THE OTHER WAY ROUND (3)

In the Kuntu community there was great sadness; one of the most prestigious families had lost a great member to THE FALL, for that is how they reckon death. The Fall is the only downfall of any person in the community and their great member had fallen.

The mourning season was over and it was time for the elders of the community to meet to discuss the way the properties of their fallen member would be shared. All the older married women of the family of the fallen gathered to make the deliberations and had some of their men to join them so that there would be enough witnesses to the fairness of the distribution.

Older Woman 1: My sisters, I believe this distribution should be postponed. See as we have not gotten all the information about our fallen.

Older Woman 2: I do not think that this meeting should be postponed. Where is the need to do that?

Older Woman 3: I think I agree with our first sister speaker. The children of our fallen are still very young and cannot handle any property given to them.

Older Woman 4: But emmm... remember our fallen has an older son who is in the next village and a husband who has to be inherited by the next sister of our fallen.

Older Woman 1:  That child is useless! You all know very well that our tradition that male children no matter how old, cannot inherit the properties of the fallen.

Husband 1:  If I may, my wives, I think that this traditional preference to the female child is over burdensome. We should...       

Older Woman 3:  Ehem... our husband. As much as we would like to listen to these fables of yours, you must remember that men are to be seen but not heard. So keep it to yourself. You are only here as a witness.

They continued the deliberations and finally reached a decision to postpone the distribution till the first daughter of the fallen was a little older. They also decided that the husband of the fallen be part of the inheritance to go to the next younger sister of the fallen. This decision made the skins on the husbands that were there to curl within them. What in the world had made such heinous tradition? To pass a man down to a woman as an inheritance after his wife died? But tradition so demands and tradition always gets what it demands.