Birth certificates.  Everybody has one.  Back when we were having babies, someone would come into the hospital room with a clipboard and the birth certificate application.  They would ask the questions and fill in the blanks for us.  In the end, we would sign the form.  A short blur later, the birth certificate would show up in our mail box.  That was all there was to it.  After that, the birth certificate gets filed away and never thought about until that moment when a copy needs to be produced.  Then it's just a matter of remembering which drawer, cupboard, file cabinet, or bank lock box all important papers are kept in.  Just a routine part of life.  Nothing complicated.

That would be in America.  Hop across the Big Pond and things change.  It's not a given that everyone has a birth certificate.  People of a certain age where born before such things as birth certificates and other forms of record keeping arrived here in Cameroon.  Birth dates were all rather vaguely remembered.  Comments like "My grandmother always said I was born during the year of the big flood," are commonly heard.  

The Colonial Era brought such things as birth certificates and other outward signs of "civilization" to Africa.  But people soon discovered that one's actual birth date may not be the best one to use.  Multiple birth certificates were an easy solution.  There was the first birth certificate issued around the time of the baby's birth, give or take a few months or even more than a year.  It may or may not contain correct information.  It all depends on what the birth mother's goal was for her child.  If at a later date she discovered that she choose wrong, it is a simple matter to apply for a new birth certificate.  The child can thus become old enough to get into school, for example.  But even later it might be discovered that if the child were to be younger than their actual age, there would be certain benefits.  No problem.  Just make another birth certificate.  

We know many, many people who have two birth certificates.  It only gets complicated if a young person uses the wrong one when applying for their first identity card.  Perhaps later, at the time of marriage, they use the other birth certificate.  Now the certificate is in conflict with the date on the identity card.  That's just one possible time when problems can arise.

We even know people with four birth certificates. And sometimes the birth mother may die during the birth of a younger sibling.  It is entirely possible that the deceased mother is the only one who knows which one of these four certificates is the real one.  So how does the child untangle this when they become a young adult?  They will be spending a lot of time in government offices.  And it will cost money.

Something that is an uncomplicated, routine part of life on your side of the Big Pond can be something else entirely on our side.