Barracoon: Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis

The next time Hurston visits Cudjo, she brings a basket of peaches. Cudjo’s great-granddaughters arrive at the same time, and he gives them each some peaches and sends them off to play. He tells Hurston that the reason he grows sugarcane in his garden is so that he always has something sweet to give the girls when they visit. That day Cudjo shows Hurston his entire garden, but doesn’t say anything about himself.

Coming another day, Hurston brings a bottle of insect repellant. This time, Cudjo is eager to talk to her, and he resumes his story where he left off, by talking about the situations with which his grandfather was faced as an officer of the king, Akia’on. He says that, customarily, any man who kills a leopard must bring it to the king, who takes the animal’s poisonous whiskers as well as some organs, which are used to make medicine. If anyone kills the leopard and takes the whiskers for himself, it’s understood that he wants to poison someone.

One day, a man kills a leopard, covers its head and ties its body to a pole, and carries it to Akia’on. When the king looks at the leopard’s face, he sees that it is missing its whiskers. The king and the chiefs interrogate the man as to how he killed the leopard and where the whiskers are, but the man claims to know nothing, and says he doesn’t want to kill anyone. However, when the chiefs search the man they find that he’s carrying the hairs hidden on his person.

All day Akia’on and the chiefs talk about the case, and the next day they find the man guilty of attempted poisoning and sentence him to execution. The man is imprisoned and left until the next festival day, when executions normally take place. On that day, the man is brought to a “place of sacrifice” where the king and all the chiefs are assembled. The drums start beating and three executioners perform a traditional dance, singing about their duty to “kill him who would kill the innocent.”

When Akia’on gives a signal, one of the executioners chops off the man’s head. His body is buried, but his head is displayed alongside the heads of other criminals.

The king only adjudicates major crimes like murder, leaving minor issues like adultery to the local chiefs. Cudjo says that “everything be done open here,” meaning that every crime is addressed in the presence of the entire community.

For example, Cudjo remembers a case where one man has murdered another with a spear. The man is arrested and carried to the marketplace, while messengers summon Akia’on to come and deliberate on the case. In the meantime, the elders coat the dead man with a special paste so his body doesn’t decompose before the king examines him. Everyone in the village keeps vigil over the dead man by night, eating and drinking.

When Akia’on finally arrives, the local chief kills some livestock in his honor and the trial begins. Both the dead man and the murderer are placed in the market, where everyone can see them. Asked why he killed the man, the murderer replies that “de man work juju against him” and caused the death of his child. The king reprimands him, saying that he should have come to the chiefs rather than handling matters himself. After all, there are laws to punish people who “work juju.”

All day, the chiefs ask the murderer questions. Cudjo notes that, unlike in America, Africans can’t use insanity as a defense in criminal trials. Eventually, the king pronounces that the man is guilty and sentences him to execution. Just as before, the drums begin to beat and the executioner dances around the murderer and touches the man’s neck three times, whereupon other men grab the murderer and tie him face-to-face to the dead man.

Cudjo explains that when the executioner touched the man, he declared him dead in the eyes of the community, even though he isn’t physically dead yet. The chiefs leave the man tied directly to the corpse, while everyone goes about their business. Sometimes, if the culprit is very strong, he might be able to walk a short distance with the body, but more often he lies in the market square until he dies. If he asks anyone for water or help, the people don’t listen to him, saying “How can a dead man want to be loose?” Usually, the murderer doesn’t live long; Cudjo says grimly that “no man kin stand de smell in his nostrils of a rotten man.”