In this episode of Lumumba's Africa, Professor P.L.O. Lumumba looks at the deep conflict between Africa’s traditional legal systems and the foreign laws brought by colonial powers. Long before colonization, the continent had its own well-developed ways of governance, like the 13th-century Manden Charter from Mali, now recognized by UNESCO, and the Oromo people’s Gada system, based on rotating leadership and community values.
But European colonizers dismissed these systems as outdated and replaced them with legal frameworks that didn’t fit African societies. This created serious disruptions: shared land ownership was replaced by private property, restorative justice gave way to punishment-based systems, and in South Africa, colonial law helped build and support apartheid.
What happens when a continent’s legal roots are forcefully rewritten? Find out how British, French, and other European legal traditions reshaped Africa’s justice systems, and why their influence still lingers today.
