The continuity of moral norms, despite their rejection by
baany e biith nak koc, provides a means for people to push back against this marketised and militarised vision of spiritual power. In reassuring themselves about the limits of the power of this morally abhorrent behaviour, elders discuss how these
baany e biith will not be granted impunity by the divine. Instead, they anticipate punishment through pollution. People talk of the blood of the
baany e biith nak koc’s
children being cursed to the extent that none of their children will survive. As one elder said: ‘These
baany e biith do not have children that will survive as the blood of those they kill will come back to kill their children’.
1 Interview with man in Gogrial, July 2018.Drawing from cultural archives about killing and pollution, elders have been able to argue that the dangers of pollution of the blood from the slain are deadly and can extend through generations.
2 Interview with group of elders in Gogrial, July 2018. Elders who oppose these
baany e biith reason that even if the pollution does not immediately kill the
baany e biith it will kill their children and their deaths will prevent their powers being inherited. Therefore, in accepting money to kill, the
baany e biith lose their link to hereditary authority.
3 Interview with man in Gogrial, May 2018. This does not only kill children as individuals but also suggests that the future power of the
baany e biith will be shattered.
At the same time, this discourse remakes and asserts moral limits to the powers of the baany e biith in ways that could be said to differ from the cultural archive. The founding bany e bith, Longar, had killed with impunity when he stabbed people as they entered the river (see Chapter 1). These baany e biith who were controlled with money could no longer kill with impunity, distinguishing them from Longar and also divine claims.
In response to the baany e biith nak koc, the curse of the bany e bith is being remade by their opponents and through moral discourse as something which can potentially bring pollution to the bany e bith himself. At the same time, this is being limited to when the curse is being used as equivalent to a gun, in that it is being used for hire and for personal, not public, benefit. Therefore, ultimately, for a bany e bith to expect payment (as opposed to gifts) ends the divine power of this bany e bith.
This interpretation allows these baany e biith to be restrained by insisting on the spiritual consequences of their actions. To the extent that they are associated with hakuma and their attempted power to kill with impunity, this reinterpretation of pollution can also be seen as an insistence on the spiritual accountability of government.
As discussed in the previous chapter, the proliferation of peace meetings in Gogrial has protected the elite class from accountability for violence and predation. In these reinterpretations, those who oppose the baany e biith who are too close to government and too willing to kill, have reinterpreted pollution to allow spiritual accountability.