Reconceptualizing legal training in Anglophone Africa: A postcolonial perspective

This paper will discuss findings emerging from a doctoral study of African legal education based on qualitative data collected between 2014-2021. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of group and face-to-face interviews involving at least 100 participants as well as observation data and documentary analysis at 15 African law schools that were selected for the study of professional training of lawyers in Anglophone Africa, the discussion will focus on post-colonial challenges of reforming legal training that is still influenced by legal transplants (Watson, 1974). The objective is to answer the research question: How can law schools in Anglophone Africa reform professional legal training to address approaches that are still steeped in colonial legal structures and practices which continue to manifest in postcolonial institutions and policies in African law schools? The author will attempt to answer this question by drawing from data that highlights the challenges of practicing law in postcolonial Anglophone African countries whose mixed legal systems are problematic for lawyers who, even though African customary law is a recognized source of law in Anglophone Africa, do not necessarily “practice” customary law even though it still governs the majority of Africans. The discussion will focus on themes that have not been adequately addressed in the literature on African legal education such as: • Is it possible to adapt legal training to incorporate approaches based on African customary law practices such as ubuntu, given that many court decisions in South Africa make decisions based on this practice? (e.g., State v T Makwanyane Case No. CCT/3/94) • What is the impact on citizens of neglecting to integrate such cultural practices in the formulation of policies and laws, and their enforcement? Court cases such as the decision in Jezile v State [2015] 3 All SA 201 highlight that those cases involving the litigation of cultural practices require lawyers to balance the interests of the state and the community because such practices remain prevalent in African communities. This discussion is developing in the context of recent developments in South Africa where some South African citizens are pressuring policymakers and legislators to rethink the issuing of migrant visas to economic migrants from the Southern African region, especially Zimbabwe. The question is, how can this be reconciled with ubuntu which, based on the decision in State v T Makwanyane (ibid), enjoins legal institutions to show compassion, justice, reciprocity, dignity, harmony and humanity in the interests of building, maintaining and strengthening the community? Also, is it possible that lawyers representing affected economic migrants may invoke ubuntu as a basis for challenging the suspension of such visas? If so, how? It is hoped that this presentation will stimulate discourse about how approaches based on traditional justice systems and institutions can be harnessed to Africanise legal training in Anglophone African countries so that courts have the capacity to resolve those issues that often alienate communities by integrating approaches based on African customary law.