Indigenous African Jurisprudential Thoughts on the Concept of Justice: A Reconstruction Through Yoruba Proverbs

Research Articles

*. Lecturer, Faculty of Law, Osun State University, Ifetedo Campus, Nigeria; doctoral candidate, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, South Africa. The author is profoundly grateful to the following for their incisive comments and suggestions: the article's anonymous reviewer; Prof Michelo Hansungule, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria; and Prof Richard Bronaugh, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada. All opinions and errors in the article, however, remain the author's.

INTRODUCTION

Pre-colonial Africa had a functioning legal system. This is now a well-accepted fact, despite its initial denial by earlier western scholars due to the wide social differences between western and African societies. Ancient African communities had legal systems that served the needs of the era and, despite the absence of writing, jurisprudential and philosophical thoughts about law, justice, morals, power and rights abounded. It is indeed contrary to reason to conceive an organized social community with no idea of law or justice.¹

This article reconstructs the concept of justice in indigenous African jurisprudential perspectives, focusing in particular on the articulation of the concept through Yoruba²proverbs. To the Yoruba people, proverbs are vehicles of deep thought that become particularly handy whenever one is short of words: [o]we l'esin oro, oro l'esin owe. Bi oro ba sonu, òwe ní a fi n wá a [proverbs are principal in discourses; whenever there is a dearth of what to say, a proverb speaks volumes]. This proverb captures the essence and primal place given to proverbs in the social, political, economic, legal and religious communal life of African societies. Due to the absence of writing in indigenous African societies, these proverbs are ageless and represent a product of the intellectual property of these societies from antiquity to the present times. They succinctly present the philosophical, juristic and theological thoughts of ancient peoples, intended to guide society on the path to virtue, peace and progress.

The African jurisprudential conception of justice is multi-dimensional. It is a legal issue as well as a social and moral one, clearly prescribing the attributes of justice, the metaphysical nature and character of justice, the goals of punishment, and the character and nature of a good judicial system.

ATTRIBUTES OF JUSTICE

A main attribute of justice...