EDITOR'S NOTES
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1955.tb00105.x |
| Published date | 01 October 1955 |
| Date | 01 October 1955 |
JOURNAL
OF
AFRICAN ADMINISTRATION
VOLUME
VII
NUMBER 4
EDITOR'S
NOTES
OCTOBER, 1955
The conduct
and
relations of Africans, which were formerly regulated
for
the
most
part
by customary law, are increasingly being affected by new
standards
and
codes
and
this necessitates a more detailed
and
definite legal
system to control
and
regulate them. The approach to all these problems has
hitherto been cautious,
and
rightly so, for it has always been recognised
that
to interfere with customary law in its own field, without full study, might be
dangerous
and
unsettling. Mention was made in
the
Editorial Notes of
the
April Journal of
the
symposium on
the
future of customary law which was held
in Amsterdam in April
and
we now publish
the
agreed
text
of
the
resolutions
then
passed.
Nobody has contributed more towards
the
study
of customary courts
in Africa
than
Mr.
Arthur
Phillips, formerly Native Courts Adviser in
Kenya
and
now lecturer in law at
the
London School of Economics,
and
his
article of
the
future of customary law in Africa which appears in this issue is
the
result of
many
years of thought
and
study. He discusses
the
extent
to
which customary law can properly
and
successfully project itself into new fields;
its applicability to different classes of
persons;
land
laws;
the
constitution
and
procedure of
courts;
the
recording of decisions,
and
other topics which all
demand
study
prior to
the
formulation of
any
new policy.
Mr. Phillip's article is followed by one by Mr. Tanner who tells us how
customary law relating to public delicts is enforced in a tribal society in Tan-
ganyika through
the
powerful sanction of ostracism. asanction not unheard of
elsewhere. This article could well have been written of
many
other similar
peasant communities.
The agrarian reforms being carried
out
in Southern Rhodesia under
the
Native Land Husbandry Act are being watched with considerable suspicion
as well as with admiration. Those who are suspicious are nervous of
any
measures which
may
diminish
the
customary right to a
patch
of land for
subsistence purposes when other means of livelihood
may
not
be available.
Those who applaud see in the Land Husbandry Act a means of overcoming
the
evils of the migrant labour system
and
of achieving
better
farming
and
higher standards of living from overall increases in wealth.
It
is because
these reforms constitute a bold approach
and
have aroused such consider-
able interest outside Southern Rhodesia
that
we have devoted considerable
Space to them in previous issues of
the
Journal. Mr. Bradford,
the
Chief
Surveyor, Southern Rhodesia, now describes how
the
survey
and
registra-
tion of agricultural holdings is being conducted
and
how
the
practical diffi-
culties are being overcome with
the
aid of air photography, atechnique
which is particularly suitable in
the
open bush country of Southern Rhodesia
Where tree crops such as bananas, wattle
and
cocoa are not grown.
Some authorities in Africa are seeking to encourage
the
peasants to concen-
trate
in villages or in country towns because services
and
amenities
can
thus
be made more easily accessible to a greater number,
and
because country
settlements will provide some of
the
excitements
and
attractions which now
draw larger numbers
than
can find employment to industrial areas. There
are
many
economic
and
social factors which
must
be taken into account by
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