The Infidelity Case

“Are you coming to the adultery trial tomorrow?” The old woman who lives next door asked me one evening like she was asking about my attendance at a community pot-luck. Because she was the third person that day who had inquired about the trial, I figured it was probably a good idea to check it out. Having multiple concurrent partners and cheating is much more common in Zambia than in the states. Men are mostly given the privilege of sleeping around without consequence, while women are punished for it. The common term that men jokingly use to call a mistress is a “side plate”. This has not only caused problems in relationships in Zambia but has also fueled the HIV epidemic here. Due to this, and many other factors, the HIV rate is 16% in Zambia. This was a trial for a woman who had cheated on her husband. I was curious to see how the village was going to react.

The next morning I woke up, made my breakfast, and sat on my porch to catch up on my reading before the day’s business. I noticed that people I had never seen were walking around my house, many of them seemed to have been drinking. By the time the trial was set to start, the village had swelled to almost twice its size and people were all around the headman’s hut waiting for the trial to begin. I walked over from my hut and was astonished. The atmosphere was that of a high school football game. There were women selling fritters and many of the men had taken on the serious task of day drinking. If someone had a truck in the village, you might have even called it a tailgating session.  I brought my chair and took my place in the men’s section just as the headman from my village, Isaac, was calling the case to order.

The whole village was surrounding the couple, their two infants, and the man with whom the wife had cheated. All were seated on a reed mat that Isaac had borrowed from me for this occasion.  It was no surprise that their mood was not as jovial as those around them.  Directly in front of the couple were headmen from the two local villages, Makambwe (my village) and Ephriam (the neighboring village). When the majority of the gathering had settled down, Isaac asked for silence, and requested for the plaintiff to tell his story. The husband begins to tell how he found his wife sleeping with another man. He speaks softly and with a lowered gaze to hide his humiliation. Suddenly, from back in the nosebleeds, a voice shouts in slurred speech “Speak up! We can’t here you back here!” The crowd chuckles at this comment and the plaintiff continues on as before until the story is finished. The head man then turns to the accused woman to ask if this story is true.  She merely nods her head and looks solemnly at the dirt in front of her.

Isaac then asks for a recess for each side to discuss their demands. The amazing thing about this trial is that everyone from both families has come to give their support. That is largely the reason that there are so many more people in the village. The family unit is very strong in Zambia and all serious issues are decided by a family discussion. Each side goes off to a huddle for 10 minutes while the half time entertainment begins.

“He needs to apologize!” A tall man shouts as he stumbles over to another member in the drunken male section of the assembly, picks him up a foot off the ground, drops him, and slaps him in the face. Satisfied with the work he has just done, he straightens himself up, and then slowly walks back to his seat on a root under a large tree. Meanwhile his victim begins to cry. The first emotion I fell is sadness for this fellow until I realize he is just as drunk as his attacker. I lose even more sympathy when later on that day he comes by my house asking for money. The crowd is eating this up. What was supposed to be a single feature has just become a double header. What is the fine going to be? How will the headmen settle this? Is the victim going to keep crying? The last question was answered shortly as the crying man stands up and staggers off shouting something about castrating any man who tries to follow him. As the halftime entertainment finishes itself up, the attacker is called in front of the headmen and forced to pay a two chicken fine to the crying man (who has returned from his walk to get his nerve back). He has stopped crying and cracks a smile at the thought of himself being two chickens richer because of the ordeal.

Almost any problem in Zambia can be settled with some combination of livestock or corn. If a young man makes a young woman pregnant before she is married then he has to pay a fine of one cow. This is typically called “damages” here in the village. If someone’s animals eat another person’s crops from their garden, they are forced to pay a basket of corn. If a grown man makes another grown man cry by dropping him and slapping him; he has to pay two chickens. There is little cash in the village, so people just make exchanges with their animal or food “bank accounts.”

When the two sides have come to their terms, the headmen call the plaintiff’s family representative forward to ask for their request: “We, the family of the plaintiff, request 200 hundred goats from each party involved in the adultery.” The crowd gasps in unison. My friend who was helping to translate leans over and says “this is outrageous! Not even in the supreme court of the United States would they demand 400 goats as payment for adultery!” To which I smile and reply “No you’re right, they wouldn’t.”

The accused family denounces this fine as being ridiculous and the case will have to be taken to the courts in town. The village court serves as a kind of civil court for Zambia. It is a way to solve problems without having to deal with the hassle of going to the Zambian courts in the closest town. It is an efficient solution to the problem of having villages strewn around the country, with people who don’t have the means to go to a central location for judgment.

Much of this trial is about keeping the family united and saving face in front of the community. Because families rely on each other for support, both monetarily and emotionally, it is important for them to discuss events like this together.  It also better that they price the infidelity of this relationship very high so that it seems like the husband has more value. Even if the fine is rejected, at least the village knows how this family values itself. Either way, whether it is a fine for making another man cry or for adultery, 400 goats is an outrageous price to pay.