Witch

Like dogs whipped for something they did not understand, 60 kinky-haired Wakamba tribesmen huddled on the floor of the Nairobi Railway Institute fortnight ago and gazed hopefully at the judge sitting behind a deal table on the stage. The Railway Institute can be used as a theatre. It has an orchestra pit, folding chairs and well-equipped fly gallery. Seldom had the professional hunters, coffee growers and tradesmen who crowded the back of the hall witnessed such a drama.

The 60 Wakambas had beaten an old woman to death. For this British justice demanded the death penalty. Their defense was childishly simple: The old woman was a witch, well known in the district. She had cast a spell over the senior wife of the Chief, a wife for whom he had paid many cows, and the expensive wife had sickened. Therefore the witch was dragged to the sick woman's hut and ordered to remove the spell.

"Bwana," cried the spokesman, "she only removed half of it and then she ran away!"

The young men of the village took sticks, chased the witch and beat her to death, which is the accepted punishment for witches in East Africa. For this the white man's government was demanding their death. Sixty Chicago policemen sentenced to death for shooting a racketeer could not have been more puzzled. Standing in an unblinking row the tribesmen heard the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Kenya sentence them all to be hanged by the neck until dead. The Chief Justice understood Africa as well as the law. Privately he recommended them to the Governor's clemency.

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