TY - JOUR
AU - Beidelman, T.O.
AB - 1987 BOOK REVIEWS Martin Chanock, Law, Custom and Social Order, the Colonial Experience in Malawi and Zambia. African Studies Series 45. Cambridge: Cam­ bridge University Press, 1985. xi, 286 pp. $42.50. ~ "This book is an attempt to understand the historical formation of that part of African law known as customary law. A book about customary law is not simply a book about law, but it is about ways of conceiving the past and, therefore, the present" (p. 3). This is a study about the interplay between two contending groups, the British colonial administrators who sought to understand and use African traditional customs and laws in ways to control the Africans they ruled, and the native Africans who presented their versions of that tradition in large part in order to manage social change in ways consistent with their own aims and values. This study is conse­ quently an attempt to understand the misunderstandings and mixture of success and failure that characterize the colonial encounter. Since contem­ porary African states pursue similar policies of domination, these processes are still at work. Chanock divides his study into four parts: (1) a consideration of how the social and legal history of central 
TI - Law, Custom and Social Order, the Colonial Experience in Malawi and Zambia
JO - American Journal of Legal History
DO - 10.2307/845609
DA - 1987-01-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/law-custom-and-social-order-the-colonial-experience-in-malawi-and-uiE5qQFUPX
SP - 71
EP - 72
VL - 31
IS - 1
DP - DeepDyve
ER -