The African continent represents a region which faces economic problems of the utmost severity at a time when the global economy itself is ravaged by inflation, unemployment and the effects of a world recession. Africa contains 21 of the world's 45 least-developed nations. Its total Gross National Product accounts for only 2·7 per cent. of the world's Product and Africa has the lowest average per capita income in the world. Many African countries lack basic medical and health care facilities while food shortages and severe unemployment affect a very high proportion of African peoples. Internal African development strategies of the past have been subjected to critical investigation in an attempt to assess the sources of the continent's development problems. Despite its vast natural resources and the praiseworthy efforts of many African governments, the continent as a whole (excluding South Africa) is unable to show any significant economic expansion or growth.

The 1980 Lagos Plan of Action represents the most recent initiative undertaken by the Organisation of African Unity (O.A.U.) in conjunction with the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa (E.C.A.) to develop a successful regional strategy for African development. It aims at economic growth in each individual African state in different sectors including food and agriculture, industry and in environmental and energy matters. It adopts specific as well as general targets with time limits, for each aspect of economic planning.

An excellent documentation of the twentieth century history of the Sharī'a in Sudan is contained within the Judicial Circulars which have been issued from the office of the Grand Qadi from 1902–1979. During the colonial period and in the post-independence period the Circulars provided a unique means for modifying the adapting Sharī'a law in the Sudan, drawing on opinions of the Hanafī and Mālikī schools of juristic interpretation.

These Circulars and Memoranda are, in fact, basic to an understanding of the practice and application of the Sharī'a law in the Sudan. It is with these Circulars that I began my study of Sharī'a law and it is because of their importance that they were translated for my own work and in the hope that they may shortly be offered to students of the law of the Sudan who lack proficiency in the Arabic language.

German scholars contributed an impressive amount to many different disciplines in their studies of German East Africa and other German colonies, particularly between about 1890 and 1910. Much research was undertaken and a considerable amount was published. Then, after the First World War, when Germany lost her colonies, some valuable work was abandoned. One important project which suffered was the collection of data on customary law in the former German colonies. The sets of answers to a questionnaire were the main source used in compiling a large two volume study, Das Eingeborenenrecht (1929 and 1930), which is available in research libraries outside Germany. However, the original printed sets of answers are a more valuable source of ethnographic and legal data than the book; but they are little known and appear to have been generally unavailable outside Germany and Tanganyika. Rhodes House Library, Oxford, now has a copy of the original German questionnaire and a microfilm of the sets of answers for German East Africa. The purpose of this article is to explain how the original German research project developed, to present an English translation of the final version of the questionnaire (see Appendix A, below), a check list of the most important facts about each of the sets of answers collected in German East Africa (see Appendix B, below), and a brief assessment of the value of this data.

This research is interesting when it is seen from any of the following points of view;

When discussing rules or modes of conduct, Tswana generally referred to them collectively as mekgwa lemelao (plural forms respectively of mokgwa and molao; le- is a conjunctive formative). In the standard Tswana dictionary, mokgwa is defined as “a custom, a habit, a peculiarity”, and molao as “a law”; and when used together in a single phrase they were usually translated “custom(s) and law(s)” or, since the word order was flexible, “Law(s) and custom(s)”. The following are some examples, taken from written texts:

In a Malete case (27.1938), a widow claimed and was awarded her late husband's cattle, but the judge told her that, kamokgwa lemolao waSeiswana, “according to Tswana custom and law”, she could not take them with away from her husband's ward.

The purpose of this article is to trace the development of some aspects of the law of Kenya, commencing with the colonial period (Part I) and then considering the reforms in the post-independence era (Part II). Part III deals with the setting up of the Law Reform Commission in 1982 and considers some of the subjects which it might deal with.

This paper is concerned with the relationship that exists between Customary and Common law in Botswana. Does it promote conflict or concord? This will be explored with reference to the general relationship between the two systems and in the particular context of marriage, divorce and division of property. One may argue for the conflict approach if one views the systems as ppositional or one may argue that there is concord by acquiescence, given the subordinate position occupied by Customary law within the national legal system of Botswana. The aim of this paper is to do neither, but rather, to show that “duality” with its implications of separateness is inappropriate, that the two systems are linked and have a symbiotic relationship, one which involves a process of mutual adaptation. The aim of this paper is to show that any conflict or concord that exists should not be defined in terms of systems viewed as independent isolated units or in terms of labels such as “Common” or “Customary” law but rather in terms of values which relate to mode of life and attach themselves to certain kinds of property. Within the national legal system of Botswana Customary and Common law co-exist. Customary law is defined as being “in relation to any particular tribe or tribal community the customary law of that tribe or tribal community so far s it is not incompatible with the provisions of any written law or contrary tomorality, humanity or natural justice”.

The 1982 Report on the Law of Succession (the Report) was the first report to be published by the Law Development Commission (the Commission) sinceit was established in 1974. This almost certainly indicates the importance which the government of Zambia attaches to the reform of the law of succession, and perhaps marks a change of attitude on its part towards customary law, which could also have implications for the law of marriage and divorce. Statements by government ministers indicate that legislation along the lines proposed by the Commission is likely in the near future. It seems appropriate, therefore, to appraise these proposals and to compare them with reforms carried out elsewhere in Commonwealth Africa.

John Whittow in a recent book observes that droughts, unlike an earthquake, a tsunami or an avalanche do not suddenly appear in a dramatic fashion hitting the newspaper headlines of an unsuspecting world. Drought, he says, is slow and insidious, a creeping death which gradually paralyses entire nations and changes the course of history.

That is how it seems Ghana was taken unawares by the recent prolonged droughts that have been affecting the country since the early part of 1982. Until then, people in Ghana had taken for granted constant water supplies, uninterrupted supply of electricity and other energy resources, principally from the Volta hydroelectric dam—the largest man-made lake in the world—feeling secure in the mistaken belief that drought comes only to the geographically arid or semi-arid parts of the world.