Two Kpelle Men
A sad story is told of two Kpelle men (a tribe in Bong County of Central Liberia), who could not speak the English language.
It happened that one day, the two men decided to travel to Monrovia, the capital city, to
purchase farming tools.
Unfortunately for both men, each of them only knew the words "Yes" and "No".
With these two words under their control, they decided to travel together. They traveled across towns and villages until they reached the provincial city of Kakata just 45 miles west of Monrovia. There, they met a police man at an intersection of a road directing traffic.
When the officer asked the two as to whether they were crossing the road to the other side, they jointly responded with a chorus of "No". They then passed on and headed southward until they reached Careyburg where they came upon a group of onlookers around a corpse .
Several parts of the dead man were missing and concerns were that some evil men had committed this gruesome and barbaric act. The popular demand was that those responsible for the carnage must be arrested and prosecuted.
It was during the search for the killers that the two Kpelle men arrived.
Unable to effectively communicate with people in English, they looked somehow frightful and suspicious. This prompted the police on the scene of the crime to ask: "Are you the
ones who killed this poor man in cold blood and extracted key parts of his body?"
The two men again responded in unison: "Yes"
They were immediately arrested, taken to court, prosecuted and hanged to death.
Submitted By: Cyrenius Cephus
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