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Indigenous African Jurisprudential Thoughts on the Concept of Justice: A Reconstruction Through Yoruba Proverbs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2017

Jacob O Arowosegbe
Jacob O Arowosegbe*
Affiliation:
Osun State University, Osogbo, Nigeria
*
[email protected]
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Abstract

The absence of writing in pre-colonial Africa has often befuddled indigenous African jurisprudential thoughts about law and related concepts. This article attempts a reconstruction of indigenous African jurisprudential thoughts on the concept of justice through a prescriptive exploration of Yoruba proverbs. This attempt reveals inter alia the reconciliatory and metaphysical nature and character of justice, as well as the goals of punishment and the character and nature of a desirable judicial system in African thoughts. While noting the artificiality of the categorizations adopted for the reconstruction, the author cautions that, although it may be necessary to compare the indigenous African conceptions of justice with similar postulations in western jurisprudence, the true value of the former lies in their proper understanding and appreciation within the indigenous African setting, as doing otherwise might lead to contradictions and absurdities.

Keywords

African jurisprudenceconcept of justiceindigenous thoughtsYoruba proverbs
Type
Research Articles
Information
Journal of African Law , Volume 61 , Issue 2 , June 2017 , pp. 155 - 170
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Copyright
Copyright © SOAS, University of London 2017 

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Footnotes

*

Lecturer, Faculty of Law, Osun State University, Ifetedo Campus, Nigeria; doctoral candidate, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, South Africa. The author is profoundly grateful to the following for their incisive comments and suggestions: the article's anonymous reviewer; Prof Michelo Hansungule, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria; and Prof Richard Bronaugh, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada. All opinions and errors in the article, however, remain the author's.

References

1 Driberg, JG “The African conception of law” (1934) Journal of Comparative Legislation and International Law 230 Google Scholar; Allot, A Essays in African Law (1960, Butterworth) at 13Google Scholar; Hollerman, JF Issues in African Law (1974, Mouton and Co) at 13Google Scholar; M'Baye, K “The African conception of law” (1974) 2 International Encyclopedia of Comparative Law 138 Google Scholar; Ayinla, LA “African philosophy of law: A critique” (2002) 6 Journal of International and Comparative Law 147 at 150–52Google Scholar.

2 The Yoruba people are mostly found in western Nigeria and various other parts of Africa, with their language and culture having widespread influence in other places including Latin America, the West Indies and the USA. In Nigeria alone, over 40 million people currently speak the Yoruba language. See CIA “The World Factbook: Nigeria” (last updated 1 May 2017), available at: <https:// www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ni.html> (last accessed 3 June 2017); RY Wee “Who are the Yoruba People?” (6 March 2017) World Atlas, available at: <http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/who-are-the-yoruba-people.html> (last accessed 3 June 2017).

3 (2002) 15 NWLR (pt 791) 466 at 512–13.

4 Literally meaning “tortoise”.

5 The word “haba” is an exclamatory expression of surprise or dismay.

6 WP Pomerleau “Western theories of justice” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, available at: <http://www.iep.utm.edu/justwest> (last accessed 22 May 2017).

7 Quran 4:135.

8 Id, 4:58.

9 A noted exception in Nigeria was the Osu class system of eastern Nigeria.

10 See Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics (trans WD Ross, 1999, Batoche) at 75, available at: <https://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/aristotle/Ethics.pdf> (last accessed 3 June 2017). Also see Dias, RWM Jurisprudence (1985, Butterworths) at 65–86 Google Scholar and Adaramola, F Basic Jurisprudence (2003, Nayce Publishing Co Ltd) at 226–27Google Scholar.

11 Aristotle, ibid.

12 Aristotle Politics (trans CDC Reeve, 1998, Hackett) at 1Google Scholar.

13 Dias Jurisprudence, above at note 10 at 75.

14 Adaramola Basic Jurisprudence, above at note 10 at 228.

15 Holy Bible (2003, English Standard Version) 2 Thessalonians 3.10.

16 See for example Infant Relief Act 1874, sec 1 and Illiterates Protection Act, 1920.

17 As altered by Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (First Alteration) Act, 2010; Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Second Alteration) Act, 2010; and Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Third Alteration) Act, 2010. See CFRN 1999, sec 4(1) and (2) and also sec 4(6) and (7).

18 Ifa is a popular deity among the Yorubas, imputed to possess unparallel wisdom and thus widely consulted for divination.

19 See Abimbola, W Awon Oju Odu Mereerindinlogun [The 16 Divination Poems] (2006, University Press PLC) at 16 and 108Google Scholar.

20 See CFRN 1999 (as altered), sec 36.

21 That is, it is easy to come to a quick opinion about someone else because one does not know how one actually looks.

22 See McCloskey, HJ “A non-utilitarian approach to punishment” (1965) 8/1–4 Inquiry 249 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, reprinted in Ezorsky, G (ed) Philosophical Perspectives on Punishment (1972, State University of New York Press) at 132Google Scholar; Morris, H “Persons and punishment” (1968) 52 The Monist 475 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kleinig, J Punishment and Desert (1973, Martinus Nijhoff)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23 The Holy Bible (2003, English Standard Version) Isaiah 59:14–15a.

24 The Holy Bible (1982, New King James Version) Exodus 23:8.

25 Quran 4:58.

26 Mancuso, S “African law in action” (2014) 58/1 Journal of African Law 1 at 2CrossRefGoogle Scholar.