A Peace Corps volunteer in Namibia learns that justice, too, is culturally relative.
“You can’t handle the truth!”
This was my line, and I said it just like Jack Nicholson from the witness box.
We were sitting inside an African courtroom, summoned to start proceedings at 9:00 am. Victims of a crime, it was finally our day of retribution.
However, the hour was already 11:00 am and not one single person had managed to show.
No judge, no lawyers, no defendant. Just two foreigners naïve enough to actually arrive on time.
To fill the stuffy empty space, we reenacted scenes from movies like “A Few Good Men” and famous news cases. OJ Simpson kept us occupied for at least forty-five minutes.
My housemate Nicole and I were Peace Corps teachers living in an isolated desert region of Namibia. That day we experienced an eye-opening brush with an African legal system.
All the events leading up to that day and its aftermath taught me that just like ideas about time, family, and relationships, basic concepts of fairness and punishment are also not universal. Justice is culturally defined.
Strange Disappearances
Photo: fiverlocker
Over the previous year, we had noticed things go missing from our ramshackle house in the township. Most items were inconsequential– chocolate bars, small bills, or wooden figurines. Not anything to be stressed about.
It got serious, however, when our battery-operated boom box and favorite mix tape, a compilation of 90s hits, disappeared.
Living in a remote place, music was an important outlet for us. That boom box was so much more than just entertainment. It was our friend and often our therapy. Needless to say, as volunteers living far away from home with so few resources, we felt violated. We were also troubled that someone was entering our private locked space.
Spurred on by indignation, we asked neighbors if they had seen any trespassers. Amazingly, they answered yes. The perpetrator was Eiseb, a 15-year old local schoolboy and well-known thief.
In that moment, we learned our first lesson about the Namibian sense of fairness. Not wanting to rat out one of their own, our neighbors did not intervene in the least. That is, until we asked. Then the floodgates opened.
After Nicole and I identified the boy to the police and filed an official report, events got stranger.
Eiseb was taken into custody, and we were invited to retrieve our own possessions from his home.
There’s nothing quite like conducting your own search and seizure, I was to learn next. It’s unsettling.
When we arrived at Eiseb’s dusty shanty home on the other side of town, I did not feel righteous at all. Instead, shame crept up inside me.
Eiseb’s mother stood out front, holding a baby in one arm and stirring an iron pot with the other. A goat wandered through the yard. The mother waved us into the house without even flinching.
Inside Eiseb’s musty dark room, we found all of our missing items and even a stockpile of things we didn’t know were gone.
One of my blouses, a pink and purple plaid L.L. Bean was found crumpled in a ball in a corner. Eiseb’s mother later revealed that her son enjoyed wearing it often. His family knew good and well it was stolen from the house we lived in.
Relieved that our thief was Eiseb and not someone much worse, Nicole and I were ready to forgive and forget. The only thing we really wanted was to listen to Hootie and the Blowfish again.
However, the police had to retain our things as evidence. What’s more, we were obligated to appear in Namibian court.
At first we resisted the court day, not wanting to stir up trouble. It can be tricky being a foreigner living in Africa. But eventually we agreed, considering that Eiseb could easily graduate from breaking and entering to more serious crimes. Besides, he had violated the law, hadn’t he?
Photo: geotheref
Most of the community also encouraged our decision. Coworkers regularly shook their head and lamented Eiseb’s bad behavior. Neighbors apologized that we endured a bad experience in their village.
“Terrible what these young kids are doing these days,” they would say and cluck their tongues.
The Verdict
After months of waiting for our court day and then three more hours for the legal parties to arrive, we finally brought Eiseb to justice, African style.
In a nutshell, Eiseb was found not guilty, and he received no punishment.
Moreover, we never got our possessions back.
We’ll never know who ended up with the boom box and the pink and purple top, not to mention the money, wooden figurines, bras, books, shoes and very embarrassing cleavage photograph stolen.
And even to this day, my “American” sense of justice doesn’t completely understand the ruling.
We had evidence, witnesses, and police and community support. And what lesson did it teach Eiseb or other kids who might be tempted to do the same?
A short time after, I met a wood carver at a tourist spot outside of our village. As is common in Africa, where locals know everyone’s business, he also knew our case.
