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Commissioner of Police v. Musa Kommanda and Aspects of the Working of the Gold Coast Marriage of Mohammedans Ordinance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Extract

During the academic year 1975–76 I carried out research in the Ghana National Archives to collect information on the history of the Hausaphone Muslim communities in the Gold Coast. In the course of it a number of documents came to light from the administrative files of the colonial period that showed how the Gold Coast Marriage of Mohammedans Ordinance had worked—or failed to work—and the kinds of problems it had given rise to in a typical Muslim Hausaphone zongo, that is Muslim quarter, of the southern Gold Coast.

Type
Notes and News
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1976

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References

2 Jack Goody, The ethnography of the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast, Colonial Office, n.d., Appendix IV, “A fragment of Gonja history from the reign of Abu Bakari, son of Usuman”, translated from Arabic by A. C. Duncan-Johnstone. The Arabic original, which may be as early as 1564 contains a number of Hausa names that may relate to this early period.

page 128 note 1 Boahen, A. Adu, Britain, the Sahara and the Western Sudan, Oxford, 1964, 104–8.Google Scholar

page 128 note 2 Levtzion, Nehemia, Muslims and chiefs in West Africa, Oxford, 1968, 89.Google Scholar

page 128 note 3 Ibid., 79.

page 128 note 4 Goody, op. cit., Appendix IV.

page 128 note 5 Levtzion, op. cit., 124.

page 128 note 6 Wilks, Ivor, Asante in the nineteenth century, Cambridge, 1975, 259.Google Scholar

page 128 note 7 Ivor Wilks, op. cit., 267ff.

page 128 note 8 Ibid.

page 128 note 9 Goody, 20.

page 128 note 10 Regional Archives, Accra, ADM 11/782.

page 129 note 1 Interview, Sarkin Zongo of Kasuwan Gariba, 1975.

page 129 note 2 Accra, ADM11/1502.

page 129 note 3 Walton-Claridge, W., History of the Gold Coast and Ashanti, 1915, 11, 31.Google Scholar

page 129 note 4 Accra, ADM11/634.

page 129 note 5 Ibid., ADM11/1419.

page 129 note 6 Regional Archives, Cape Coast, ADM23/1317.

page 129 note 7 Accra, ADM11/1419.

page 129 note 8 Interviews, Techima zongo, 1975.

page 129 note 9 Accra, ADM11/1435.

page 129 note 10 Accra, ADM11/553.

page 129 note 11 Cape Coast, ADM23/1/477.

page 129 note 12 Accra, ADM11/493.

page 129 note 13 Cape Coast, ADM23/1/586 and 587.

page 130 note 1 Ag. C.W.P. to S.N.A., 8/9/27, Accra, ADM11/1435.

page 130 note 2 D.C., Accra to S.N.A., 17/3/28, Accra, ADM11/995.

page 130 note 3 Anderson, J. N. D., Islamic law in Africa, second edition, London, 1970, 249Google Scholar, points out that the Gold Coast Marriage of Mohammedans Ordinance gave, or attempted to give, specific status to the Islamic law of marriage, divorce and inheritance and that in this one respect the Government of the Gold Coast went further towards giving special status to Islamic law than did the Government of Nigeria. But he continues “For the rest, however, Islamic law is applied in the Gold Coast, where it is applied at all, either as ‘native law and custom’ or as a factor which is regarded by certain native courts as modifying the normal native law and custom in so far as Muslim litigants are concerned.’ (Ibid., 251).

page 131 note 1 Accra, ADM11/995.

page 131 note 2 For instance, Accra, ADM 11/501 records a fine levied by a Hausa headman of Cape Coast zongo on Wangara Muslims for having taken part in traditional dancing. Cape Coast, ADM23/1/148 records that a Hausa headman in Assin District fined four Fante converts to Islam about £40 for having lapsed from Islam. This led to a court case as a result of which the headman was ordered to repay the fine with costs.

page 132 note 1 See the information given below to the effect that before 1931 persons from the Northern Territories who wanted documentary evidence of marriage had to go to Kumasi to get it. But it is clear from Guthrie-Hall’s comments below that the change to registration at the nearest District Commissioner’s office within the Northern Territories did not help matters. See also Anderson’s comment on registration in Kumasi itself (op. cit., 277).

page 132 note 1 Accra, ADM56/178. The remaining correspondence, minutes etc., quoted in this section are also from this file and will therefore not be individually annotated.

page 135 note 1 Cape Coast, ADM23/1/317.

page 135 note 2 Ibid. Musa's second name is sometimes spelt Commanda and sometimes Kommanda in the records. Since “C” in Hausa is pronounced “tsh” I have adopted the “K” spelling throughout.

page 135 note 3 Ibid.

page 135 note 4 Cape Coast, ADM23/1/375.

page 136 note 1 Cape Coast, ADM23/1/506.

page 136 note 2 Cape Coast, ADM23/1/375.

page 136 note 3 Cape Coast, ADM23/1/375.

page 136 note 4 Ibid., 375.

page 137 note 1 375.

page 137 note 2 375.

page 137 note 3 375.

page 137 note 4 375.

page 137 note 5 375.

page 138 note 1 375.

page 138 note 2 375.

page 139 note 1 375.

page 139 note 2 375.

page 140 note 1 375.

page 140 note 2 375.

page 141 note 1 375.

page 142 note 1 cAbd al-Wahhāb Khilāf, Al-fiqh calā al-madhāhib al-arbac a, Cairo, n.d., 226.

page 142 note 2 Ibid., 227.

page 142 note 3 Ibid., 226.

page 143 note 1 Cape Coast, ADM23/1/375.

page 143 note 2 Cape Coast, ADM23/1/506.

page 143 note 3 Ibid., 506.

page 143 note 4 Kumasi, D335.

page 144 note 1 Ibid., D335.

page 144 note 2 The Wahhabiyya: Islamic reform and politics in French West Africa, Evanston, Illinois, 1974, 25.

page 144 note 3 Ibid., 27.

page 144 note 4 Ibid., 73ff.

page 144 note 5 Ibid., 135ff.

page 144 note 6 Ibid., 201. In other words, precisely the Hanbalī position described above.

page 144 note 7 Ibid., 195.

page 144 note 8 Ibid., 202.

page 145 note 1 Cape Coast, ADM23/1/375.

page 145 note 2 Regional Archives, Kumasi, D472.

page 146 note 1 J. P. Dretke, “The Muslim community in Accra”, M.A. thesis, Legon, 1968, describes this affair in considerable detail.

page 146 note 2 Anderson’s evidence, op. cit., 249ff., supports this.

page 146 note 3 This conclusion is based on my examination of all files relating to “Mohammedan Affairs” and in the Ghana Archives centralized at Accra, Cape Coast and Kumasi. But the Archives are still incomplete and much material remains to be catalogued and made available for study. It is therefore possible that it may have to be modified or corrected in the light of new evidence that may come to light.