Book Reviews
| Date | 01 October 1959 |
| Published date | 01 October 1959 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1959.tb00147.x |
Book
Reviews
FAMILY
PROPERTY
AMONG
THE
YORUBAS,
by G. B. A. Coker,
Sweet
and Maxwell,
1958; 45s;pp. 314.
THIS
book, by a leading Nigerian practitioner who has now been elevated
to
the
Bench, is partly based on a dissertation which gained him a doctoral
degree at the University of London.
The
author
warns us in his preface
that
it is primarily intended for members
of
the legal profession; his warning is
justified since the method adopted generally in the work
under
review is to arrive
at
the customary law on the basis of cases which have been decided in
the
superior courts of Nigeria (more especially Lagos),
and
which have found their
way into the Nigerian law reports. Needless to say this tends to lead to a somewhat
technical
and
even piecemeal approach, since the textbook writer is unfortu-
nately
not
in a position to prescribe
what
cases come before the
courts-he
must make
the
most
of
the cases which have actually been adjudicated upon
and
the
dicta
of the judges therein; amajor point which he might like to see
judicially examined
may
therefore never receive the scrutiny of the courts.
Dr. Coker's work is thus limited by the nature of his raw material. He has,
however, felt himself free to approach his subject
rather
broadly-for
instance
he reviews once again the complicated legal position of the Lagos lands. Since
this review appears in a
Journal
primarily directed
at
those concerned with
administration in Africa, it is important to assess the work's merits from
that
angle.
The
'blurb'
on the cover
makes-as
is customary with such
documents-
somewhat sweeping claims for the utility (which is undoubted) of
Dr.
Coker's
achievement: "Essential for the Administrative Officer
and
West African
lawyer". Certainly to
the
lawyer actually in practice in
the
Western Region
of Nigeria,
and
more especially before the Lagos
High
Court, this book will be
of
considerable assistance.
The
administrative officer,
and
still more,
the
man-
in-the-street (whom in the African context one tends to think of as
'the-man
on-the-farm'),
may
find it heavy going. With the progressive elimination
of
the administrative officer from work which brings him into direct
contact
with customary courts or African customary law, the need for
an
administrator
to have a detailed knowledge of the customary law becomes less urgent.
It
is,
however, still of
great
value for him to learn more
about
the customs
and
insti-
tutions of the people he serves;
but
it
may
be
that
for this purpose he would
prefer to go to works which are more sociological in tendency.
Despite this reservation, one hopes
that
many
other of
the
author's
compar,
riots will be inspired by Dr. Coker's work to emulate him in describing other
aspects of their country's laws, customary
and
non-customary.
The
way
of
the pioneer is often
hard;
his work deserves special commendation for
that
reason.
A.N.A.
MARRIAGE
AND
THE
FAMILY
AMONG
THE
PLATEAU
OF
NORTHERN
RHODESIA
by Elizabeth Colson.
Manchester
University
Press,
on
behalf
of the Rhodes,
Livingstone Institute, 1958;42S;pp. 379.
"THE focus of this book", says Dr. Colson in her introduction, "will be upon
the
way
in which changing economic
and
general social conditions
are
im-
pinging
upon
the
Tonga
family
and
the regulation of
marriage".
Afamiliar
225
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