The wood carver put it all in perspective for me.
“It is your own fault. You come here. You are rich. You have money. You have things.”
Ouch.
I guess I can’t handle the truth.
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27 Comments... join the discussion!
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Wow. Poverty sure does make people forget right from wrong, doesn’t it?
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Oh, how I hear you on this one. When I served in Kenya, street justice is the way that a lot of punishments went down. One guy in our group even saw a guy necklaced (tire over head, tire lit on fire, man burns in the middle of the street). So when I was nearly pick-pocketed one day on public transportation, all I could do was shove the guy’s arm to the side, give him a nasty glare and wait for him to get off the bus. I didn’t want to be responsible for calling him out in public.
It’s so true that even when we try to be minimalists on the road, we’re still far richer than most people can ever imagine. As a PCV in particular, I found it hard to convince people that we weren’t there to hand out money – after all, we weren’t. But that’s not to say we couldn’t have forked over a few bills to help someone feed their family.
It’s a delicate balance. Your story is an interesting one. Maybe you can find some peace in the fact that at least someone is wearing the clothes that you never had returned.
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Great writing! Great story!
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Ouch. Interesting and depressing at the same time. Hope Japan is treating you better.
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Thanks for all the positive feedback!
We did actually have another theft just as we were leaving the country. A bunch of clothes were stolen off the clothesline while we were at our own going away party. I sometimes wonder if Eiseb was the culprit again!
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Mary, I really enjoyed this piece and could totally relate! I’m sure the police are enjoying that cleavage picture…
We had a problem similar to this in Pakistan, although the thing the police wanted to keep was our car. We lost about $5000 just to the “justice system” plus $2000 more in repairs on the car. I’m not sure if I’ve recovered enough to write about it yet, although maybe processing it creatively would help.
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Great story!
I could relate too – I had some things stolen when I lived in Thailand (during my birthday party!). while my fellow expats were outraged on my behalf, our Thai neighbours and friends were pretty unruffled. It was hard to get my head around justice being relative to wealth, but that was their attitude. It’s a rough experience, but a good eye-opener I guess.
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My friend shared this post with me probably for two reasons: 1)my housemate’s clothes were stolen from our clothes line, during the day, while he was in the house, during our time as volunteers in Northwest Namibia; and 2)he knows how much I hate generalizations. As much as I was frustrated about having theives violate my property and space in my small town, I knew better than to associate the occurence with my being in Namibia or any part of Africa. Right before leaving for Namibia, two kids in Washington, DC stole and completely wrecked my car. They were actually trapped in the vehicle after the accident (so they got caught) and no real “American” justice (whatever that is) was served on them either. There is a reason why the security business is a big deal in America and just about everywhere – burglar bars, alarms, electrified fences, guard dogs, surveillance cameras, security personnel, and the list goes on. People all over have problems knowing who to trust around their things. And yes, poverty and globalization exacerbates the issue. The comments about similar stories in Pakistan and Thailand help echo the extent of our lost morality. As far as the justice system goes, again, your problem is not with “African” Justice, whatever that may be. I’m sorry to know that your town and your court in Namibia seemed to have messed you over royally, BUT there ARE standards to be found on this big continent that we, as “enlightened” Americans can actually relate to and respect. I have made very close relationships with magistrates and police around the country, who may have been good allies for you during the mess of a court proceeding you and your fellow volunteers experienced. All of this to say that I do not believe that there is a thing as “African” Justice and I hope anything close to it will fade in time as the 50+ countries on the continent develop and become stronger players in the global system. My housemate, by the way, was a pastor and teacher volunteering from Nigeria. He, too, was hurt and shocked by the actions of the knuckleheads who saw it fit to enter our yard and steal his things. Please, we must be the change we wish to see in the world. Let’s validate our individual experiences for what they are, share our trials and tribulations with others, try to apply our fortunes and misfortunes to a bigger picture, but stop making possibly harmful generalizations, especially about Africa, a large, diverse land mass that few get an opportunity to visit, but most seem to think they know. Peace.
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Tamara,
Thanks for your comment and insight. Of course I know that there are discrepancies in how justice is doled out all over the world, including the States.
