Village court in Kokoma

last edited May 2, 2024, 3:04 p.m. by Steve

6-5 Initiation & Execution of Justice

Participants

Date Team participants National participants
May 1, 2024 Steve Kokoma, Ingis

Description

A decades old land dispute between Kokoma and Ingis boiled over. Umbee had shot a pig he thought was wild on Ingis land, very close to a guy's house. It was that guy's pig and he was angry and accused the Pusila clan of theft. They gave him the pig (possibly because Amon saw the scene) and later gave a piglet thinking the hevi was done. Ongoing issues with Francis caused this to bubble up again. Francis had some of his string traps disrupted by Ingis, he broke apart an Ingis sandil in response. Umbe has been stealing buai and digging Ingis food. These petty wrongs built up along with the history of the land dispute.

Kavaluku chaired the meeting as the dispute was between Ingis and Kokoma. He enforced a one person speaks at a time format and offered occasional summaries of what had been said. He encouraged good thinking and good talk, calling for breaks for private discussion by the parties when things seemed stuck. He clearly stated the demands of each side and asked if the other side would accept the agreement. Eventually when agreement was made he called both sides to the middle for the final agreement. Money was passed, hands were shaken, an appeal to let the hevi now be finished was made and then a prayer asking God and Jesus to see what had happened concluded court.

Ingis made use of their magistrate to fill in a summons notice and to demand K600 payment for the pig and the ongoing disruption. The court debated back on forth on who owned the disputed land but came to no agreement. Leaving that alone they came on to the issue of the pig and disruption. Ingis brought both charges together and wanted both charged separately. Pusila clan didn't want to pay and saw this as a foreign idea, they solved the pig hevi by not eating the pig after shooting it and replacing it. In the end though recognising their bad behaviour and agitated Ingis they agreed to pay the K600 for all the charges together, which Ingis eventually agreed to. K155 was paid with the rest of the fine to be paid later.

Some in Kokoma were unhappy about the insistence of paying the fine, but also saw Francis and Umbee's bad behaviour and could see a potential future of people being so made they kill Umbee.

Court took about 4 hours. 2 guys from Ingis were the main speakers on that side, 4-5 Kokoma guys spoke on their side and others from Kokoma, Pusila and Ingis spoke in every now and then.

Texts

Excerpts from village court
last edited May 2, 2024, 3:04 p.m. by Steve

    Speaker: Ingis guy/Kavaluku

Orthographic text

(Ingis guy - I'm in the Wanuma court area and have put a paper -probably the summons- I'm not going to look after it, the leaders here will... too hard to hear) (Kavaluku's prayer -starts halfway - we've put wanbel, there was bad but money has come and we're one. We're going to go to our houses... In Jesus name...)

Habanel - reaction to court
last edited May 2, 2024, 3:04 p.m. by Steve

Orthographic text

(today people put a time and met, they did a wanbel. Francis got a paper which we've talked about, finished and they made a wanbel. Now it's done and a part has been given, they will be happy. That was the meeting)

Ulumo - explanation of court
last edited May 2, 2024, 3:04 p.m. by Steve

Orthographic text

(Francis did a little bad. He put a string and two were messed up, the road was blocked. He saw that, he went up to our land to an heemond and said "2 of my string traps have been messed up" They also put a sandil and I wanted to cut it but I didn't, I just threw it away. He did badly, and there was also other things like something Umbe did when he shot a pig. This bad behaviour came and a paper came. The guy had thinking and sent a paper, he wanted to meet and put it right, he wanted to be paid. "we don't have that and can't pay it all" he said "we'll give you a part" he said. "No I want all of it" he said "we gave a pig we won't give money" he said our pasin is to give pigs, not to give money, that's your pasin we don't want to do it, but we gave part to make him happy, but he wants it all. We don't have money, but we'll give pigs like our fathers did, but he wanted money. So they gave him part of the money. Umbee went up with the pig and Francis gave the money. We're just following our fathers and we're on this ground they said, we'll sort it out with pigs but they wanted money, they were cross. He said he was a law person and was strong on getting the money and so they had to follow that talk. They gave part of the money K155. You guys didn't want to pay, but you paid to get rid of the hevi? If we didn't pay the hevi would be there, so they paid a part. If it wasn't paid it would be there. You guys were thinking that you'd sort it with pigs but he was all about the money? Yes, we talked about that, but there wasn't strength and we gave money, to make him happy they gave a part of the money. Are you guys wanbel or is there two thoughts here? Was he bigheaded? His thinking was two, but we all gave the money. So there was two thoughts, but you just followed his thinking? yes we gave a part and later the whole will come. When he sells habu he'll come back with money and pay the rest. So they started with a summons paper, I've not seen that Do you guys do that? They have it so they did that, but we don't have it. Walas' father is magistrate and so they did that, they could do the law thing and ask for fines. Can anyone fill in a summons paper or just a magistrate? just a magistrate, it's government law, we just have komiti, but they have a magistrate. Francis did bad and so they wrote him up. So their magistrate is close by and they talked to him, but ours is far away? Our magistrate is in Nabalumee, but you guys have come, Nate has come and we don't have that thinking, we left it. They have it, we did a little bad thing and they wrote him up and gave a summons paper, but we don't do that. That's the work of a law person, they were les of us so they did a paper, had a bung and we talked. Now the fine has been given, that's what they did.)

Ulumo - state of ground dispute
last edited May 2, 2024, 3:04 p.m. by Steve

Orthographic text

(You guys made a wanbel, but the fight about the ground is there still? Yeah they still don't agree. Will Francis not go there anymore? No, he'll still go, he'll be there. They'll put a mark in the middle and they'll stick to it. The pusila clan did bad, they killed a pig, did bad things and got a summons. They didn't want to pay, but this big head happened and then the summons happened. The Ingis guy said those goes stole, was that ok to say? Yes, they did bad and so he could so it. Amon saw it and they were scared and left, so it was theft. They followed your pasin by charging for that, along with the sandil. So they put the money, can the Ingis guy say they are still thieves? No he can't say that. )

Semik - reaction to court
last edited May 2, 2024, 3:04 p.m. by Steve

Orthographic text

(yesterday Ingis put a paper and fined you guys. K155 you paid, what do you think? are you wanbel? or is there 2 thoughts? We have two thoughts, we thought we'd taken care of it already but they demanded money, they brought the summons and we ended up having to pay them. Do you feel like you paid twice? you already gave him a pig, and now there's a fine. We're not happy, we told them we wanted to leave it and not pay, but we ended up paying. Francis broke the sandil, they said Umbee stole buai is that true? We don't know, we didn't see. They might just be saying that, but we know Francis broke the sandil. We don't know. So Francis did badly, but Ingis broke his traps so both sides did bad, but they bunged the charge about the pig and issued a summons? Yes they did that, they used the magistrate to put it all together. Francis broke the sandil and they issued a summons. At first you said you wouldn't pay, but then you did pay. Why? We were on our own ground, our ancestors were there, they've come up. Their ancestors went down... We gave the pig and it should have been done, but it wasn't. They asked for money and gave the summons. So you were afraid of the summons and paid? yes we were afraid of the summons. And there's still a disagreement about the ground? yes the land is still in the middle. Will the whole clan be paying, or just Francis? All of us, we all put yesterday and we'll pay the rest. Hogumam clan won't pay? No they won't pay, just us Pusila clan.)