Man "Borns" Baby Girl

WONDERS, THEY say, shall never end. A large crowd of curious people last Thursday August 19, thronged Sefwi Aboduam in the Sefwi Wiawso District of the Western Region to catch a glimpse of a 24-year-old man who claims to have given birth to a beautiful baby girl.

The man, Kwabena Benie, who was described as a senior fetish priest of the Apomasu shrine at Sefwi Apemtamadi, was said to have been delivered of the baby girl on Tuesday August 10, 2010.

Kwabena Benie was at Sefwi Aboduam last Thursday to name the girl Abena Apomasu, and to introduce himself to the people and family members after a natural delivery through ‘his vagina’.

When DAILY GUIDE got to Sefwi Aboduam at about 8:15 am on Thursday, hundreds of people from all walks of life, including some tourists from South Africa who heard the incredible story, had gathered in front of the community centre waiting patiently for the arrival of Nana Kwabena Benie and his baby girl for the naming ceremony.

The crowd at the community centre became thicker when the people heard the tooting of the horn of the taxi cab that had brought the fetish priest from his Apemtamadi village to the Aboduam community centre.

The massive crowd could not help but move in their numbers to meet the vehicle on the way, which made it difficult for the ‘male mother’ to come out of the taxi cab on arrival at the venue for the ceremony.

It took Kwabena Benie and his family members more than 45 minutes to come out of the taxi, as the curious crowd trooped to the cab, with some craning their necks to catch a glimpse of the man and his baby girl.

Kwabena Benie, whose chest was as flat as a man’s, wore a white ‘kaba cloth’, a wig and black and white accessories to match.

He was accompanied by his mother, Adwoa Ataa, who held baby Abena wrapped in a white cloth in her arms, alongside other family members.

Upon arrival, the new ‘mum’ was cheered by the crowed who went into spontaneous clapping and singing of songs in praise of the man who claimed to be the mother of a baby girl. Some of them shouted, “Kwabena Benie has done what Komfo Anokye could not do”.

Because almost everyone at the community centre wanted to take a look at the baby, the grandmother placed baby Abena on her lap while seated under a palm-frond shed and the people quickly formed a queue to look at her one after the other.

The naming ceremony was performed later in the afternoon after the people had satisfied their curiosity, and she was named Abena Apomasu, after the river god ‘Apomasu’.

Speaking exclusively to DAILY GUIDE before the naming ceremony, Kwabena Benie, who is now called Abena Benie, explained that he was the fifth of 12 children of his mother and father Kofi Nyame, both natives of Sefwi Wiawso.

He alleged that when he was 13 years old, the river god at Aboduam called ‘Apomasu’, possessed him so he became a fetish priest and had to serve the god.

According to Kwabena Benie, whose voice had turned feminine, the river god warned him not to have sex with any woman since it (the god) had married him.

However when he was 20 years, according to him, he disobeyed the river god, got married to a woman whom he declined to name and had sexual intercourse with her.

He said during the period of the sexual relationship, he had frequent pains in his penis and visited the hospital on several occasions for treatment but to no avail.

Kwabena (Abena) Benie narrated that he was sleeping one night when he suddenly felt a sharp pain around his waist and realized with shock that his penis had disappeared and in its place he had a vagina.

“When I felt the pain, I tried to touch my penis with my hands but I realized that it had turned into a vagina”, he whispered as DAILY GUIDE and the crowd of people milled around him.

He said he soon went into a sexual relationship with another man, Kwesi Nkoah, who was a student at the Sefwi area.

However, sadly when the pregnancy was announced to Nkoah, he rejected it and refused to accept responsibility.

The fetish priest told DAILY GUIDE that he went through the usual nine months of carrying a pregnancy and gave birth to the baby at home.

The baby was delivered by Maame Ama Nyata who corroborated Benie’s story when contacted.

When DAILY GUIDE asked how baby Abena was fed, he acknowledged that he was flat-chested and did not develop breasts with the vagina and other attributes of a woman.

However, according to him, his mother and sisters fed the baby with lactogen milk from a feeding bottle.

He stressed that even though some people were skeptical about his story, every bit of it was true because he would not tell the whole world that he had given birth to a child when he had not done so.

He appealed to all those who would like to visit him and the baby at their village in Sefwi Wiawso, to feel free to pay them a visit, adding, ‘They should come along with gifts for little Abena”.

From Emmanuel Opoku, Sefwi Asawinso