Question

The District Commissioner levies a fine of 200 bags of cowries for the crime, yet the messengers collect 250 bags from the villagers. Why

Answer 1

Answer:

Extra 50 bags were collected by the messengers.

Step-by-step explanation:

a) Number of bags of cowries levied as fine by the District Commissioner = 200 bags

Number of bags of cowries collected by the messengers = 250 bags

The difference or extra bags collected above the authorized fine = 50 (250 - 200)

b) The extra 50 bags could be bribes collected by the messengers to settle their own selfish interests.  They could also represent extras freely donated by the villagers for the messengers' trouble.  In the colonial days, when literacy levels were very low among the indigenous peoples of Africa and white men were in charge of governance, it was established that the black "middlemen," called interpreters or messengers, greatly exploited their own people through inflated and wrongful interpretations of fines, contrary to what was levied by the District Commissioners (DCs).