Embedding Skills in African Customary Law and Culture in the LLB Curriculum: An Empirical Study of Pedagogical Approaches in Selected African University Law Schools

This empirical study of African law and culture in the LLB Programme is based on data collected from documents, qualitative interviews, and observations at 15 university law schools in common law and Roman-Dutch jurisdictions in Africa. At least 100 students, lecturers and legal practitioners participated in this study, which was premised on the assumption that undergraduate legal education in African common law systems could involve skills associated with African customary law and culture. The findings show that most of the university law schools are using skills-based approaches of one kind or the other. Data from interviews with LLB students showed that integrating clinical courses provides the best opportunity to learn law in context because students would learn from their own experiences. In the view of some legal academics and practitioners, integrating skills in the curriculum is central to understanding law. On this issue, the findings suggest that widening the scope of skills to include those associated with customary law would strengthen the LLB degree programme. The findings also show that there are many other practical skills that could be incorporated into the undergraduate law degree. To strengthen the law degree programme, the informants suggested a range of skills such as negotiation, mediation, proficiency in indigenous languages, knowledge of customary traditions, values, and mores and an understanding of Ubuntu and other cultural beliefs. Also, clinical methods such as internships and externships were considered to be some of the best ways of learning skills. The findings further showed that adopting African cultural skills of decision making such as Indaba premised on collaboration, communitarianism, and compromise, rather than the adversarial techniques used in Western jurisdictions, may be more relevant to the African context. This is because lawyers routinely deal with cases involving African customary law and culture that require a sound knowledge of customary law and culture. Given these findings, it is recommended that the existing legal training system in Anglophone Africa, which is based on the British model, should be reformed in order to prepare graduates who are more grounded in African legal practice.