proached the relationship between Islamic and cus-
tomary law differently in separate areas. In some
places, Islamic and customary law were regarded as
one and the same, while elsewhere they held differ-
ent status. In northern Nigeria, Zanzibar, and
Sudan, the British kept a separate Islamic legal sys-
tem in place. Similar recognition was given to
Islamic legal authorities in French-held Senegal. In
British Tanganyika and Gambia, on the other hand,
courts applied both Islamic law and customary law
depending on the circumstances of a particular
case. In other regions, such as Sierra Leone and
Northern Rhodesia, colonial powers equated Is-
lamic law with customary law – and this was the
only basis on which Muslims could use Islamic law.
The colonial era had a great impact on how the
subject of customary law is addressed. Many schol-
ars agree that what is referred to as “customary” is
in fact a creation of colonial governments, which
attempted to control their subject populations by
codifying customary law. In Tanganyika, for exam-
ple, the British attempted to identify broad themes
in indigenous legal thought and dispute resolution,
which were then given the status of “customary”
and considered applicable to the indigenous popu-
lations. Codifying customary law was not neces-
sarily beneficial to women, and in some cases
women lost significant status through the codifica-
tion process because culturally specific norms
involving bridewealth, divorce, and family roles
that had privileged women were overlooked. Fur-
thermore, because colonial authorities most often
consulted with male elders about norms of custom-
ary law, the elders were able to use the opportunity
to “create” customary law to attempt to gain
greater control over women (Chanock 1982).
Similarly, codification sometimes exaggerated the
power of chiefs over community disputes to the
extent that formerly important roles of diviners
and spirit mediums, often women, were dimin-
ished. The same could be true for previously
autonomous groups such as age sets, women’s
organizations, and individual households (Mam-
dani 1996). Women also sometimes suffered an
economic loss when customary law was codified:
women’s traditional roles as property holders were
overlooked, and their possessions could be dele-
gated to their husband’s ownership.
In many areas, colonialism created additional
legal options for resolving disputes; scholars call
the existence of such options “legal pluralism.”
This was of particular importance to women be-
cause in the arena of family law – specifically mar-
riage, divorce, child custody, and inheritance –
different legal standards were potentially recog-
sub-saharan africa 425nized within one territory. This has the potential to
benefit women because the introduction of new
legal ideas can influence how rights are understood
and defined and can change the proportional
power of disputants. This may benefit women
when the new rights serve to improve their “bar-
gaining power” in social and commercial relation-
ships with men (Merry 1982). However, the reverse
can also be true because new laws may undermine
previous rights of women. For example, among the
Lunda of Zambia, divorce for women was easier to
obtain before the colonial government required in
1930 that the Native Court issue a certificate of
divorce. In colonial Zanzibar women were able to
obtain divorces more easily from Islamic judges
than in the British courts.The postcolonial period
With the dawn of independence in the mid-twen-
tieth century, the status and application of custom-
ary law went through important changes. There
have been significant differences in the ways in
which newly independent states addressed issues
surrounding customary and Islamic law, particu-
larly regarding women’s status and rights. Inter-
estingly, much of anti-colonial politics of the 1950s
both focused on the ideal of a unified legal system
for the new states and advocated respect for indi-
genous law and institutions – this occasionally
resulted in a blend of customary and received law
in the new states (Mamdani 1994). Some states,
such as the former French colonies Mali, Niger,
Senegal, and Côte d’Ivoire abolished customary
courts altogether, including Islamic courts. Else-
where, customary law and Islamic courts were pre-
served, as in Nigeria, where the Islamic courts
provided an important means for women to pursue
their rights. The official status of Islamic law in
Nigeria has been controversial in recent years; this
is particularly true since the reintroduction of crim-
inal law in the northern states. In East Africa,
Sudan’s reforms in the early phases of independ-
ence sought to improve women’s status under
family law by easing judicial divorce in abusive
marriage and improving women’s rights to mainte-
nance by their husbands. As in Nigeria, the status
of Islamic law has also been controversial in later
years.
Many new civil codes in the independent states
sought to improve women’s status through legal
means. After liberation from Ethiopia in the early
1990s, Eritrea instituted a civil code with the aim of
improving women’s status by changing customary
marriage and divorce practice. Earlier, Tanzania
instituted similar wide reforms by attempting to