The Survival of the Traditional Tswana Courts in the National Legal System of Botswana

Abstract

In almost all the former British African territories the colonial power tried to make use of the traditional dispute settlement agencies which it found on arrival. The history of these efforts is familiar, following a generally similar course in most territories. The arrangements made in the early years were haphazard; a good deal of formalization took place around 1930; more profound changes were initiated in the early 1960's and have continued since. But the familiar legislative history yields little information about what has been happening on the ground. We know very little of the way in which the traditional agencies drawn into the official system actually reacted towards this process of incorporation. Leaving aside what the statute may have said, have they remained the agencies to which Africans actually resorted for the settlement of their disputes? Has the type of business coming before them changed? Similarly we know little about those agencies, typically at the lower...