How African Sun Gods Help Childbirth: My Birth Story with Akain

Chronicles of A Ghanaian-Japanese Vodu Healer

“If Sena is crazy about Vodu today, it does not surprise me. Vodu was part of him even before he was born.”- Christopher Voncujovi, my father.

I was born prematurely on June 8th in Setagaya, Tokyo, at Toritsu Boshi Hokenin Hospital to a Japanese mother and a Ghanaian father. I was born at just 32 weeks (8 weeks before the safe due date) after I kicked open my mother’s amniotic sac. I was tiny. My weight was just 1900 grams, and my body length was about 47 cm in total. According to my mother, I was so small that her hand would be able to cover my entire back. The first time I was fed, I only drank four cc’s of milk. My parents were scared that I would die because I was so frail. But I survived thanks to my parent’s love and care as well as the hard work of Togbe Akain, my father’s patron Vodu spirit.

Let me tell you about my birth story. It is a story that highlights my parents’ struggle to conceive me and the challenges they faced as an interracial couple in Japan. However, it is also a story about how Vodu assists families and individuals struggling to have children. In the Ewe language, Vodu can be translated as “Free/Liberate The Community,” which speaks to the longstanding role Vodu has played in helping individuals and West African…