ABSTRACT
Special ‘Native Divorce Courts’ have been established with power to hear and determine suits of nullity, divorce, and separation between natives domiciled within their respective areas of jurisdiction in respect of marriages contracted by Christian or civil rites, and to decide any question arising therefrom. The possibility of adapting European divorce law to the special conditions of African society seems to be greater in territories where the grounds of divorce include grounds which are defined, general terms and are therefore capable of flexible interpretation. In most, if not all, territories the local law of divorce is closely related to that of the metropolitan country concerned. In some instances, indeed, it is linked to the latter in such a way that changes in the metropolitan law will automatically take effect in the colonial law. The laws of a number of territories seem to contain no express reference to the substantive rules governing the dissolution or annulment of a statutory marriage.