Matador Abroad specifically seeks stories that “explore the complicate terrain of cultural differences…”
Our experience reflects that exactly from our neighbors’ reactions, to our own search and seizure, to waiting for hours in the courtroom, to the final outcome.
My larger point is that justice (anywhere in the world) is relative, and that it can be defined by culture.
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Mary,
I get the point of the website. Your article was well-written and your story was engaging.My point is that your experience exposed the “complicate terrain of cultural differences” in your VILLAGE in Namibia at the TIME of the incident, NOT of Namibia, NOT of Africa, and probably NOT until the end of time (unless that you have actual evidence pointing to the contrary). Things do, have, and will forever change, again especially with globalization.
I know that such important “nuances” take away from the drama of the piece and possibly discussion, but it makes the cultural commentary a bit more accurate.
When did this take place? Was it actually in the town of Khorixas or in a smaller village? (I lived in Khorixas for 12 months and now live in Keetmanshoop.) I plan to ask the magistrate in Khorixas about your case when I talk to her this weekend. I’m now especially curious.
In Defense of Proper Cultural Representation,
Tamara↵ -
Tamara,
I’m impressed that you’re taking a personal interest in our case and even going so far as to investigate the details using your own sources.
But what exactly is “proper” cultural representation as you put it?
I have to admit that I’m curious about what happened with your housemate too. Did your magistrate and police friends help him recover his things?
In terms of my story being “my story” and nothing more, EVERYONE knows that.
I admire your effort, but is there really a need to defend Khorixas, Namibia, or even all of Africa against my 800 word story?
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Tamara, as a reader I didn’t think that this piece was making any “generalizations.” It seems that what is bothering you is mostly the title, “My Day of African Justice” and the thought that there could be a distinct, definable “African justice.”
While this piece is certainly about an individual’s story, it also brings up some broader questions about what is considered justice.
You seem quick to call discussion of theft and the justice system in certain countries a stereotype. I suggest you check out the annual research done by Transparency International. The more you travel, the more you realize that corruption pervades different countries and societies and different levels. This in turn affects the justice system, the police system and more. Transparency International (transparency.org) uses various means to measure the extent of corruption (and the corresponding lack of justice in most cases) in different countries. My experience in Pakistan with the police and the courts was not just an individual story, but part of a larger system of widespread corruption that can be and is often discussed using facts and figures.
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Great writing Mary! It’s a really sad example of poverty versus justice.
Hope to see more of your articles on Matador↵ -
Turner,
No, there have been no thefts or personally conducted search and seizures in Japan yet!↵ -
Turner,
Nope, no thefts or personally conducted search and seizures in Japan yet!↵ -
Wow this is an amazing and moving piece. Thank you for sharing this experience!
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Firstly, Mary, I engage in such “debate” regarding what I deem as cultural misrepresentation all the time. I do it with friends, family, and colleagues, in whatever forum, from whatever country, whenever I feel so moved. It’s not personal, nor about the length of your story. I read the piece, had a reaction, hit the reply button, and posted my opinion.
In regards to my housemate’s stolen items, the situation was very different from yours. He lost four, maybe five, business shirts, nothing else; there were no witnesses; it was outside on our clothing line (no breaking and entering); the thief was never caught (although we think it may have been someone we did not recognize who was begging at the gas station and followed my roommate home). We lived in “town,” where properties were not so close to see everything and where people were not often hanging outside. He filed a report, but serious fighting for the recovery of five shirts, not worth it. From that point on, we simply kept post while allowing our clothes to dry outside. Annoying, but a symbol of forced adaptation. Nothing went missing again.
In response to my level of “effort” and personal investigation, I am not doing much more than having a new topic for conversations with people I already speak with on a regular basis. In my case, at least one of the people is a magistrate, who I’ve gotten close with over the past year. Your case seems like crazy corruption and also what I seem to think is a form of exploitation of volunteer trust. It should make for interesting discussion.
In regards to Khorixas or Africa being “worthy of defending,” I find it hard to justify a response. I am sensitive to certain things, especially portrayals of those traditionally classified as Blacks, of Africans, and of historically misrepresented and oppressed minorities, and I respond accordingly. I also often get into long discussions with locals about “America” and “Americans” in attempts to help them understand how big and diverse the nation truly is. And just today, I raised a bunch of red-flags with my colleague who classifies himself as “Coloured” when he was trying to break down certain “Oshivambo” and “Nama” values to me, asking to him to support his assertions. No attacks in our exchange. I’ll be hanging out with him and his family socializing tomorrow.
