Beschreibung
When Professor Schapera was asked in 1934 by
the Protectorate Administration to compile a record of the
traditional and modern laws of the Tswana tribes he had
already been working since 1929 on a comprehensive
ethnographic study of the Kgatla, and his investigation was
therefore based on a thorough previous knowledge of the
social structure as a whole. The author gives a picture of
what Tswana law was like in former times, and shows that,
contrary to expectation, modern European contact and the
administration of tribes by the then Protectorate Government
ended the original uniformity of the system, and created
considerable diversity. Schapera conscientiously kept within
the original mandate of the Administration and produced an
authoritative, straightforward compilation. Despite its
modest title it has deservedly become a classic and far
exceeds its primary object, which was to serve as a handbook
for the information and guidance of government officials and
administrators of the law. This is a reprint of the first
edition published in 1938.