Dispelling Eurocentric Myths: The Pre-Colonial Legal Systems of African Societies

 

Some Eurocentric writers have strongly contented that the Pre-Colonial African societies had no laws prior to the arrival of the Europeans. This erroneous assumption has been based on the argument that the Pre-colonial African Societies had no indigenous system of social control that contained legal elements. The major presentations of these Eurocentric writers were influenced by the biased report of some European Sea Captains and Traders that visited some parts of Africa before the colonial period.

These Eurocentric presentations are been documented in error. The basic fact is that these propagations are false. Professor J.M. Elegido in his documentation rightly dismissed these claims. He stated that the Eurocentric presentation were based on biasness and deep ignorance of facts since no serious studies were carried out by these early writers.

An interesting thing is the existence of some documentations created in the 1930’s by some British Anthropologists that were commissioned to carry out studies in societies in Eastern Nigeria. Their documentations revealed that societies in that region had developed indigenous judicial systems before the arrival of the Europeans. This is surely the situation of most parts of Africa before the coming of the Europeans. Many societies in Africa had well developed mechanisms of social control with well-defined and recognized moral and legal norms before the coming of the Europeans. They developed indigenous methods and procedures of law making, enforcement, sanctions and as well settlement of disputes. This simply means that African societies were not barbarians before the coming of the Europeans as being propagated by these writers.

Sources of Laws in the Pre-Colonial Africa

These are some of the mechanisms through which Africans generated and created laws that governed their societies before the coming of the Europeans. Some of these mechanisms are still very effective till the present day. It is also important to note that  some of the laws made before the arrival of the Europeans are still very operational in most traditional societies in Africa till the present day.

Some of these mechanisms were:

Customs and Traditions:

Customs and traditions which are past down from one generation to another are major sources of laws in African societies. African has rich cultural heritages that have great valuations. These customs and traditions are made up of norms, taboos, practical operational methods and directions. Most of these customs and traditions have sanctions that were generated to punish people that will go against them or fail to adhere to them base of the directions. These customs and traditions cut across a whole lot of places. Some of these places are marriages, burial rites, parenting, religious activities, farming, family interactions and many other areas.

Kings and other Political Office Holder.

 In most centralized political units in the Precolonial era, most kings had executive, legislative and judicial powers. Some political office holders were as well delegated some powers which were executive, legislative and as well judicial in practice. Some of these political units had some traditional methods to check abuse of power by some kings. Examples were: Benin Empire, Oyo Empire, Jukun Kingdom, etc.

Religious backed Laws

Most African Religious activities before the coming of the Europeans were based on ancestral consultations. These consultations were carried out by Chief Priest and other African traditional Priestly Hierarchies. In some cases, major outcomes of these consultations end up becoming laws. This is because of the believe in some African societies that the chief Priest communicates with the gods and with the ancestors.

Pacts

This is another source of laws in some African societies before the coming of the Europeans. In most cases, the pacts were mainly agreements between two or more societies in a given region in Africa. These agreements are made to be laws binding on individuals, groups and institutions within the societies involved. For instance, based on lineage relationship, two or more societies in African might decide that they cannot inter-marry. Such pact becomes laws binding on everyone in the societies. Sanctions were introduced to ensure compliance.

Groups in a Society

Some laws were created by some specific groups in pre-colonial African Societies. Some of these groups were women groups, age grades, masquerade groups, men groups, youths, etc. Some of the laws they made were targeted at the members of these groups. Some of the laws as well were for the whole society. In some cases, such laws required approval.

General Assembly

Some major laws were made by the general assembly. This was mainly in African societies that do not have centralized government. In most of them, the highest law and policy making body were the general assemblies. In some of them, the general assembly was made up of adult citizens, while some of them were made up of representatives of different lineages that were part of such society.

 

Most parts of Africa had very coordinated and sound socio-political and economic structures that were well maintained and operated to very high effective levels. The early Europeans that came to Africa did not meet uncoordinated people. The fact remains that some of the laws made by Africans before the coming of the Europeans are still very effective till this period. Some Pre-colonial laws in Africa are the basis for social harmony in some African traditional societies today. These laws were not copied from the Europeans and were not made during the colonial era.