What does 'lynching' mean?

This may sound dumb, particularly to Americans, but it wasn't until a few years back in East Africa that I learnt the meaning of the word 'lynching'. Historically, lynching has been very rare in Australia, so I was unfamiliar with the term.

Staying at a backpacker hostel in Nairobi, Kenya, myself and another Aussie guy decided to go and see the World Cup qualifying match between Kenya and Guinea. Watching the match in this foreign land was a lot of fun, and it was great to see the excited Kenyan fans cheering their team on.

After the match, as we were exiting the stadium a bloody-faced man burst through the crowd, running right by us. You could see fear on his face, and before he disappeared behind us into the stadium, a nearby police officer gave him a light whack to the body with his baton. About 30 meters ahead of us outside the stadium, in the same direction the bloody-faced man had come from, a portion of the exiting crowd surged onto a grassy field. They were running, chasing. Some fist-sized rocks flew into the air ahead of the surging crowd, but why? Was this some soccer hooligan violence, or a gang fight? It didn't seem so as the crowd quickly stopped surging, and the rocks stopped flying. Intrigued, we decided to investigate the ruckus.

The crowd seemed to be encircling something. As we pushed through, we came to see the target of the rocks lying on his back, arms beside him. His face wasn't obviously bloodied like the other guy, but there was no struggle in him. He couldn't have been dead yet, as only seconds had passed, but he was unconscious. Some small rocks from the crowd hit into his limp body. Then a man, dressed in trousers and a shirt, the way many Kenyans dress, unwedged a large, half-exposed, rugby ball-sized rock from the ground. Lifting the rock with both his hands to head height, he threw it down onto the victim's chest. Too afraid to intervene, we watched in horror. This was a lynching.

We left immediately. Walking home, a man in a business suit told us that the victim was almost certainly a thief, and that he deserved what he got. He asked us if we had been the target of the thief. We hadn't. He had asked, as white faces in this part of the world mean money, and we were the only white faces around.

The lynching of thieves in Kenya is not uncommon. Kenya is poor, and with its inadequate police and judicial system, citizens often take justice into their own hands, sometimes brutally. So how unfortunate was I to see this? I don't really know, but I did meet another backpacker who'd had a worse experience in Uganda. Sadly for him and his mate, it was their cell phone that was grabbed, and they who had innocently pursued and screamed at the teenage thief, and they who had to witness a mob kill the kid. Be careful about yelling 'thief' in some parts of Africa, as you may in some small way be responsible for someone's death.

So why would anyone in Kenya risk stealing a wallet or cell phone when they could be killed? In many parts of Africa the answer is right in your face: desperation. Unless you visit Africa the '5 Star Way', the sick, the poor, people with nothing in the world, cannot go unnoticed. A couple of months earlier, not 5km from the soccer stadium, I had visited a very desperate place. Kibera is one of Africa's largest slums. In this area of Nairobi up to a million people densely live, without running water, amongst their own rubbish, sewage and shit. Maybe the lynched guy was from here.

Kibera. A quarter of Nairobi's population lives here, in less than 1% of Nairobi's total area.

Two things really struck me during the lynching, the first of which may seem weird. When the large rock came down on the man's chest, it bounced. Our air-filled lungs and cartliaged rib cage must give a lot of spring. I'm unsure why, but the bounce surprised me. The second thing that struck me, was the intense excitement. This mob, consisting mostly of men, were so excited to be killing. The only important differences between us (people from rich nations) and Kenyans are social. In different circumstances this could be some of us, or at least people we know, excitedly killing a thief. It's human. I feel lucky to live in a society where this behaviour almost never has a chance to be expressed by anyone.

To say the least, the lynching wasn't a pleasant experience, but overall my journey to East Africa was amazing. It's a beautiful, interesting part of the world, and there are loads of kind, friendly people to be met. Most importantly East Africa really opened my eyes to a lot of things. I learnt much, much more than just what 'lynching' meant.

Contact with Christianity

I’ve met a variety of peoples in my travels, but not until I moved to South Korea to teach English did I come into close contact with real church-going Christians. Amazing! Not only do these people believe in a big invisible alpha male in the sky, but they also regularly attend organized worship at a church!

Of course I’ve met Christians before. At least one of my mates back home believes in the Christian god, but he never goes to church. In my home city I couldn’t tell you where a church is. Christianity is the past where I’m from, the religion of my grandparents and ancestors. Despite this 'loss,' our godless society hasn’t suffered from damnation. Things are good. There are plenty of happy, moral people about. We just don’t do God.

South Korea is unlike my almost-churchless, western home. With an obscured view from the roof of my old workplace I could see no less than 12 church crosses amongst the city’s buildings. Back home, I heard jokes about bible bashers knocking on your door, but here it actually happens. Some of my Korean co-workers, seemingly trying to connect with me, have bragged about how they go to church every Sunday. "It’s so weird," I think to myself, “you're Asian and you're practicing my grandmother’s religion. We are nowhere near Jerusalem, Rome, or any western nation, and you're Christian?”

A Korean Jesus descending from Heaven.

Only slightly funnier than a white Jesus!

In fact, Korea is the Christian heart of Asia, with Christianity now being the nation's biggest religion. A lot of Koreans have abandoned their traditional belief in the supernatural Buddhism to believe in the supernatural Christianity, though almost 50% of Koreans, like me, have no religion. The sudden rise of Christianity here over the last few decades must have inspired a lot of confusion. In conversation, one of Korea's recent Christian converts, my friend Ms. Lee, told me that for marriage to be legitimate it must involve the Church and God. She had learnt this at bible study. When I said that she, therefore, must believe that her Buddhist parents are not legitimately married, she replied that they were, and refused to continue discussing the point. Maybe confusion is not the word; rather Christianity has inspired Koreans to non-think.

I've also come into contact with plenty of church-going Westerners here. This contact is possible as many of my fellow foreign English teachers are from Jesusland, otherwise known as the USA. The USA is the only nation with a rich, well-educated populace in which a majority still believes in a deity, and whose influence is largely responsible for Korea embracing the invisible Father. I doubt that young adults from Christian families are encouraged to travel as much as their non-religious counterparts, but I do wonder if Korea's Christian-ness attracts church-going believers. I mean, if you want to teach English abroad and surf, you don’t move to Mongolia. And if you want to teach English abroad and go to church every Sunday, you don’t move to China. Maybe I'm right. My girlfriend's American friend will only live in a Korean city with Catholic services in English.

So what are these church-goers like? For the most part they are nice, friendly people. Regular folk whom you can enjoy talking to, dining with, and playing sport with. People whom you can become mates with. They don’t push their beliefs upon you. It’s just that occasionally they do things that I consider a little weird, like talk about an invisible man in the sky, go to church, or talk to themselves before a meal, but it’s no problem. I have however met a few who have shocked me. The most devout of these was a graduate of Christian studies from a religious institution. At times she would vent her hatred towards other religions, mainly the 'Satan-worshipping' Islam, and other types of Christianity such as Catholicism. Her hatred did not stem from personal events in her life, but rather was learned from her bible studies.

Certainly, a few of the godly English teachers I've met here are just downright crazy. However, this may have nothing to do with their strong religious views, as there are just as many non-religious crazies here too. Close contact with this variety of people is something I have done without.