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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | African Courts under the Colonial Regime: Usumbura, Ruanda-Urundi, 1938-62 |
Author: | Dickerman, Carol |
Year: | 1992 |
Periodical: | Canadian Journal of African Studies |
Volume: | 26 |
Issue: | 1 |
Pages: | 55-69 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | Ruanda-Urundi Burundi Rwanda Belgium |
Subjects: | colonialism customary law family law customary courts Law, Human Rights and Violence History and Exploration Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Ethnic and Race Relations Law, Legal Issues, and Human Rights Historical/Biographical Marital Relations and Nuptiality divorce Religion and Witchcraft |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/485402 |
Abstract: | This article focuses on how an African court in Usumbura, Ruanda-Urundi, mediated the relationship between the colonial administration and a rapidly changing urban community from 1938, when the court was established, to 1962, when the colonial period ended. The analysis considers how the sometimes conflicting and sometimes coinciding interests of colonial administration, court, and community were expressed in three common causes of litigation: bridewealth, divorce, and consensual unions. These particular kinds of disputes illustrate how the court affected marriage formation and norms of domestic conduct. In regulating the institutions of marriage and divorce, the court's interests largely coincided with those of the administration. But despite supervision by colonial officials and the obligation to enforce certain regulations, the court cannot be seen as simply another arm of the Belgian administration. European mores, Islamic dictates, and the norms and customs of a new community fashioning itself out of diverse ethnic origins and new economic practices all shaped its proceedings and decisions. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in French. |