FREE GOATS.
NTOABOMA: Some European man, from Brooklyn (NY, USA) once asked me, after visiting me in Ntoaboma, how even the goats and sheep in Ghana can roam about freely and not be taken by thieves. He noticed that even in large parts of Accra this was the case.
So I told him about Traditional Law Enforcement. But, my niece quickly interjected and claimed that Africans are just good people. My dear friends, you see, such statements are not correct. Africans are not naturally predisposed to be good or bad, whatever your morals. It takes training, culture, customs, discipline and it takes being afraid of the consequences for ones actions.
The last part is key to understanding Traditional Africa. It is not that people won’t take your goat if you let it roam freely. In fact test this idea in some parts of Accra, or Kumase and see what happens to your goat. It will end up in someone’s cooking pot!
Traditional African Law Enforcement has left such an indelible mark on the pysche of Africans that the very idea of taking something that does not belong to you is a matter of second nature. Try taking someone’s goat in Ntoaboma and see what will happen to you.
You see, ideas like we just do certain things because we are “Africans” and things come to us by “nature” or by “instinct,” is why strangers don’t think we have institutions in Traditional Africa.
The idea of a Law Enforcement Institution in Traditional Africa is alien to the Mis-Educated Than His Ancesotrs, the METHA. He was not taught and so he does not know it! But it is not alien. It is real. Our way of implementing policy, and maintaining it, is not the European way, perhaps. Still, we have better methods that have far greater effectiveness than the Europeans can even imagine it.
Take somebody’s goat in Ntoaboma and see what happens to you! There’s no such thing as a free goat. You see? What kind of nonsense is that?
