The Koma people who are a highly primitive hill-dwelling ethnic group in northern Adamawa in the Atlantika Mountains and share a border with southern Cameroun believe that the birth of twins is evil.
There are 21 Koma villages on the Cameroonian side of the Alantika Mountains and 17 villages on the Nigerian side.
They share a boarder with Cameroon and are divided into three main groups: the hill-dwelling Beya and Ndamti, and the Vomni and Verre lowlanders.
Although the koma’s are committed to their tradition, there are a few civilized ones like the youths in resettled areas who wear modern clothes. Nevertheless, a large percentage of the people still clad themselves in their traditional dress, using leaves and animal skins that barely cover their vital parts.
Among the Komas, a twin birth is regarded as evil, and twins are considered abominable so much so that until recently babies of multiple births used to be buried alive with the women who had the ‘misfortune’ of being their mothers.
This obnoxious practice of twins killing is out of vogue among Komas who dwell on the plains, but in the out-of-the-way settlements on the hills, the ancient practice still thrives untainted.
The occupation of the Koma hill-dwellers centres around farming, hunting, and gathering. Except for hunting, both men and women engage in cultivation, weeding and gathering.
Women often have their own farms separate from their male counterparts. However, both cooperate at appropriate times in helping with each others’ farms.
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