The Law as a Form of Resistance

John Mensah Sarbah (1864–1910) was born in the Gold Coast, a British colony in West Africa that would become the nation Ghana upon gaining independence in 1957. As one of the Gold Coast’s African elite, Sarbah studied law in England and passed the bar in 1887. He dedicated his life to using his legal training to protect the rights of his people and to resist British domination. It was in this context that he wrote Fanti Customary Law, an introduction to the laws and customs of one of the Gold Coast’s most important ethnic groups. Sarbah believed that for laws to be effective they had to reflect local conditions, social norms, and experiences. Thus, if the British wanted to administer genuine justice in the Gold Coast, they had to be familiar with local customs and traditions. As you read this excerpt, think about the implications of Sarbah’s argument. How might it have been used to support calls for the Gold Coast’s independence?

Words which cause or produce any injury to the reputation of another are called defamatory, and, if false, are actionable. False defamatory words, when spoken, constitute slander. Where a person has been found guilty for using slanderous words, he is bound to retract his words publicly, in addition to paying a small fine by way of compensation to the aggrieved party. Words imputing witchcraft, adultery, immoral conduct, crime, and all words which sound to the disreputation of a person of whom they are spoken are actionable. The native custom is more in accordance with natural justice, equity, and good conscience than the English law, which has been denounced by many a learned judge. Says Lord Chancellor Campbell, in Lynch v. Knight and Wife, “I may lament the unsatisfactory state of our law, according to which the imputation by words, however gross, on an occasion however public, upon the chastity of a modest matron or a pure virgin is not actionable, without proof that it has actually produced special temporal damage to her.” Instead of the word “unsatisfactory” I should substitute the word “barbarous,” said Lord Brougham on the same occasion.

An effective way of punishing a person guilty of slander of serious consequences, is to make him walk through the town or village carrying a heavy stone in front of an officer of the Court, who, at convenient halting-places, beats a gong; the guilty slanderer is compelled to recant his base falsehoods, and to confess his disgraceful behavior, amid the sneers and jeers of the multitude. The heavy stone so carried is called oturbiba.

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