In the end, we all have our opinions and forums such as this (with “Leave a Comment” boxes) allow us to share and accept them. I’m not expecting much more.
Enjoy your weekend.
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I’d agree with Tamara that generalizing about Namibia like that does a disservice to a culturally rich and diverse country. I lived in Ohangwena, Namibia from December 2007 to October 2009 – a volunteer teacher with WorldTeach. (I currently live in South Africa if that’s in any way relevant.)
In my case, a toaster, fan and 3 magazines disappeared from my house one day (things that to us would be relatively inconsequential). The magazines were particularly identifiable as neither Rolling Stone nor Wired are sold in Namibia.
I never reported it to authorities, but I told fellow teachers.
In about 2 months, the police returned (what looked like) my toaster, fan and two of the 3 magazines. I still have no idea who took them.
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Hi Stephen,
Thanks for your comment and insight.It makes me happy to hear that you had a good outcome in your case.
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To Stephen and Tamara: I don’t see how someone’s very own personal experience can possibly be construed as “generalizing.” This ACTUALLY happened to her. She isn’t degrading Namibia or Africa, but simply stating what happened to her in another country and how it effected her and her friend.
Stephen you even describe YOUR very own experience– how are you not generalizing, but she was? To me its hypocritical of you to think that she did a “disservice to a culturally rich and diverse country,” and you didn’t?
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Hi anonymous,
My comment was not a generalization because I referred to it as “in my case” – a specific instance, not a general statement like: “African justice.”
Africa is a continent of 54 nations, many made up of multiple cultures. Namibia alone has 9 distinct cultures. To state that what happens in one small corner of Namibia can somehow be representative of a continent bigger than North America is a gross generalization and should be challenged.
Re-read the article, but change Namibia to (say…) Estonia and “African justice” to “European justice.” Would you still think that the author wasn’t making an unfair generalization? Do you believe that the justice systems in Estonia, Turkey, Spain and England (to pick 4 distinct European cultures with differing legal traditions and 3 different alphabets – Cryllic, Aramaic and Roman) are all exactly the same and should thus be generalized? I know I’m being rhetorical, but I’m sure you see the point.
By sharing my experience, I was hoping to show that even within Namibia, different people have had different experiences, thus showing that such a generalization wasn’t accurate even on that scale.
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The title of her article is “MY DAY of African Justice.” It happened in Africa, it happened to her, and it is not a generalization, but someone’s personal experience. This happened to her, it happened to you, and I’m sure its happened to other people. Quite frankly, between your experience and hers it seems that “generally” people get robbed in Namibia. Thats what sharing your experience said to me. This happened to her IN the continent of AFRICA and it was the author’s personal experience with justice in the continent of Africa. I think someone would have to be blind to think or assume that her one experience equates to what “justice” is all over the continent of Africa, and her article certainly does NOT make a point that her experience is the way justice is handled over the entire continent.
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Very often, people write about their experieces,and so I see nothing realy wrong with the story except that it has a title that does not fit the particular incident. I had a similar experience in Khorixas, though I did not go to court. If I had to write my story, the title will be “my sad experience in Khorixas, Namibia.
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Dear Mary Richardson, TIA (This Is Africa). From the onset, I want to agree with you that stealing is immoral, those who associate with it (whether poor or rich) must face the full weight of the law, and the long arm of justice must reach to them. You deserved to have your items returned and this is indeed a strange case. No question about that.
Be as it may, I am patriotic Namibian from the far northern east region. I take a particular stance on some of the words you used in your story “my story” which now has become everybody story I quote here below.
“That day we experienced an eye-opening brush with an African legal system. In that moment, we learned our first lesson about the Namibian sense of fairness. A goat wandered through the yard. It can be tricky being a foreigner living in Africa. After months of waiting for our court day and then three more hours for the legal parties to arrive, we finally brought Eiseb to justice, African style. … even to this day, my “American” sense of justice doesn’t completely understand the ruling. A short time after, I met a wood carver at a tourist spot outside of our village. As is common in Africa, where locals know everyone’s business, he also knew our case”.
