Good or bad, my heritage: customary legal practices and the liberal constitution of postcolonial states

Abstract

The post-colonial constitutions of Namibia (1990) and of South Africa (1996) in principle allow for ‘indigenous’ or ‘customary’ law within the framework set by constitutional law. Developments in recent years, in particular in the course of debates surrounding the reform of inheritance laws, highlight the problems of integrating customary law with the newly established liberal law of the state. Arguing from an anthropological perspective, this contribution shows that the case of inheritance law reform in southern Africa sheds more light on inherent contradictions in the dominant legal system. It points at a number of intrinsic problems in the process of creating legal rules in the face of social practice.

Keywords:

• Namibia
• post-colonialism
• customary law
• inheritance
• succession
• ≠Akhoe Hai//om