50 years since Britain left. Why are so many African judges still wearing wigs? Washington Post.

NAIROBI — The British gave up their last colonies in Africa half a century ago. But they left their wigs behind.

Not just any wigs. They are the long, white, horsehair locks worn by high court judges (and King George III). They are so old-fashioned and so uncomfortable, that even British barristers have stopped wearing them.

But in former British colonies — Kenya, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Malawi and others — they live on, worn by judges and lawyers. Now, a new generation of African jurists is asking: Why are the continent’s most prominent legal minds still wearing the trappings of the colonizers?

It’s not just a question of aesthetics. The wigs and robes are perhaps the most glaring symbol of colonial inheritance at a time when that history is being dredged up in all sorts of ways. This year, Tanzanian President John Magufuli described a proposed free-trade agreement with Europe as a “form of colonialism.” In Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe still refers to the British as “thieving colonialists.”

In June, the premier of the Western Cape province of South Africa was suspended from her party after writing on Twitter that modern health care was a colonial contribution.


Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has sparred with Britain for decades and denounces the West for what he calls a neo-colonial attitude, but he has a soft spot for a traditional etiquette and a dress code in the courts that even Britain has partly dropped. (Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP)
The relics of colonialism are scattered across the continent. There are the queen’s namesakes: Victoria Falls north of Zimbabwe; Lake Victoria, bordering three countries in eastern Africa; Victoria Island in Nigeria. There is the left-lane driving, the cricket, the way public education is organised (not organized).

Most cities and streets have received new names since European rule ended. In 2013, Mugabe officially rebaptized Victoria Falls “Mosi Oa Tunya,” or “the smoke that thunders” in the Kololo language.

Yet the wig survives, along with other relics of the colonial courtroom: red robes, white bows, references to judges as “my lord” and “my lady.”

In nearly every former British colony, op-eds have been written and speeches made about why the wig ought to be removed. In Uganda, the New Vision newspaper conducted an investigation into the cost of the wigs, reporting that each one cost $6,500. In Ghana, a prominent lawyer, Augustine Niber, argued that removing wigs would reduce the “intimidation and fear that often characterize our courtrooms.”

One of the editors of the Nigerian Lawyer blog wrote that wigs weren’t made for the sweltering Lagos heat, where lawyers wilted under their garb. “The culture that invented wig and gown is different from our own and the weather is different,” Unini Chioma wrote.

Increasingly, though, opponents of the colonial outfit aren’t just arguing against inconvenience but against a tradition that African judiciaries appear to be embracing. Britain’s “colonial courts,” which preceded independence, were sometimes brutal. In response to Kenya’s Mau Mau rebellion in the 1950s, for example, the wigged white judges sentenced more than 1,000 people to death for conspiring against colonial rule.

“The colonial system used law as [an] instrument of repression, and we’re still maintaining this tradition without questioning it,” said Arnold Tsunga, director of the Africa program at the International Commission of Jurists. “It’s a disgrace to the modern courts of Africa.”


Counsel Olukoya Ogungbeje speaks outside a courtroom after a suspected kidnap kingpin was arraigned at the Lagos State High Court on Aug. 30. (Pius Utomi Ekpei /AFP/Getty Images)
In Kenya, former chief justice Willy Mutunga appealed to remove the wigs from the courtroom, arguing that they were a foreign imposition, not a Kenyan tradition. He swapped the traditional British red robes for “Kenyanized” green and yellow ones. He called the wigs “dreadful.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/its-been-50-years-since-britain-left-why-are-so-many-african-judges-still-wearing-wigs/2017/09/14/6dc03b50-7ea6-40f8-9481-7f034498a790_story.html?utm_term=.34df2945bc3b

where is that silly individual jumping from thread to thread over hijab issue over to you and colonialist.

Tor

Caseless see as your people hid this thread here when it has nothing to do with career?

Cc housing

usba:
Caseless see as your people hid this thread here when it has nothing to do with career?

Cc housing

I trust mynd44 .

Same thing he did with mine exposing his misinformation yesterday.

Sexkillz do pass like this, where is he today?

Just leave them.

debssycharles:
Tor

yar Kano!

Caseless:


I trust mynd44 .

Same thing he did with mine exposing his misinformation yesterday.

Sexkillz do pass like this, where is he today?

Just leave them.

my brother as in ehh

usba:


my brother as in ehh

they should know that they can't gague us as Muslims . The facts are here in their faces.


Thank God seun is an atheist e for no easy for Muslims on this forum

Caseless:
they should know that they can't gague us as Muslims . The facts are here in their faces.


Thank God seun is an atheist e for no easy for Muslims on this forum

They would have bared Muslims from posting. Their interest in the matter is mindboggling.

usba:


They would have bared Muslims from posting. Their interest in the matter is mindboggling.

wallahi. We've been foretold that they don't like us and can never like. No matter how close you're to them, when the "chips" are down, they join hands with their ilk against you.

Caseless:
wallahi. We've been foretold that they don't like us and can never like. No matter how close you're to them, when the "chips" are down, they join hands with their ilk against you.

sad thing is their pretense, you never know till you know

Caseless:
yar Kano!

Lafiya. Ngd

Crazyman this should be on the front page

Lalasticala

quote author=Caseless post=63403433]yar Kano![/quote]
Kano Lafiya....

debssycharles:
quote author=Caseless post=63403433]yar Kano!
Kano Lafiya....

sure! I was at Audu bako secretariat today.