Kpovi

Kpovi was born on March 25, 800, in a Gbe-speaking farming settlement on the low, warm ground near the creeks and lagoons of what is now Mono in southern Benin. Her family lived under the authority of local lineage elders and small chiefs, not a distant court. They spoke Gbe at home and used neighboring Kwa speech in the market. Their household kept a small clay shrine at the edge of the compound for ancestors, with a place for libations and a few protective bundles tied with fiber.

Her father, Gbenon, cleared brush and tended yam mounds and cowpea plants. He brought home palm nuts and snared bush rats and cane rats. Her mother, Kpome, worked the fields close to the settlement, pounded millet, and pressed palm oil. She carried Kpovi on her back while she cooked and drew water. Gbenon’s mother, Tasi, watched the baby when Kpome went to weed, rubbing the child’s skin with oil and ash to keep insects off.

At the start of the rains, Kpovi began to cough. She stopped feeding well and struggled for air. Gbenon went for Dosi, a healer and diviner, who listened, warmed herbs over the hearth, and had Kpome pour water at the ancestor place with a pinch of meal. Tasi sat with the baby through the night, fanning smoke from burning leaves toward her chest. The cough stayed, and her breathing grew shallow. She died on September 18, 800, not yet six months old.

Kpome and Tasi washed her body with water and shea butter. They buried her in the compound ground near the household’s ancestors and set a small calabash of water beside the grave.