Jackie and Dongo; Crime Detectives

In one week I learned two interesting ways of how crime is handled in Kayanga. Unfortunately, one I experienced first hand, and the second I was a very confused bystander.

The first was that this past week my kitchen hut was broken into. I have been fortunate to not have any theft in Kayanga, so I felt confused and betrayed that it would happen this far into my service. I got over these feelings rather fast because Dongo, my counterpart, and I became crime investigators pretty immediately. As I was looking for clues it reminded me of my childhood dream to be exactly like Harriet the Spy. Dongo was able to inspect the footprints in the sand right outside my hut, differentiating those from 2 days ago, the day before and that day. He says that he had to learn this when he was a cattle boy when he had to undoubtedly know which cattle belonged to his family and which direction they ventured off to. With his expertise we had a definite lead of the group of kids went into my kitchen hut. The group was later confirmed when they tried to buy fat cakes* with the Zambian bills they stole from my kitchen table. I realize that no matter how hard I try to blend in with people here, trying to live without the same amenities they live without, I will always be viewed as having more. And it's true, my kitchen posses exotic things to them...like peanut butter and... potatoes.

The second crime case was a stabbing (in the arm, minimal damage) that occurred in Kayanga. It is weird because Kayanga is a very safe and very small village, but yes, these two events happened in the same week. There was a huge village meeting about it, big enough that both Kayanga's headman and the Angola headman attended. It finally helped answer the question of what exactly a headman does. He decides the proper punishments for crimes. The village meeting tree is not in my normal route on a Monday, but as I was coming back from my pit latrine I was summoned over by some friends. They recapped the situation for me.

Apparently, for cases like this, the innocent party will be given permission to slaughter the cow of the guilty party. The use of cattle is not abnormal, cattle are usually used for payment for adultery cases, theft, and most other crimes. For more severe cases like this one, however, it is customary to then they smear the blood of the cow onto every part of the man's life; on his house door, on his children's doors, on his other cows, on his car (and if no car then perhaps his oxen sled) and maybe any other creative places they think of. Blood for Blood, I suppose. I couldn’t really decide if I was in favor of the punishment, to publicly humiliate the guilty party, or if I was just grossed out at all the cow blood I would soon be seeing. I would have loved to have direct, word for word translation on that meeting though.

*fat cakes are small, fried dough balls made here that are delicious and dirt cheap