Mingi Infanticide

Mingi Practices

Indigenous Omo communities in the Omo River basin are known for their cultural purity and adherence to ancestral practices. The Hamar, Muris/Suri, gladiatorial stick fighting, and Kara tribes all retained surprising practices. People from educated tribes and other communities around the world criticize long-standing practises as bull leaping, and the slaughter of Mingi babies. In Omo tribes like the Hamar, Bana, and Kara, Mingi, or ritual impureness, is a social control ceremony that entails forcing people to adhere to traditional customs and norms.

Negative outcomes, such as disrespect or taboos, lead to mingi being referred to as survival threats and necessitating ritual annulment or burial. Children of unmarried couples who were born Mingi have upper teeth that erupt before lower teeth, men lose their penis, and women lose their breasts. They also have no ritual preparation. They are regarded as malevolent and abandoned in the forest. In isolated Hamar and Bana tribal populations, mingi practice is still practiced. Over 50 rescued children received shelter and education at the Kara village when Lale Labuko, the founder of Omo Child, eradicated the Mingi practice in the Omo Valley.