Congo life and folklore

by John H. Weeks

When all were seated, the calabash of wine was handed round and solemnly drunk by the two principal men and their witnesses. The fifty pieces of cloth were counted out and handed over, and the white goat was presented. This white gift was called nkusw’ a mpemba, or a being rubbed white. On receiving this white goat the man who held the pawn in pledge arose to his feet and rubbed some chalk with his fingers by the side of the right ear of the pawn. The ceremony is complete, the pawn is redeemed, and the chalk is a sign that he is clean from his bondage, and there is nothing more against him. Satu and his brother embraced each other and returned together to their town. The slur of slavery now being wiped out of the family, no one would again taunt them with it.

Satu now turned his attention to help his only niece. It appears that when she was a baby only one or two days old, a man of middle age entered her mother’s house, and dropped a bead into the saucepan that stood by the fire, and from which the hot water was taken to wash the baby. The dropping in of the bead gave the man a claim on the girl to become his wife when old enough. No one else could marry her unless the girl were released by the payment of a heavy sum for breach of custom.

When the child, Sono, reached the age of seven, her deceased uncle had acknowledged the claims of the “bead dropper” to his niece’s hand by asking him to pay ten pieces of cloth as marriage money. He could and should have asked more, but he was in difficulty, and glad to accept any sum he could get. As Sono came to realize the small amount that was given for her, she became angry with her uncle and with the man who regarded her as his cheaply bought wife; and this feeling was increased by the girls and boys in her town jeering at her for not being worth more than the price of two pigs.

When she arrived at a marriageable age she refused to marry the old man, and had repeatedly begged her uncle to release her by returning the marriage money and another ten pieces as interest for the use of the money for the past ten years. Her deceased uncle, who was then the head of her family, had refused to part with so much cloth merely to gratify the whim of a girl, and, besides, he always pleaded poverty.

There seemed no prospect of release for her from a very hateful marriage with an old man who already possessed twelve wives--most of whom had bad, quarrelsome tempers, and would make her life miserable. She had determined to kill herself[^[52]] as her only means of escape; but now that another and richer uncle was head of the family she renewed her appeal with success.

The bridegroom-elect was a crafty old man who thoroughly recognized the advantage of an alliance with so great a family if he could coerce the girl into marrying him, or the possibility of making some money out of the breaking of the covenant should her uncle support her in her continued refusal of him.

He therefore feigned surprise when he was requested to release Sono from her betrothal to him, and asked in anger: “Was he not great enough to become a member of Satu’s family! Was he not a great man himself, and owned twelve wives! What objection had lord Satu to him?”

Satu did not attempt to argue these matters with the old man, but went straight to the point by asking how much he wanted before he would release his niece.

“Well,” replied the man, “I paid ten pieces of cloth, besides palm-wine, and various odds and ends of trade goods, worth in all fifteen pieces, as marriage money, and your family has had the use of that amount for ten years; so I shall not take less than one hundred pieces of cloth to release her from the betrothal.”

“That is a ridiculous price to put on her,” retorted Satu angrily. “I will give you twenty-five pieces, one pig, one keg of gunpowder, one calabash of palm-wine, and one soldier’s coat.”