Your words above brought me to my intellectual knees. Your story from Khorixas does not warrant this kind of generalisations. Khorixas is too small town to be called Namibia. Of course, I do not doubt your story. It happened in Namibia, but does that mean an African style. One lone court case and you call that the Namibian sense of fairness or African Justice. My dear sister why do you judge us by your standard. “As is common in Africa, where locals know everyone’s business, he also knew our case”. What did you mean here because I cannot follow you. This is purely a mechanistic worldview of Africa.
I challenge you that I live in Windhoek (capital city) of Namibia and this not true or go to Ghana or Egypt. Next time you write a piece of writing that goes for public consumption in the public domain, you should really be careful how you open your mouth. I felt indignated because I have received numerous e-mails and other form of correspondence from my friends in and outside Africa that my country is lawless. The police did their work, the magistrate, state prosecutor applied their minds, and we trust our judiciary. I worked with many people in Khorixas including an American volunteers since 1992 but your story is a single case in point.
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Simasiku,
Thank you for your comment and insight about the story.
I am full aware that my story is an anecdote and does not reflect the justice system in all of Namibia or the entire continent of Africa. I lived there for two years and traveled to many other countries including Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Tanzania, so I understand well that Africa is a diverse and rich continent and there are differences in how cases are treated and I know that not all outcomes are the same as mine. But thank you for making that point again.
As far as writing for the public domain, I think you are confusing some elements of my story as generalizations when they are actually evaluation, which is my interpretation of events through my own filter. I think you misunderstand this article as a news report or analysis that may be possibly damning to your country, but the Matador audience knows that it is a personal account and therefore limited only to my case.
I have very good memories of my time in Namibia. My larger point for this story was that the whole experience with police, court, public awareness of the case was culturally different than my own country and yes the fact that it happened in Namibia, makes it an “African experience” in my mind. When you visit the US or other countries, you will also find experiences that are bewildering and confusing to you. We are all each products of our own cultures and it is normal to interpret events through our own backgrounds.
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Dear Miss Mary,
I come from North eastern Namibia and I live in Windhoek.I have read your story and definitely am not pleased with what had happened to your belongings. I would not be happy if someone else grabs my belongings wherever anywhere in the world.The way the case was handled does not sound alright at all even though we dont have all the evidence of the proceedings. May be something went wrong somehow during the proceedings. In my opinion the young boy deserved punishment if all points could have been put together simultaneously which seems not to have been the case in this scenario. Let us come back to the whole story. The title more especially the words(African justice) in my opinion they refer to the whole continent. This is wrong because the story happened in Namibia and not Africa as a whole. Therefore the African justice on a broader perspective could not be judged on a single case which happened in one African country. This is less than 1% of the total cases happening in Namibia annually and not to mention the whole continent. You could only peradventure had used this title after conducting a research in many African countries over a numberer of cases within a given period.Therefore as academics we should write carefully and refrain from tarnishing the image of others, and in this case the African justice system which includes more than 50 countries. Therefore I wonder whether your title versus the story deserves to be called American reporting?? I am also not really sure what the aim of your story really was??
You did not mention the time when your case was to be heard in court in your story. All I have read is that at 1100 am that morning only two of you were at the court and nobody else. Was it not that you had gone earlier to the courtroom before the appointed time to avoid being late? You said that you had community and police support, did these people do it for fun??
In general people are punished in AFRICA when they go wrong just like anywhere else. People go wrong everywhere in the world everyday hence the birth of the justice system. In Africa people are sentenced to prison for wrong doing just like anywhere else, they dont roam freely as your story potrays. You are more than welcome to conduct your own research which would definitely provide you with the correct title to your story.
The comment from the wood carver were very unfortunate, he was speaking from his point of view,at his own literacy level and not that of Namibia nor the whole AFRICAN continent. I am sure that you have had wonderful times too whilst in Namibia hence we would appreciate to see such reports from you too. This is a wonderful country with good people who respect the rule of law.
In conclusion I would like to state that we need to be careful with our belongings at all times wherever we are. There are thieves everywhere and people striving for resources in general.↵
