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Research on Customary Law in German East Africa1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Alison Redmayne  and
Christine Rogers
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Extract

German scholars contributed an impressive amount to many different disciplines in their studies of German East Africa and other German colonies, particularly between about 1890 and 1910. Much research was undertaken and a considerable amount was published. Then, after the First World War, when Germany lost her colonies, some valuable work was abandoned. One important project which suffered was the collection of data on customary law in the former German colonies. The sets of answers to a questionnaire were the main source used in compiling a large two volume study, Das Eingeborenenrecht (1929 and 1930), which is available in research libraries outside Germany. However, the original printed sets of answers are a more valuable source of ethnographic and legal data than the book; but they are little known and appear to have been generally unavailable outside Germany and Tanganyika. Rhodes House Library, Oxford, now has a copy of the original German questionnaire and a microfilm of the sets of answers for German East Africa. The purpose of this article is to explain how the original German research project developed, to present an English translation of the final version of the questionnaire (see Appendix A, below), a check list of the most important facts about each of the sets of answers collected in German East Africa (see Appendix B, below), and a brief assessment of the value of this data.

This research is interesting when it is seen from any of the following points of view;

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of African Law , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , Spring 1983 , pp. 22 - 41
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1983

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References

2 Schultz-Ewerth, Erich and Adam, Leonhard (eds.), Das Eingeborenenrecht. Sitten und Gewohnheit-srechte der Eingeborenen der ehemaligen deutschen Kolonien in Africa und in Südsee, Vol. I Ostafrika by Ankermann, Bernhard, Stuttgart, 1929Google Scholar and Vol. II Togo, Kamerun, Südwestqfrika und die Südseekolonien, Stuttgart, 1930 (hereafter Das Eingeborenenrecht)Google Scholar.

3 There is one missing, No. 6, an account of native customs concerning the blood-feud in Bukoba. For comments see list on p. 37.

4 Paulssen, Franz, “Rechtsanschauungen der Eingeborenen auf Ukarra”, (1913) IV, 1Baessler Archiv 39–45Google Scholar.

5 Urry, James, “Notes and Queries on Anthropology and the Development of Field Methods in British Anthropology, 1870–1920”, Proceedings of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland for 1972, 45–57Google Scholar.

6 Das Eingeborenenrecht, Vol. I, v–viiiGoogle Scholar.

7 Notes and Queries on Anthropology, London, 1874Google Scholar. This was compiled by a committee of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

8 Werner, Alice, The Native Races of the British Empire, London, 1906Google Scholar.

9 Werner, op. cit., v–vi.

10 Zeitsckrift für Vergleichende Recktswissenschaft einschliesslich der Ethnologischen Rechtsund der Gesellschaftsforschung, 1929, 44, iii, 445–447 and 1931, 46, ii/iii, 455–457Google Scholar.

11 His career is described in his obituary, Adam, Leonhard, “In Memoriam Joseph Kohler”, (1920), 38 i/ii Z.V.R. 1–30Google Scholar.

12 Kohler, Joseph, “Fragebogen zur Erforschung der Rechtsverhaltnisse der sogenannten Naturvökler, namentlich in den deutschen Kolonialländern”, (1897), 12 ii/iii Z.V.R. 427–440Google Scholar.

13 Das Eingeborenenrecht, I, vGoogle Scholar.

14 Ibid. vi.

15 Ibid. I, 4.

16 Adam, Leonhard, (1929), 44, iii Z.V.R. 446Google Scholar.

17 National Archives of Tanzania, Secretariat File 2587, “Native Law and Custom: Fragebogen überdie Rechte der Eingeborenen”.

18 Dundas, Charles, “Native Laws of Some Bantu Tribes of East Africa”, (1921) 51 Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 216–278Google Scholar.

19 Ibid. 217.

20 Available on microfilm in Rhodes House Library, Oxford.

21 Probably now available in the National Archives of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam.

22 Nigmann, Ernst, Die Wahehe: Ihre Geschichte, Kult-, Rechts-, Kriegs- und Jagd Gebräuche, Berlin, 1908Google Scholar. There is also a translation of Chap. 1 on the history of the Hehe in the District Book and on the microfilm in Rhodes House Library, Oxford.

23 A copy of this is available in Rhodes House Library, Oxford.

24 An obituary was published in (1962) 58/9 Tanganyika Notes and Records 1Google ScholarPubMed.