Introduction

Although the interaction between the western colonizers and the African indigenous populations in the early eighteenth and nineteenth centuries produced responses that were mostly inimical to the development of African customary law, the thrust of the onslaught against its principles was somewhat diminished by political considerations. Undoubtedly, the significance that African customary law acquired during this period was a measure of the purpose that the colonial project found in it. In the British-controlled areas especially, such a purpose was coterminous with the demands of indirect rule that saw the native administrators, mainly the chiefs, being coopted into the colonial civil service, and dualism being entrenched into the legal system. Nonetheless, the colonial project, based on racist and pluralistic foundations, still manifested clear goals of civilizing the “native” and gradually phasing out what it perceived to be “primitive” law. To achieve the dual purpose of civilizing the native and, at the same time, maintaining the political hold on the territories, the colonial project adopted an approach that sought a reinvention of African customary law so that its principles could support the smooth operation of the colonial justice systems. In some countries, this necessitated the codification or restatement of customary laws.