I would love a cold Dr. Pepper

For a sweet language activity during training we had to ask around and find some superstitions in the Burkinabé culture. Turns out there are a lot and most of them are really hilarious. Here for your amusement I have made a list. Enjoy.

• Don’t whistle at night because it will attract genies and bad spirits.
• Don’t travel with a duck; it is bad luck so if you have to travel with a duck be sure to wound it before you go.
• Also travelling with honey is bad luck. Be sure to tell the driver you are carrying honey and he will put a little honey on each of the wheels and then you’ll be fine.
• Pregnant woman should not eat chicken eggs because their children will grow up to be thieves.
• Pregnant women shouldn’t eat dairy or they will get fat.
• Pregnant women shouldn’t shower outside at night or the genies will do bad things to their baby, like take it’s spirit or give it a genie spirit or something like that, I’m not real sure what the reason was for the one but it had something to do with genies.
• Don’t travel with a cadaver, it’s bad luck. So if you happen to die in a car accident you should be buried there, because if they take the corpse back to the house someone else will also die. Same thing if someone commits suicide, you should bury them where you find them because if you take them to your house then someone else will commit suicide. Bad luck all around with cadavers turns out.
• If two brothers intentionally sleep with the same woman, one of them will die.
• If you give money to one twin be sure to give the same amount to the other one otherwise the one you didn’t give money to will put a curse on you.
• If you put garlic in your house it will chase the genies/bad spirits away.
• The first son of the Mossi chief cannot eat chicken eggs because he will have bad luck.
• If a woman has twins, she has to take them around begging or possibly the twins will take her begging. They think a lot of weird stuff with twins.
• Don’t play cards when it’s raining.
• Don’t throw hot liquids on the ground because it will disturb the spirits and make the genies mad. It’s better to wait for the liquid to cool and then throw it out.
• If you hit a dog while driving, don’t look back at it or you will hit a person.
• Don’t shine your flashlight at the sky at night because God thinks it’s rude.
• If you lose a tooth, throw it at the sky (or on the roof?) and the next day you’ll get a rooster.
• If a baby sucks on its feet a grandmother will die.
• If your eye twitches you will see someone you haven’t seen in a while.
• If you have a mole on your eye you will kill your grandparents.
• If your left hand itches you won’t have a lot of money but if your right hand itches you’ll be rich.
• It’s good luck if a baby pees on you.
• And my personal favorite: If you get hit by lightening, you may have stolen something.