Today I learned about kwashiorkor

21 Sep

…that kwashiorkor is a term that has it’s roots in Ghana. Sule, a native Ghanian and an Acumen Fund Fellow, was telling me about it. Although Wikipedia explains it differently, Sule tells me that kwashiorkor in the twi (sp?) language (one of on Ghana’s 79 dialects / 42 languages) means “go away! you bastard child”. Sounds rough, eh? But apparently, the term came up to discourage divorced women/single mothers from having children they could not support.

Wikipedia says “Jamaican pediatrician Dr. Cicely D. Williams introduced the name into the medical community in her 1935 Lancet article.[3] The name is derived from the Ga language of coastal Ghana, translated “the sickness the baby gets when the new baby comes”,[4][citation needed] and reflecting the development of the condition in an older child who has been weaned from the breast when a younger sibling comes.[5] ”

Interesting?

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