African Customary Law

African customary law is not one code but a family of legal traditions, each derived from the customs and practices of a particular indigenous group and varying by ethnic origin across the continent. Before colonization these systems operated informally, transmitted orally and enforced through community practice rather than written statute. Colonial administrations created Native Courts that gave customary law a formal, if subordinated, place within the colonial legal order, and the systematic written codification of what had been unwritten law came only after decolonization. Customary law today continues to govern personal-status matters, land disputes and succession within the communities that observe it, valued in part because its own philosophy emphasizes reconciliation, social justice and the restoration of relationships within the group rather than punishment alone. Its place alongside the statutory and religious law that postcolonial states inherited varies by country: Kenya, for example, abolished customary criminal law where it conflicted with the inherited British common law while preserving customary rules governing marriage.