The Status of African Customary Criminal Law and Justice under the Received English Criminal Law in Zambia: A Case for the Integration of the Two Systems

Abstract

The coming of the British administration to Zambia towards the beginning of the 19th Century brought with it not only a different system of maintaining social order, but an entirely new criminal justice system This article attempts to examine African criminal law and justice which prevailed at the time the Europeans came, the introduced and current English system and the European reaction to the former. It then assesses the impact English ideals of criminal justice had on the indigenous African concepts and practices and throws light on the continuities of certain themes introduced during the Colonial rule into the post-independence Zambia. The article ends with a call for the integration of certain traditional practices into* 1 the modern criminal justice, without sacrificing the basic aspects of justice. This approach would enhance the acceptability of criminal justice which at the moment could be regarded as rather too divorced from people's expectations and sense of justice especially if viewed in the eyes of traditional practices.