ABSTRACT
The local courts, variously called African Courts, Customary Courts, or Native Courts, in the African states formerly under British administration, derive their powers and jurisdiction as judicial bodies from statutes, and not from indigenous traditional authority. They differ in constitution, powers, and modes of instituting process, and execution of their decrees and orders, from the indigenous tribunals they have superseded, and approximate closely to a District Magistrate's Court in the English system. But they maintain the character of indigenous tribunals in that: the cases cognizable are principally cases involving customary law; and their practice and procedure are regulated in accordance with customary law. The only institutions which can be expected to reflect the indigenous African judicial authority are the arbitration and the negotiated settlement. There are clearly two distinctive indigenous proceedings under customary law for extra-judicial determination of a dispute: arbitration properly so called, which decides who is right and who is wrong, and reconciliation or negotiations for a settlement.
