Two days ago I was walking back from my teammates’, Heinrich and Doris , house when all of a sudden, a trickle of Munu Miji (the warrior ruling class) started to tear by. They were running full-force out into the Guum (“valley”), carrying their AK-47s and knifes and spears, looking all serious and hardcore. They wouldn’t even stop to greet me, even when I demanded it.
I asked the women what was going on, and they just said the Munu Miji were having a meeting. And they were going to shoot people with guns. Super! As I pried more about it and the men kept flying by, the women began to shut me out. I’d ask the men, “What are you doing?” And they’d say to the men, “Say, ‘Nothing.’ “
Tricky, tricky.
Last December, our group of villages go into a little spat with a neighboring village. The Governor ended up sending in some soldiers, taking away all the guns and threatening prison to anyone who was stirring up fighting. They also were made aware of the threat—if you fight, the missionary people leave. And they somehow don’t want that. So, yeah, we haven’t had any problems since then, but I this was on the back of my mind as I saw all these guys running like mad.
But, don’t worry, like I said, this has a funny ending.
They had sounded an alarm for a meeting, and none of the men knew what it was about, so they just went nuts and ran to the meeting place with their guns, sometimes shooting them off.
The actual purpose for the meeting, however, was because of a decree they’d received from the Governor—there was to be no shooting of guns.
The irony of that makes me laugh, certainly when I think of the stern faces tearing by, looking excited about getting into a fight.
Seriously, sometimes I think the Munu Miji are at their best lounging around the villages demanding their women to serve them and beating them if they don’t.
That looks a little like this.
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