"Exerts from Buck’s Diary"

This is an account of an event in Adadentem in January 1883. As they came to the town through the forest they heard an enormous uproar, and when Buck appeared the people immediately ran to him for an opinion on their argument and he had to remind them that he should be sat down, formal greetings exchanged, and palm wine drunk. The question turned out to be whether a young man reaching the age to look after himself, should first make a farm or first build a house. Buck gives the summary of the arguments which he heard when he offered to arbitrate – the case of God giving Adam a farm but no house was cited by one side. He preserved the story apparently as an example of what people in A Africa spend their time doing.

Text