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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Competing Systems of Inheritance before the British Courts of the Gold Coast Colony
Author:Gocking, RogerISNI
Year:1990
Periodical:International Journal of African Historical Studies
Volume:23
Issue:4
Pages:601-618
Language:English
Geographic terms:Ghana
Great Britain
Subjects:colonialism
customary law
family law
matriarchy
History and Exploration
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Women's Issues
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/219500
Abstract:Among the Western-educated community of the Gold Coast (Ghana) during the interwar years, there seemed to be considerable public agreement that the 'primitive' and 'monstrous' custom of matrilineal inheritance would gradually be swept away by the advancing tide of 'civilization'. However, rather than the colonial legal system working hand in glove with the onward march of 'civilization', paradoxically it often worked to preserve the 'outmoded' custom of matrilineal inheritance. During the last decades of colonial rule, the Colony's British courts were caught up in 'a disconcerting conflict between judicial enunciation of customary doctrine and contemporary practice in the social process'. One of the implications of this situation was that it provided a great deal of room for legal manoeuvring that served to more than just keep alive matrilineal inheritance. In order to understand why what many members of the coastal intelligentsia considered an 'outmoded system' was able to survive as well as it did, this article examines the advantages that the Colony's dualistic legal system offered to those who had a vested interest in defending matrilineal inheritance. Notes, ref.
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