BOOKS AND ARTICLES
| Date | 01 October 1955 |
| Published date | 01 October 1955 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1955.tb00115.x |
198
JOURNAL
OF
AFRICAN
ADMINISTRATION
application should be limited, as far as possible, to
matters
in which
custom~ry
law will
constitute
a
supplementary
body
of law
and
will
not
involve adualIsm
of laws
by
overlapping
with
the
general law in
the
same sphere of operation.
2.
In
view of
the
fundamental
changes of outlook
and
material
circumstances
which are characteristic of modern Africa,
not
only in
urban
and
industnal
areas,
but
also in
tribal
areas,
customary
law
cannot
meet
the
needs of African
society in
the
future, even within
the
limits mentioned above,
without
under-
going
substantial
adaptation.
3. Although
native
law
and
custom are primarily based on practice
and
usage,
they
are also in
part
the
product
of indigenous legislative authorities
and
the
decisions of
the
courts. There is no objection to recourse still being
had
to these two sources of law,
but
care
must
be
taken
that
any
change so intro-
duced is
supported
by
an
adequate
body
of African opinion in
the
territories
concerned.
In
matters
of legislation
the
principal role should be assigned to
local legislative bodies where such exist,
and
particularly to
traditional
and
tribal
bodies,
the
intervention of
any
superior legislature remaining
the
excep-
tion.
In
the
administration of justice reliance should be placed on
the
activity
of
the
courts to promote
the
gradual
development of
customary
law without
prejudice to
its
spirit
and
essential
nature.
But
this
activity
must
be co-
ordinated
and
consist in
the
formulation of new rules
by
means of
interpretation
and
deduction,
rather
than
the
introduction of sudden
and
radical
changes-
which should remain
the
task
of
the
legislature.
4.
If
customary
law is to be a dynamic factor in
the
future
progress of
African peoples, it
must
not
be isolated from
the
main
stream
of justice as
administered in
the
territory.
Thus
the
administration of
customary
law should
not
be regarded as a function exclusively reserved for a certain class of courts.
This means
that
the
legal training given to Africans concerned
with
the
administration of justice should be extended,
that
the
supervision of African
courts
should be
entrusted
to officers especially qualified
by
their
knowledge
and
experience,
and
that
those exercising
any
judicial functions in
the
territory
should, as far as possible, have some knowledge of
customary
law.
BOOKS AND ARTICLES
African
Crossroads,
by
Sir Charles
Dundas.
Macmillan;
1955;
18s., pp. 243.
Sir Charles
Dundas
started
his career in
the
Colonial Administrative Service
in 1908 when he was posted to
the
Kitui District of
Kenya
and
in
the
course
of
the
next
thirty-seven years held high office,first in
Tanganyika
and
Northern
Rhodesia
and
then
as Governor in
Bahamas
and
Uganda. As Lord Harlech
says in his foreword, Sir
Charles'
fell' for tropical Africa
and
for Africans every-
where
and
so earned
not
only their
trust
but
affection. He was speeded on
his career
by
Sir Winston Churchill who told him
that
he was going to " a life
into
which ayoung
man
can
put
his whole
heart
and
soul." Surely his reward
for such a life came when
the
Chagga tribe of Kilimanjaro, whose
trust
he
had
won when he was their district commissioner
and
whose prosperity he
had
founded, invited him to visit
them
at
their
expense from his retirement in
Cape Town
and
to
lay
the
foundation stone of
the
headquarters building of
the
Kilimanjaro
Native
Coffee Growers Union
at
Moshi?
In
African
Crossroads Sir Charles in his light
attractive
style tells us something
of his experiences in
the
Service
and
his story, well
larded
with
amusing
anecdotes, contains
many
shrewd comments on policy
and
especially on native
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