A Drummer's Testament

Chapter II-8:  How Chiefs Judge Cases

The chief's court in pre-colonial times; the naazoonima (chief's friends); the role of the elders in cases; types of crime and the punishments; selling a bad person; witches and witchcraft cases; modern types of crime; comparison of chief's courts and civil courts

• Paragraph outline and links
• Proverbs and sayings
• Dagbani words and other search terms

Contents outline and links by paragraph

The chief's court and bad people

• 1.    formerly, before government courts,  chiefs judged cases in public in front of their houses
• 2.    types of bad people:  adulterers, thieves, fighters, debtors, witches
• 3.    the Naazoonima (chief's friends) were like police; would arrest and detain a bad person

Types of judgments

• 4.    the judgment (eating the case):  bad person would pay money or would be sold
• 5.    the sold person would work for the one who paid the debt
• 6.    the person who buys a bad person was also bad
• 7.    differences in the crimes; from killing to kidnapping girls or eloping
• 8.    example:  sex with a betrothed girl; the father would bring the complaint; initial charges
• 9.    boy held at Wulana's house; would be fined what the fiance had spent; could be sold
• 10.  farming and work would not pay the debt; the family would struggle to pay and free the boy

Example:  debt and indentured servitude

• 11.  chief can intercede for a debtor
• 12.  the creditor can refuse
• 13.  sometimes the debtor can work as laborer to pay the debt
• 14.  can deposit a child to work for the creditor; not the same as slavery
• 15.  selling a relative to get money to buy chieftaincy
• 16.  cannot get the person back until the debt is paid
• 17.  the pledged person might run away, but difficult
• 18.  could not run outside Dagbon; danger from animals and slavers
• 19.  sometimes could stay years indentured; sometimes freed

Whipping and other serious punishments

• 20.  for children of chiefs or tindanas; the barazim; how it was made
• 21.  for serious criminals like defrauders, also debt; olden days burned the hands
• 22.  a habitual thief could be shot with arrows; no case would be made

Witches

• 23.  witches not sold; driven from the town or sent to the buɣa, especially Naawuni
• 24.  can be identified by a victim before dying
• 25.  could confess and name accomplices; driven from the town, plus debt
• 26.  many witches sent to Gnaani; how they live there; taboos of the town
• 27.  if refuse to confess, would break fingers
• 28.  if no confession, chief will gather women; carry the dead body on a frame
• 29.  they will use the dead body to divine the witches
• 30.  the women pass by the dead body; the dead body kicks the witch
• 31.  they whip her until she identifies accomplices
• 32.  the witches are driven from the town; her people will also pay a debt; if no money could be killed
• 33.  women kill more than men; man who kills will be sold, but a woman is driven away

Modern courts under law

• 34.  modern times, the chiefs do not judge cases; cases go to the government court
• 35.  the relative of a witch will send the accuser to court
• 36.  some people accept that the woman is a witch; others go to court and charge the accuser
• 37.  the chief's court both good and bad; chiefs use strength, not truth
• 38.  in modern times, more bad people in Dagbon; no deterrence as before

Proverbs and Sayings

The place where no one knows you is the place where they take you to be a slave.

If somebody says he has refused, can you catch him and put him inside a tree trunk?

“We want you to get the person who does not like you.  And if the one who doesn't like you is a man or a woman, you should search for the one, and if it is the wish of God, enter the room.”

“I the chief and you people, we are too big for this town.  And so this town is not big enough for me and you.  You should search for your town.”

The chief will say they will remove her from the town, and they should accompany her and leave her on the way.

It's just as if a porcupine has hurt you and you want to knock it.  If you knock the porcupine, you will get more pain to add.

You see the truth:  you cannot say it.  That is strength.

Dagbani words and other search terms

• Elders and titled persons
• naazoo, naazoonima
• Wulana
• Zogyuri-Naa  (Zoɣyuri-Naa)

• Names
• Kissmal
• Nindoo

• Miscellaneous terms
• barazim
• daantalga
• gaa  [Diospyros mespiliformis Hochst ex A.DC.]
• groundnuts
• guinea
• kogu  (koɣu)
• kpalgu
• Naawuni
• shea butter
• sogu  (soɣu)
• takobu  (takɔbu)
• talma
• tindana

• Towns and places
• Dagbon
• Gnaani
• Salaga
• Savelugu
• Singa
• Upper Volta
• Voggo
• Yendi

• Cultural groups
• Ashantis
• Dagbamba