Indirect rule made customary law into an administrative tool of colonial control
Evidence
The policy of indirect rule was codified in the 1920s at the hand of Lord Lugard in light of his long colonial administrative experience culminating as Governor of Nigeria (Lugard 1922/1965: esp. 199ff.), Accordingly, local leaders were to be appointed to administer largely rural provinces in terms of customary law in matters affecting only “natives.” Customary law in this instance was a collection of local rules and customs across different groups fashioned into an administratively coherent and manageable amalgam frorn the colonizers’ perspective (Mamdani 1992); These local leaders were to be subjected in tum to the commands of colonial officers at whose behest they ultimately served. — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 70
Categorization
- DEFINE: Clarifies that ‘indirect rule’ and ‘customary law’ as Lugard codified them were amalgams created for colonial administration, not authentic local tradition.
- XREF: Connects to my Milgrom and law-merchant material: both show how formal institutions reshape locally-embedded norms, though here it’s colonial power rather than trade discipline. — connects to: Local warlords under apartheid played classic indirect-rule politics — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 592
Related
- Local warlords under apartheid played classic indirect-rule politics (similarity 0.81)
- Indirect rule governed through native leaders who relayed colonial policy and exacted obedience (similarity 0.81)
- Colonial indirect rule depended on native leaders to transmit and enforce foreign policy (similarity 0.79)