One Sunday I walked to an inland town two hours behind Baraka, where I found the people engaged in talking a dowry-palaver. I had to wait until this was finished before I could get a hearing. The occasion of the palaver was briefly this: Some years ago, in another town, there were two brothers whose father died leaving them their sister as an inheritance. A husband was found for this sister who paid a handsome dowry. The elder brother appropriated the dowry and took to himself a wife. Several years passed; the younger brother was grown to manhood, and he too desired a wife but had no dowry with which to procure her. He demanded from his brother his rightful share of his sister’s dowry. The dowry of course was gone; but the elder brother now had a daughter five years old, and it was proposed that he should find a husband for this child, thus procuring a dowry with which to settle with his younger brother. The trouble between the brothers became serious; and the people, wishing to avoid war, induced them to ask a certain neighbouring chief, who had a reputation for wisdom and diplomacy, to arbitrate between them and decide the matter.
This was the palaver that was in progress when I entered the town on Sunday, and I heard the closing speeches and the decision of the judge, which was as follows: “I will cut the palaver thus: The elder brother must dispose of his daughter as speedily as possible, and pay to his younger brother the sum of the dowry. Meanwhile, to procure obedience to this, the elder brother’s wife will remain in this town as my wife until the dowry is paid.”
This amicable arrangement was agreed to by all the parties concerned.
This chief deserved his reputation for cleverness. A few weeks later I was passing through his town when he called after me and asked if I were going to pass by without making him a little present of some tobacco in recognition of our intimate friendship.
In reply I asked: “Why do you not rather complain that I pass your town without stopping to tell you God’s Word? Is tobacco more important?”
His sprightly answer, delivered with perfect simplicity, was, “No doubt God’s Word is more important; but tobacco also is God’s gift, and I am very grateful to Him for it.”
Some of their immoral customs one can only mention with reserve even in writing. It is always regarded as amiable, and is sometimes required, that a host should give his wife to a guest. The wife is not consulted. Yet, if the guest, being a Christian, should refuse to comply with this custom, the woman, regarding herself as repulsed, will become enraged and vow vengeance upon the visitor; it will be positively dangerous for him to eat food in that town lest she poison him. It is common also for a man afflicted with a long illness to ask a friend to assume his marital relations until his recovery.
In one instance this request was made of a Christian man by an intimate friend, and at the woman’s suggestion. The man in his distress appealed to me to talk the palaver with the sick man. If a man has many wives, it is regarded as magnanimous for him to take but little notice of social wrong-doing; and the result is boundless immorality.
Charges of adultery are often made for the purpose of extortion. For this same purpose husbands and wives together often conspire against another person.