The Lion-Men of Tanganyika
| Author | W. J. Cannon |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X5903200107 |
| Published date | 01 January 1959 |
| Date | 01 January 1959 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
W.
J.
CANNON,
F.G.S.
Detective Superintendent,
C.ID.
Technical Wing, Tanganyika
Police Force
The
Lion-Men
of
Tanganyika
In Court
TELL THE ACCUSED to rise and look upon me.
You, Selemani, son of Malugu, you, Kitundu, son of Mnyawi,
you, Sita, daughter of Zatio and you, Gio, daughter of Gokwe, are
charged
that
you did, sometime during the last quarter of 1956, in
the Lalta Sambaro area, at the border of the Kondoa and Singida
Districts, in the Central Province, conspire together to kill one
Goma Mando, and
You, Sita, daughter of Zatio and you, Gio, daughter of Gokwe are
further charged along with you, Mkhandi, son of Asi alias Mtengere
alias Muna with, on a certain day during the month of December,
1956, at Kipala Village, Lalta area, Kondoa District, in the Central
Province, the murder of one Mwajuma, daughter of Kale.
Thus opened the most amazing and in many ways the most
horrible murder trial in which it has been my fortune to participate.
The scene itself would have seemed bizarre to the eyes of any
U.K. Police Officer or, for that matter, to any U.K. Jurist, for the
Court room was little better than a shed some thirty feet long by
eighteen feet broad with a shallow dais running across its breadth
at one end. On this dais there was a bench or desk at which sat the
Judge with three African Assessors on his right hand; draped across
the front of the Judge's desk was a Union Jack, beneath which sat
the African Clerk of the Court at a large table, on which were dis-
played all manner of objects, labelled and unlabelled, and a motley
collection of jars, tins, bottles and boxes containing the exhibits in
the case. Facing the Clerk, from left to right, were the prosecuting
advocate, the Assistant Superintendent of Police assisting in the
prosecution. the defence advocate appearing for Mkhandi
Asi-or
Muna as he was called throughout the
trial-and
the advocates
appearing for the two women. To the right and slightly in front of
the prosecutor was the witness box, a railed-in enclosure four feet
by five, with a narrow ledge or shelf running the length of the longer
side facing the judge, upon which was scattered atattered and
battered assortment of holy books, the Koran being most prominent
28 The Police Journal
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