Child Carrying Baby
A girl of about ten or twelve years of age wearing her baby brother strapped to her back. She was very proud to be doing this, and even more pleased when I took her photograph.
In Cape Verde and in mainland West Africa - from Senegal, south to Guinea, and round to Ghana - the women carry their babies in almost exactly this way, but with the cloth tied across the top of their breasts rather than around their bellies. The girl in this photo has not simply adapted the system to fit her slender figure; this is the way that the women of Sao Tome and Principe habitually carry their babies. Most of the people of this island republic originate in Angola, and it may be that their port-a-baby system reflects that of their ancestral culture.
Having tried both methods, I should say that both are rather tedious. In the first case your boobs get squashed and pulled down, and in the second the baby winds up sitting on your bum. Indeed, if you are not careful he winds up sitting on the ground. African women spend a lot of time fiddling with their "baby carriers" and retying the cloth.