It is so mystical that it affects only children between the ages of five and fifteen years the disease has only been reported in Acholi sub region in Uganda without a previous history of existence in the area. The World Health Organisation (WHO) affirms no known aetiology. The disease continues to be a mystery to both the medical professionals and its victims. Recommendation was therefore made that the local, national and international actors should undertake initiatives that address the cultural, socioeconomic, political and institutional constraints which exacerbate the incidence of bad cultural rituals among the Acholi people.ĭespite the scientific and specific medical interventions, nodding disease with neither a cure nor plausible explanation to its cause continues to affect the people of Acholi sub region. For this reason, twins receive special attention. In the final conclusion it was observed that Acholi people do believe that, depending on how they are treated, twins can bring either fortune or misfortune to their families and communities. Some of the reasons for dressing in uniforms were to avoid jealousy and quarrels among the twins, and the desire of the parents to show equal love and care to the twins since they were believed to share equal soul. However, the study establishes that there are many myths associated to the birth of twins among the Acholi people, some of the myths identified was that when one twin falls sick, the other one also falls sick, the belief that the twins and the children that follow them should be given special names like Okello, short of which the twins will die, and that when the umbilical cords drop off, they should be kept in the shrine (abila), then the belief that twins must be dressed in similar clothes, failure to do so, one of the twins gets annoyed and dies. The results also indicate many reasons for performing twin rituals among the Acholi people including appeasing the ancestral spirits, appeasing the gods (jok) and showing happiness for producing two children at a go among other reasons. Umbilical cords of the twins were cut and put in a baked clay pot called laum. The ceremony was conducted around the abila (family shrine). The first of them was known as bolo lafuta. It was found out that when the twins were born, various ceremonies were conducted though such ceremonies are now becoming outdated. In order to control for selection bias, this study utilizes a simple random sampling technique to select the respondents who formed the sample size of the study, and also statistically controls for differences in demographic characteristics including age, gender, occupation and education, which may affect program impact. The study specifically looked at how twin rituals are conducted among the acholi people, the reasons for performing twin rituals among the Acholi people, the common myths associated to the birth of twins among the Acholi people and the reasons why the twins are dressed in uniform among the Acholi people. This study intensively explored the twin rituals and its authenticity among the Acholi people using a survey design.
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