ABSTRACT
The proceedings of the African Conference on Local Courts and Customary law held in Dar es Salaam in 1963 must be the first symposium on the subject reflecting the unfettered opinions of African jurists representing independent states. Both anglophone and francophone countries were represented and delegations were composed of distinguished judges, professional lawyers from the judicial and legal departments of the various governments, with some political leadership and, significantly enough, one or two administrators from those territories which had not achieved full independence from the Colonial power. Earlier conferences of this type have been dominated by the expatriate administrators who formerly exercised responsibility for the customary courts as part and parcel of the colonial system of provincial administration. Such professional intervention as was made by the bench and bar was concerned to state the customary law as a tolerated appendix to the received law of metropolitan origin acceptable only when suitably hedged about with repugnancy clauses and other devices to avoid conflict.
