APPRAISING THE JURISPRUDENTIAL BASIS OF AFRICAN CUSTOMARY LAW

Abstract

No subject under the sun has generated as much contention as the meaning of law. Determining the meaning of law has come to form the basis of jurisprudence. Many schools of thought have cropped up all in a bid to appropriately determine what meaning could be assignable to law. These schools advance variant postulations in the ascertainment of the concept of law. The question is: can customary law be said to have basis in the jurisprudence of law, especially given the position of early European scholars and jurists that African customary law does not qualify as law? What are the quotients of law in jurisprudence? Can African customary law not qualify as law in the light of these quotients? This paper employs doctrinal research methodology to, inter alia, dialyze the jurisprudence in order to locate the basis of African customary law. It was observed that jurisprudence of law is a matrix which squarely imbricates customary law even in its pristine forms; that a legal norm, irrespective of its texture or level of civilisation is distinguishable from social norm and cannot be dismissed or denied its existence in the pursuit, propagation or justification of certain ideology. Among other things, we recommended that in order to effectively engineer African society for maximum growth and development, Africans should look inwards and strive towards finding solutions to African problems.