Legal systems of the people of Dagbon: Continuities and discontinuities

Abstract

This article uses a qualitative approach to examine the pre-colonial legal systems of the people of Dagbon and how they have evolved in contemporary practices. The laws in the early societies were to regulate the behavior and conduct of people. The pre-colonial legal systems in Africa, the Gold Coast, and specifically the Dagbon went through several transformations due to the arrival of the Europeans. During the pre-colonial period, the settlement of disputes among the indigenous people of Africa was done through the use of the traditional court of arbitration. The local chiefs were the custodians of the customary laws and administered justice using traditional institutions. The core customary laws of pre-colonial Dagbon were based on marriage, criminal justice, inheritance, and land laws among others. The embedding of the British and German legal systems and institutions in the Northern territories marked a change in the customary legal systems of the people of Dagbon. The postcolonial era saw another modification in the legal systems: legal pluralism (concurrent use of customary and British laws). The central finding of the article is that the pre-colonial legal systems in Dagbon were built on the customs and norms of the land. Besides the already mentioned, it was also found that customary laws remain crucial in the adjudication of cases while playing an important role in the hybrid partnerships with contemporary liberal court systems. This has brought many interesting dynamics regarding the place of customary law in hybrid governance which has further implications for the legal space in Sub-Saharan Africa and the global south context even in contemporary times.