An Agenda for Decolonising Law in Africa

Conceptualising the Curriculum

Abstract

Decolonisation as a theory focus on challenging the colonial imperialist perspectives on Africa and Africans. It seeks to debunk hegemonic discourses on Africa by continually opposing and resisting those notions that cast Africans as primitive and backward.[1] Law permeates all realms of social behaviour; law is also a tool of social engineering. It is also a truism that society needs law to solve the problem of social order by protecting certain human interests.[2] Law in Africa has followed the standard and structure of the colonising powers (English, French, Spanish and Portugese) to the detriment of indigenous laws; though some African countries notably the English Speaking operate Legal Pluralism in order to include customary law. The decolonisation thesis is to jettison all that is colonial in the legal system; this idea may be laudable in principle. However, because Africa is bewildering in size with different cultures, language and political system, how will the curriculum be conceptualised. This paper therefore is an inquiry into conceptualising the Law in Africa curriculum, this becomes very necessary because it is a methodology against the experiences of insurgency against white hegemonic knowledge, social and intellectual domination.