The Restatement of African Customary Law: A Comment

Abstract

In 1959 the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London received a grant from the Nuffield Foundation to finance a comprehensive plan for the systematic recording and restatement of African customary law. The Project was an ambitious one, aiming to cover 16 countries in Anglophonic Africa, containing several hundred different bodies of customary law. Although limited in the first instance to the law relating to marriage, the family, land tenure, and succession, this is still an enormous undertaking. After a rather slow start, the Project is now well under way, and the appearance in print of its first major publication1 affords a convenient opportunity for an assessment of its methods, aims, and progress to date.