The Forest Eats Itself and Lives Forever

     
        Muntu; the Congolese word that refers to a living person.
        And a dead one.
        One word.
        To a western mind, this seems impossible. Contradicting. Life and death are opposites, right?
        To the Congolese, they are reciprocal. Mutual. One cannot survive without the other. The forest eats itself and lives forever.
        Surrounded so inescapably as Africans are by death, by disease carrying insects, man-eating predators, famine, flood, and drought, it is no wonder that they have come to this understanding of death as a part of life. For example, when twins are born, they are brought to the forest to die; families already struggle enough to nourish themselves, that two additional mouths to feed would be too much of a burden. It would not serve either the families or the twins well to bring them into the world.
       But to Kingsolver's mostly western audience, this is unthinkable. It is written in one of America's most important doctrines that all are endowed the right to life, surely twins are no exception. In our culture, death is the worst thing that can happen to a person. And certainly in Africa as well deaths are mourned greatly. Mothers wail and crawl in the streets over lost children, so it is not in question whether Congolese lament the passing of a friend or family member. However, they view it in a different way. Death is not a thing to be fought at every turn, it just happens. It is a part of life.
        Adah comes to her own realization of the complexity of the relationship between life and death. She realizes that some things will need to die so that others may live. The forest eats itself and lives forever. Death is no less sad to her, but she begins to adopt an African view that it is simply a part of life.
        "The loss of a life: unwelcome. Immoral? I don't know"