What comes to mind when you hear the word jungle? Does your mind think about the numerous animals living helplessly without any form of law or guideline towards how they should co-exist or do you just think of a heavily dense forest filled with different kinds of trees, grasses and even flowers not forgetting the uncountable number of insects? One major characteristic of a jungle is its lawless nature. This means that an animal can kill another animal without fear of getting arrested by the authorities. The jungle I am referring to in this article is different from the usual jungle we know. It is the jungle of humans where anything and everything happens and no one raises an eyebrow as to ask the questions why, how and when.
In our world today especially in Africa, jungle justice has become a way of life that when it happens, everybody goes about their normal business as if nothing happens. For the benefit of those who do not understand what jungle justice means, I will try to throw more light on it.
Jungle justice is a combination of two words that do not co-exist. Let me rephrase, it is like keeping a lion and a goat in one room, the outcome is already known even before they two are kept together. The word justice is a word that every single person has used in one way or the other. I remember the time of George Floyd’s (may his rest in peace) case how people were shouting for justice on the streets of not just America but in the whole world. We fought for justice in so many ways and yet it seemed like the justice we wanted was not served.
I am among the school of thought that believes that justice denied is injustice served and I can say that it is sometimes served on a gold plate. Having looked at the words justice and jungle let me merge them to create a better understanding for my readers.
Is it possible to pour both hot and cold water in a cup and still get the water hot as it was initially? That is what it looks like when we carry out jungle justice on anyone at any time. Now jungle justice is nothing other than when someone or people take laws into their hands. For instance, a thief is caught in the act and the community members lash at him by beating him so mercilessly and even killing him either through the beating or by burning him after beating him.
When this is happening every single person has this mindset that if they can kill this thief publicly without handing him over to the authorities, others will learn and desist from stealing but something happens. When a community kills a thief by taking the law in their hands, the community may end up killing an innocent person who was just set up by others who had the intentions of getting him killed for their selfish interest. It could be that the young man has a girl who is madly in love with him while another guy is trying so hard to get the same girl to love him. This could lead to such setups as a way to get the young man who the girl loves out of the way.
When this happens, they would have ended up killing an innocent man just because he was set up by others and the worst thing about jungle justice is that the accused is not allowed to defend himself. The moment he is caught, the beatings will start without any form of questioning to ascertain the truth. A lot of people have lost their lives through this process and many are still losing their lives daily in Africa through jungle justice. If you kill a man because he stole from you or your neighbour, how does that make you a better person? You are even worse than he who stole from you because he is seen and known to be a thief while you have become a killer.
Our society has suffered a very bad blow when it comes to the killing of innocent people through jungle justice because we have ended up killing a person who might turn out to be the saviour of the community but because we did not give him the chance to defend himself, he is brutally murdered.
For me, jungle justice is worst than any crime one can think of because it removes the human sanity which is what makes us different from animals. One thing we must understand is that for a society to be seen as a civilized environment, the law must be allowed to take its course even though most times the law deals out injustice. We should not allow the condition of our environment to push us into taking the life of another based on jungle justice because even the holy book forbids the taken of another man’s life. There is no justice in the jungle rather whatever that is done in the jungle will completely result in injustice. Whether a thief is caught right in the act or not, we should be able to allow the thief to speak for himself because we may end up knowing that he did that just to save his dying parent or sibling. Once this person is brutally killed, we will never know the motive behind his action and this will make it impossible for us to make a proper judgment on how to help one another out of problems that may lead them into stealing and other social vices. Say no to jungle justice.
