ABSTRACT
The question of the effect of a statutory marriage on native rights of property has in some territories frequently engaged the attention of the courts, and has, moreover, in a number of instances been the subject of express legislative provision. Tests of the effectiveness of the provision made regarding statutory marriage for Africans is the extent to which it makes possible the foundation of a family according to the Christian or ‘civilized’ pattern. An important provision relating to the children of a statutory marriage is found in the Native Wills Act of Southern Rhodesia. There is not much legislation which expressly deals with the position of the children of a statutory marriage between Africans. The general view appears to be that, in the absence of express provision, the customary rules for determining the persons or kinship group to whom children ‘belong’ are not necessarily to be excluded from consideration because the children concerned are the issue of a statutory marriage.
