The Existence of African Jurisprudence: An Audit of Life Experience of Precolonial Anlo Traditional Society

Abstract

There is a controversy about the nonexistence of African Jurisprudence fueled by a jurisprudential school of thought known as the Skeptic school of thought on African Jurisprudence. Other scholars have contributed to the debate to dispel the stance of this skeptic school. Notable among these scholars is Idowu William who described the import of these attacks by the Skeptic school as consisting in the view that African jurisprudence is at best queasy. This research was carried out using interdisciplinary approach to legal research by combining knowledge in Jurisprudence of law and anthropology of precolonial Anlo society of Gold Coast to put to rest this controversy. Secondary data on plausible theories of the jurisprudence of law were assessed and used as aids to validate what is described as laws in precolonial Anlo society in Gold Coast. The validation of the laws identified was carried through an audit of the life experience of the precolonial Anlo society from secondary sources. The study findings indicate that there exists a set of ideas surrounding the rule of law which is basically developed from experiences peculiar to Africa. These have insignificant traces of western Jurisprudence hence confirming the notion that there is African Jurisprudence. It is recommended that in order not to limit the arguments refuting the claim by the Skeptic school on African jurisprudence in the future to the legal system of precolonial Anlo society, similar audit of other precolonial African societies should be carried out to ascertain whether African jurisprudence exists. Keywords: African jurisprudence, Natural law school, Positivist school, Historical and anthropological jurisprudence, Therapeutic school of thought.