Miracle of the Iguana - How I Came Into the World

Hello Dear Reader - Welcome to my blog.  Here is my first entry.  I want to share some surprises from my childhood with you.    This first story tells of a young  boy, myself, born in Senegal, who moved to Paris when he was ten, and finally to San Francisco at the age of 22.

When I was born in Dakar, my mother had already given birth to four girls.  Everyone was excited that finally a boy was coming into the family.  But then there were dangers in the birth. My parents and  all my sisters were hoping that I would survive.  The umbilical cord had wrapped around my neck three times and there was danger I might suffocate before I came out into the world.   My mother's life was also in danger.

Meanwhile, in the Senghor family home village of Joal,  my grandmother, Helene, was praying to the spirit of the Baobab Tree in her backyard that my life and my mother's would be saved. 

At that moment, my grandmother heard a big noise in the backyard and a huge female iguana suddenly appeared with her new-born baby boy iguana following her.   In our tradition, every family in Africa has a totem, a guardian or messenger of the family.  For our family, it was the iguana so this sudden appearance had deep symbolic meaning to my grandmother.

She asked Amadou, her household helper, to run to the main house of the village where there was only one phone to call the hospital in Dakar and describe the miracle.  She interpreted this sign of the iguana to mean that both the mother and the boy could be saved. But sadly the phone was not working.

Meanwhile, my mother in the hospital was praying from the Bible.  At that moment, my mother felt a big movement in her stomach as I flipped around and was released from the cord.  A long labor ensued and after 15 hours, Marc Olivier Thierry Mignane Mady Senghor came out  into the world healthy and fine.  Everyone cheered.  They were so excited.

By the way, "Mignane" in the Serer language means the messenger, "the one who we expect to come."