THE CASE

TROUBLE CASE: Musa and the "Vacant" Land

Section 1: Musa, the head of a large household was walking out in the bush one day and noticed that a large field which had not been cultivated for a long time seemed to be very fertile. His family was so large that he needed another field, and he was determined to get it.

Section 2: Musa decided that he and his brothers and sons would simply go out to the field the next day and clear and plant it. That's what they did. But as they were working Iliya came up and asked Musa why he and his family were working on Iliya's family field. Musa and his sons got so angry at Iliya that they beat him, and he retreated.

Section 3: Iliya went straight to Sarki, who had been his father's ubangida (patron), pleading with him that he affirm Iliya's right to the field, and to make Musa stop his farming. Sarki said that he would consider the issue.

Section 4: Meanwhile, Musa who held the title of President of the local section of the dominant political party, and whose son worked as an agricultural agent for the government, went to the village headman (maigari) with his problem. He took maigari a present of a horse, and he offered to send his sons out to cultivate maigari's peanut field. Then he asked maigari to settle the dispute in his favor.

Section 5: Maigari agreed to hold a hearing ( a moot) that very afternoon. At the hearing he announced that since Iliya's family had left the field uncultivated for so long, the land had reverted back to maigari's family, since it was maigari's family that had founded the village. As the "owner" of the land, he could give it to whomever he pleased, and so he gave it to Malam Musa.

Section 6: lliya, still very unhappy, refused to accept Maigari's decision and went again to see sarki. He spent an hour talking about how sarki had been a good "father" to his father, and how that made lliya sarki's son. Sarki responded that there was nothing that he could do, and he told lliya that if he wanted to, he could go to the Sous-Prefet (the representative of the national government who had administrative responsibility for the area)

Section 7: Meanwhile, Musa went to the District town. He stopped at the office of his son who worked for the government Agricultural Service. Then he went to talk to both the President of the CDS Party in the District and to the head of the Agricultural Service about his problem. He asked both to help. Both agreed to support his case.

Section 8: The next day Iliya came to the District town as well. First he stopped to see his patron, El Hadji Yaro, a wealth merchant and asked him to try to influence the Sous-Prefet about the land dispute. El Hadji Yaro did go see the new Sous-Prefet who was a CDS appointee at that time.  The Sous Prefet was cordial, but promised him nothing.  Then Illiya went to see the Sous-Prefet himself.  The Sous-Prefet kept him waiting for several hours and eventually refused to see him. After a while a guard came out and told Iliya that he would have to deal with sarki before he could see the Sous-Prefet.

Section 9: Frustrated and angry, Iliya returned home and grumbled a lot in the village about how corrupt Maigari, Sarki, and the Sous-Prefet were, and how unfair it was to take away his family's land.

Section 10: The next day lliya went to a man known to be a sorcerer, and asked him to give him "medicine" that would make Malam Musa's new field barren.