ABSTRACT
There has been little systematic discussion of the nature of liability for wrongs in African customary law though this is crucial for an understanding of any legal system and its underlying principles. This chapter shows that the notion of injury in some Zambian tribes is rooted in a concern to protect the integrity of the person. The cross-examinations cited inquire into motive, but in no case did drunkenness, provocation, or legitimate grievance affect liability. The irrelevance of motive emerges even more clearly in those cases which turn on the presence of witchcraft. The judicial process is dominated by the presence of 'the reasonable man', and in the cases quoted the consequences which flowed from the defendants' acts were all of a kind that could reasonably have been foreseen and anticipated, even if they were unintended.
