I've learned that in many African countries the people have lost complete confidence in the police/courts/and other institutions of the law. When that happens they usually begin to resort to on-the-spot vigilante justice. I have actually witnessed two "market place lynchings" during my 20 or so years of living and traveling in Africa. It isn't a pretty sight to see someone stoned or beaten to death...but, that is what happens to theives in most sub-Saharan African open air markets. When the police come to investigate the murder the entire community comes out and declares, "We ALL did it. Take us ALL to prison." The police usually shake their heads and tisk-tisk a bit and then head back to the safety of their police post where they proceed to do nothing ... justice having taken its inevitable course. Of all the places in Africa where vigilante justice can be found nowhere is it common than in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Congolese people--having suffered one hundred fifty years of abuse, first by King Leopold then by a succession of corrupt Congolese kleptocrats--have a hair trigger mob response that is astounding to see in action.
These days the open-air market traders are expanding their business. The more prosperous ones are able to travel by air to Dubai where they purchase one to two hundred pounds of goods which they check in as luggage and return to their country of origin. Many of the traders that I meet on the airlines are Congolese from DRC. Ethiopian Airlines has developed this "trade" by giving business people preferential treatment and baggage allowances. Flying Ethiopian Airlines these days more resemebles a trip on a market bus than a sane airline flight across the continent.
On a recent Ethiopian Airlines trip from Addis Ababa to Douala, Cameroon, the 757 that I was on was filled to capacity with Congolese traders. As the baggage was being loaded into the cargo hold of the aircraft the traders who are used to riding the rough market buses--were watching the baggage handlers with eagle eyes...to be sure that all their goods were loaded with no theft.
Suddenly, people began shouting "THIEF...THIEF" (in French, of course) and the entire group of passengers in that jet began to rush to the right side of the aircraft jamming the windows and aisleways while others of their number began storming off the airplane and onto the tarmac. They had seen one of the Ethiopian Airlines baggage smashers stealing items from the luggage AS IT WAS BEING LOADED ONTO THE AIRCRAFT WHILE IN FULL VEIW OF THE PASSENGERS!!!!
The Ethiopian Airlines cabin crew handled the situation by running the aisleways shouting that the security police were being called to the scene. The traders have their instincts about the police and continued spilling off the aircraft. An hour later--when the dust had settled--we were all back into our assigned seats, the thief was arrested, and the aircraft was surrounded by Ethiopian national police to keep order.
On arrival in Douala I waited in vain for my luggage to appear in the baggage claim area. It had simply vanished somewhere in the confusion...I and fifty other passengers stood in line in Douala to file a Property Irregularity Report, and exercise that required nearly five hours to complete. A ruse, no doubt, to cover for the theft of our luggage in Ethiopia.
Ten days on Ethiopian Airlines steadfastly refuses to acknowlege the validity of the Property Irregularity Report, or the incident in Addis...or the existence of my luggage.
Sigh.
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Comments: 1
The politicians manipulate the police force, the mafia rules the politicians, the goons who carry out the thievery are from the mafia groups. The police are mere pawns in the whole situation respected by neither politician nor civilian. Yet they have to survive, which they do by following the side that pays them.
Civilian justice is blind and immediate, that was why a judiciary was set up in the first place.
Recently, in Mumbai (India), a gang of thieves robbed a rail passenger who had gone to the toilet. They took his wallet and locked him in the loo. The thieves came out of the toilet and started shouting that the victim was a thief whom they had locked inside. They unlocked the toilet and the victim came out to an angry mob. He managed to escape to a house and hide until the police came.
Fortunately, this is Mumbai, a large city in India and the thief would not have been killed but he would have been badly beaten.
Shobna