Oma Child - Thoughts on Toothism and Racism
Are some children born cursed? A scene from Oma Child . Here in the United States, it’s Martin Luther King’s birthday, so I thought I’d ruminate on racism and other forms of collective insanity. I recently watched an excellent documentary called Oma Child: The River and the Bush . You can find it here: https://omochildmovie.com In a certain society in Ethiopia, the belief existed (and for some people still exists) that certain human beings are “Mingi.” Cursed. Their mere existence threatens to bring drought and destruction upon their entire family and tribe. One of the ways that you can tell if a child is Mingi is whether their first tooth starts on One side of the mouth or the Other. (I can’t remember and don’t care which side was which). Because no family wants to be cursed, parents or grandparents kill Mingi children as soon as their “evil” manifests. Because no village wants to be cursed, if the parents themselves re...