African customary law has always regulated the legal relationships of the east African population. It is still significant in the fields of land and personal law (succession and inheritance and the family), and it refers to the principles, rules, customs, and practices of a certain local ethnic community that are accepted by its members as binding. Most research on customary law in east Africa has been done so far in Kenya and Tanzania. As a result of the colonization of east Africa, Europeans imported their own legal systems to their colonial territories, while African customary law remained applicable to the autochthonous population. Subsequently, a discriminatory dual legal and judicial system was established. In order to codify and unify the various sets of African customary law, several research projects carried out investigations of such law in east Africa. At the time of independence, African customary law was considered an important element in the formation of nations in Kenya and Tanzania. After academic interest in customary law gradually subsided, it has gained again in importance due to the conflict with human rights and the revitalization of such law on the ground, as observed on the threshold of the 21st century. However, since legal activists regard African customary law as outdated and in need of reform, future legal reform projects should pay particular attention to intergenerational justice and gender equality.
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However, in the face of policies of forced Arabization and Islamisation of the entire Sudan, fostered in the 1980s and 1990s by successive regimes in Khartoum, customary law and authority emerged as a pillar of resistance and counterforce to Sharia. Consequently, the SPLA/M shifted its stance and embraced it openly. At the first National Convention of the SPLM at Chukudum in 1994, chiefs were invited to participate and the SPLM committed itself to assign village government to customary authorities. The imposition of Islamic Sharia law from September 1983 on the entire Sudan, therefore, inadvertently strengthened the status of customary law. At the same time, the Sharia policy had much greater repercussions on state law, in that it marginalized, and often drove into exile, the class of legal professionals from North and South who had been educated in the Common Law. This leaves South Sudan without a corps of trained legal practitioners necessary to build a modern and professional legal system, yet again increasing reliance on customary authority to resolve conflict.
The Government and UNDP have jointly developed a customary law strategy to strengthen customary law as a source of law in an autonomous legal system.38 Although it has yet to be formally adopted by the Government, as of writing, policy initiatives have been developed in line with its basic tenets: (1) ascertaining the status quo of customary law, (2) fostering its change and development in line with international standards, (3) developing the legal and social environment for its operation, (4) supporting research on customary law and (5) coordination. For the latter two purposes, the Ministry of Justice and UNDP have prioritized the establishment of a Centre for Customary Law in Rumbek (a town widely seen as the heart of traditional Dinka culture) that has been built, although its functions and powers have yet to be agreed upon and formalized by legislation. 2ff7e9595c
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