tarp, and sell their goods usually having to travel to get to a market town. All this with her young children. So many times I’ve gone to market, purchased something from a woman who bags my things gives me my change, holds a conversation, and does this all with a child attached to her breast. These children grow up literally going everywhere their mothers go. Every day is “Take Your Child to Work Day”. When the woman is tying the baby to her back, she simply leans forward, lays the baby belly to her back, never worrying that the baby might slide off. The babies almost appear to instinctually assume ‘piggy-back’ position when in contact with the back of a woman and hold on like they were taught in the womb.

In America, babies are treated like eggs that are fragile and need to have their head and necks supported at all times and should be played Baby Einstein to promote healthy brain development. Here, babies bounce around like ragdolls, and rarely (relatively) cry about it. Another thing we were thinking about the other day: Babies don’t really have poddy breaks, or long lasting diapers, and these babies are always on the mothers’ backs…where does the, uh, stuff go? Maybe they have a system that I’m not seeing, but I personally wouldn’t want to have that against me all day.

Now, I’m not saying women here or women in America have it wrong; its not my place to say. I know how I will want to raise my children, but this is just a cultural opportunity. The title of this blog post is meant to be literal and symbolic. These children live and develop by their mothers’ teachings and hard labor. They develop their point of views, mindset of life, and roles in society in this way. This is one thing children and mothers share in common with children and mothers in America: their lives are supported and shaped on the backs of their mothers…