Drawing on research in anthropology, history and critical legal studies the contributors conceive of law as a human construct invoked by some at the expense of others in struggles over resources, power and authority. Studying law in colonial Africa illuminates who won and who lost in these struggles over resources and authority, and uncovers the role of customary law in this process. North America: Heinemann

This book focuses on the continued impact of British colonial legacy on the rule of law in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. The legal system is intended to protect regular citizens, but within the majority of Africa the rule of law remains infused with Eurocentric cultural and linguistic tropes, which can leave its supposed beneficiaries feeling alienated from the structures intended to protect them. This book traces the impact, effect, opportunities, and challenges that the colonial legacy poses for the rule of law across Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. The book examines the similarities and differences of the colonial legacy on the current legal landscape of each nation and the intersection with the rule of law. This important comparative study will be of interest to scholars of Political Science, International Studies, Law, African Politics, and British Colonial History.

"This collection of essays ... will allow readers to explore various aspects ... of the continent's history over the last two hundred years."--Book jacket.

In the digital era, many African countries sit at the crossroads of a potential future that will be shaped by digital-era technologies with existing laws and institutions constructed under conditions of colonial and post-colonial authoritarian rule. In Disrupting Africa, Olufunmilayo B. Arewa examines this intersection and shows how it encompasses existing and new zones of contestation based on ethnicity, religion, region, age, and other sources of division. Arewa highlights specific collisions between the old and the new, including in the 2020 #EndSARS protests in Nigeria, which involved young people engaging with varied digital era technologies who provoked a violent response from rulers threatened by the prospect of political change. In this groundbreaking work, Arewa demonstrates how lawmaking and legal processes during and after colonialism continue to frame contexts in which digital technologies are created, implemented, regulated, and used in Africa today.

African States have contributed to the development of modern international law in various ways. This contribution can be assessed through an examination of the actual practice of these States in their interactions with each other, and with other States in the wider international community, on various matters which have a bearing on the creation of legal rules for the international community. Taken together, the case studies presented in this book demonstrate that, despite its apparent marginalization in the international system, Africa can stake a valid claim to being part of the on-going process of shaping new rules and principles of international law while strengthening existing ones. Some of the more important examples are: the broadening of the refugee definition and the principle of non-refoulement in the area of refugee law; the rights of access and transit to the sea and the concept of the exclusive economic zone in the law of the sea; the principle of uti possidetis; the concept of `peoples' rights', as distinguished from that of `human rights'; the very expansion of the traditional categorization of human rights to embrace the so-called third generation rights, such as the right to development; the Nyerere doctrine of State succession; and, in general, certain principles in the area of international fluvial law concerning the common management and utilization of shared watercourses. The discussions in this book are informed by the belief that post-colonial African States have tended to view the creation and application of international law as a historically engaged activity through which they can now empower themselves as part of the modern international community.

Domestic Violence and the Law in Colonial and Postcolonial Africa reveals the ways in which domestic space and domestic relationships take on different meanings in African contexts that extend the boundaries of family obligation, kinship, and dependency. The term domestic violence encompasses kin-based violence, marriage-based violence, gender-based violence, as well as violence between patrons and clients who shared the same domestic space. As a lived experience and as a social and historical unit of analysis, domestic violence in colonial and postcolonial Africa is complex. Using evidence drawn from Sub-saharan Africa, the chapters explore the range of domestic violence in Africa’s colonial past and its present, including taxation and the insertion of the household into the broader structure of colonial domination. African histories of domestic violence demand that scholars and activists refine the terms and analyses and pay attention to the historical legacies of contemporary problems. This collection brings into conversation historical, anthropological, legal, and activist perspectives on domestic violence in Africa and fosters a deeper understanding of the problem of domestic violence, the limits of international human rights conventions, and local and regional efforts to address the issue.

Intended for those interested in the African continent and the diversity of human history, this work looks at Africa's past and reflects on the changing ways it has been imagined and represented. It illustrates key themes in modern thinking about Africa's history with a range of historical examples.