The Uncertainty In The Parentage Of Offspring May Seem To Be Such A
Utilitarian Underlying Principle, But, On The Other
Hand, it does
not sufficiently explain the varied forms of the law of inheritance,
for in some tribes the eldest
Or most influential son does succeed
to his father's wealth; in other places you have the peculiar custom
of the chief slave inheriting. I think, from these things, that the
underlying idea in inheritance of property is the desire to keep the
wealth of "the house," i.e. estate, together, and if it were allowed
to pass into the hands of weak people, like women and young
children, this would not be done. Another strong argument against
the theory that it arises from the doubtful relationship of the son,
is that certain ju-ju always go to the son of the chief wife, if he
is old enough, at the time of the father's death, even in those
tribes where the wealth goes elsewhere.
Certain tribes acknowledge the right of the women and children to
share in the dead man's wealth, given that these are legally married
wives, or the children of legally married wives; it is so in
Cameroons, for example. An esteemed friend of mine who helps to
manage things for the Fatherland down there was trying a palaver the
other day with a patience peculiar to him, and that intelligent and
elaborate care I should think only a mind trained on the methods of
German metaphysicians could impart into that most wearisome of
proceedings, wherein every one says the same thing over fourteen
different times at least, with a similar voice and gesture, the only
variation being in the statements regarding the important points,
and the facts of the case, these varying with each individual. This
palaver was made by a son claiming to inherit part of his father's
property; at last, to the astonishment, and, of course, the horror,
of the learned judge, the defendant, the wicked uncle, pleaded
through the interpreter, "This man cannot inherit his father's
property, because his parents married for love." There is no
encouragement to foolishness of this kind in Cameroon, where legal
marriage consists in purchase.
In Bonny River and in Opobo the inheritance of "the house" is
settled primarily by a vote of the free men of the house; when the
chief dies, their choice has to be ratified by the other chiefs of
houses; but in Bonny and Opobo the white traders have had immense
influence for a long time, so one cannot now find out how far this
custom is purely native in idea.
Among the Fans the uncle is, as I have before said, an important
person although the father has more rights than among the Igalwa,
and here I came across a peculiar custom regarding widows. M. Jacot
cited to me a similar case or so, one of which I must remark was in
an Ajumba town. The widows were inside the dead husband's hut, as
usual; the Fan huts are stoutly built of sheets of flattened bark,
firmly secured together with bark rope, and thatched - they never
build them in any other way except when they are in the bush rubber-
collecting or elephant-hunting, when they make them of the branches
of trees.
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