ABSTRACT
Africa was almost completely under colonial rule at the time of the Great Depression and served as a source of agricultural produce and of ores and minerals for its masters. In a few areas white settlers owned large estates and were dependent on African labour, but in most parts of Africa the production and marketing of agricultural produce were in the hands of the Africans. Unlike in India where revenue administration and titles in land were major preoccupations of the colonial power, land law was for the most part of no concern to the colonial rulers of Africa. They left this to customary law, though in many places customary law turned into ‘lawyer’s customary law’, i.e. a hybrid breed of original custom and what the lawyers made of it when presenting cases in colonial courts. Taxes were mostly poll taxes or export taxes, therefore the colonial rulers had no reason to bother about the administration of land revenue or to interfere with the pattern of landholding.
