Congo life and folklore

by John H. Weeks

Recently there had been much quarrelling on the markets, resulting in severe wounds and a few deaths. After much thought and many talks with his head men, Satu determined to stop these fatal fights by making a law that in future no guns should be carried on a market-place nor force used during market-time. He therefore sent for all the chiefs of the district, and on their arrival laid clearly and forcibly before them the new law and the reasons for it. He also suggested that for every breach of the law a fine of three pieces of good cloth should be inflicted.

This was discussed, and it was finally settled that for taking a gun on the market the fine should be two pieces of cloth, and for originating a quarrel the fine should be five pieces, and the defaulter to pay all the damages of the disturbance.

As soon as this was settled Old Plaited-Beard was nominated as the N enkondo, or enforcer of the new law; and Satu divided the flesh of three pigs among the assembled chiefs; and they accepted it as a proof of their assent to the new law, and their promised aid in enforcing it. After this the witnessing chiefs went to a cross-road and one of their number proclaimed the new law. Lying on the ground he rubbed his mouth in the dirt, and then striking his knees with his hands he called down a bitter curse on any one who dared to break this edict.

This ceremony has often a very terrifying effect on the people, and he will be a bold fellow who risks the curse.

Each chief returned to his village or town, and told all his people of the new law and its penalties; thus, a day or two after the new rule was made and promulgated at the cross-roads, every one affected by it had heard of it.

It was now the duty of Old Plaited-Beard to follow up quickly any infringement of the new command, no matter who the culprit might be; and it was not long before a slave of a neighbouring chief carried a gun on to a market and in a drunken quarrel severely wounded a man. Old Plaited-Beard, the N enkondo, had to bestir himself at once to follow up the man who had broken the law.

This activity was necessitated by a curious view taken by the natives of laws in general. From the time a law was broken until the breaker of it was punished, that particular law did not exist, it was broken, dead; hence, for instance, any man could take a gun on a market and shoot another person and go unpunished, because the law against that crime was dead and could not be mended or brought again to life until the first breaker of it was punished by paying the penalty. This ensured quick dealing with culprits, and impartial administration of the law, for if a chief broke the law he was judged immediately like an ordinary man and paid the penalty, otherwise anarchy reigned until the law was vindicated by the infliction of the fine on the law-breaker. To neglect to punish the chief would mean that any one could repeat the crime with impunity, for the law was dead.

The slave was quickly caught and brought before the chiefs; but as a master is responsible for the actions of his slave, it was really the owner who was on his trial and had to pay the fine of five pieces of cloth and compensate the wounded man. On meeting all the demands the master received his slave again, and did with him as he liked. The slave was his property in the same sense as his goats, fowls or pigs, and after cruelly punishing the man he sold him away from his wife and children to a distant tribe of people, and we never saw nor heard of him again.

The fines imposed on law-breakers are periodically divided among the chiefs of the district. They are one source of their income, and repay them for the trouble of administering the laws and governing the people. Satu, of course, took a larger share of the fines than the other chiefs. He not only presided over the palavers, but he also acted as treasurer and stored the fines until the time of division, and if he had failed to give the other chiefs their proper share at stated intervals, they would have refused to judge cases with him, and the country would have quickly become unmanageable and disorderly.

A share of the fines, however, would not support Satu as a chief and noble; consequently he had to turn his attention to trading on the markets and with the white men down at the coast. Bakula on account of his smartness was often employed by his chief to sell pigs, cloth, goats, gunpowder and other goods on the markets.