A butterfly that thinks itself a bird

The identity of customary courts in Nigeria

Dados Bibliográficos

ID14799900
AutoresAnthony Diala (0000-0003-2582-0139, University of the Western Cape, autor correspondente)
Ano2019
Volume51
Fascículo3
Páginas381-405
Data de publicação2019-09-02
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoThe Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0732-9113 • E-ISSN: 2305-9931
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/07329113.2019.1678281
OpenAlexW2981412407
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas6
Referências citadas43

Over the past 600 years, African states have been subjected to powerful influences of globalisation such as the slave trade, colonialism, transcultural exchange, and the law and development movement. These influences, which reflect in transplanted European laws masquerading as state laws, are steadily eroding the identity of indigenous African laws. So, to what extent do customary courts in Nigeria reflect indigenous law identity? This unexplored question is significant for scholarly and policy perceptions of legal pluralism in post-colonial states. These perceptions tend to favour conflict of laws, rather than the dialogue occurring between indigenous laws and state laws in intersectional social fields. Informed by case analysis, interviews, and archival searches, this article presents Nigerian customary courts as Anglicised courts pretending to be indigenous courts. It argues that customary courts illustrate indigenous law’s adaptation to socioeconomic changes. In exposing state laws as a key component of these changes, the article highlights the ways customary court actors engender behavioural changes that reveal the adaptive nature of normative interaction in post-colonial societies. It suggests that the adaptive interface of state laws and indigenous laws offers a theoretical platform for legal integration in sub-Saharan Africa

Aesthetics · Art · Biology · Butterfly · Identity (music · Political science · African history and culture analysis · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Land Rights and Reforms · Law · Ecology