A little while back, Seth and I attended a Compensation that was happening in our community. To give you a little of the backstory, about 8 months ago a man was killed down at the end of our road. There was an altercation between some guys from our community and a guy from another area. The guy from the other area got killed. When that happens in this culture, one of two things can happen. The two communities can start a tribal fight. Or the offending community will pay compensation to the other group. Luckily, no one wanted to start a fight, so for 6 months, our community had been gathering money in preparation for this day.
So what is the price of the life of a young man? In this case, it was K140,000 ($70,000), just under a hundred pigs, 2 goats, 2 horses, and 7 cows.
K75,000 of the money was given in a lump sum to the immediate family of the deceased. The rest of the money was divided out to different family groups.
Passing the K75,000 from community leader to community leader.
Handing out the rest of the money.
They also had the mother and brother of the deceased come sit in the middle of the area. Then a lot of the community paraded past them dropping of whatever money they could give ( mostly K2 or K5 bills).
Dropping of money to the mother and brother.
Overall, it was a very interesting thing to watch.
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