Homicide

=**Homicide**=
 * Homicide was a serious offense against the earth goddess.
 * Criminal justice systems varied, especially in regard to how lawbreakers were punished.
 * Most Igbo groups would hang a murderer, in certain towns though a husband who killed his wife was hanged, while a woman who killed her co-wife was not hanged, because both women belonged to the same man.
 * If a murder occurred in pre-colonial times, some people might seize the property of the murderer and destroy his house. If he ran away, they might hold his relatives hostage until the murderer was brought in and hanged.
 * In other areas, if a murder escaped, a waiting periods of three or more years was allowed, after which his lineage paid a fine and gave one of their daughters to the family of the dead man.
 * Accidental homicide might attract a lighter punishment, but no killing ever went unpunished.
 * Killing was permitted only during war, but combatants made every effort to keep casualties to the minimum. Even in war killing another was a transgression against the earth goddess.
 * When men returned from war, they performed claborate rituals before they could rejoin their lineages.
 * Rivers, streams, lakes, and rain had life-sustaining qualities, and symbolized purity, cleanliness, coolness, freshness, fertility, and longevity. The water spirits were important deities. With water, the Igbo washed away evil and uncleanness.