There Is Naturally No Statute Of
Limitations In West Africa, Because The African Does Not Care A Row
Of Pins About Time.
The wily A. will let his slave woman live with
B. without claiming the redemption fees as they become due - letting
them stand over, as it were, at compound interest.
All the male as
well as the female children of the first generation are A.'s
property, and all the female children of these children are his
property even unto the second and third generation and away into
eternity. A. may die before he puts in his claim, in which case the
ownership passes on into the hands of his heir or assignees, who may
foreclose at once, on entering into their heritage, or may again let
things accumulate for their heirs. Anyhow, sooner or later the
foreclosure comes and then there is trouble. X., Y., Z., etc., free
men, have married some of the original A.'s slave woman's
descendants. They have either bought them right out, or kept on
conscientiously redeeming children of theirs as they arrived. Of
course A., or his heirs, contend that X., Y., Z., etc. have been
wasting time and money by so doing, because the people X., Y., Z.
have paid the money to had no legal title to the women. Of course
X., Y., Z. contend that their particular woman, or her ancestress,
was duly redeemed from the legal owner.
Remember there is no documentary evidence available, and squads of
equally reliable and oldest inhabitants are swearing hard - all both
ways.
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