Book Description

Excerpt from Fanti Customary Laws, 1904: A Brief Introduction to the Principles of the Native Laws and Customs of the Fanti and Akan Districts of the Gold Coast, With a Report of Some Cases Thereon Decided in the Law Courts This small contribution to the study of an aboriginal system of West African Customary Laws has met with an acceptance and appreciation wholly unexpected. No labour, therefore, has been spared to secure accuracy, and still striving after quality in this edition, every statement of the Law has been closely scrutinized and carefully reconsidered; and without forgetting this is but a brief introduction to the principles of the Customary Laws, some new matter has been added to several chapters. Guided by the experience derived from the use of this book in Court practice, it is hoped, the cases in footnotes will be found useful. The work of 1665, relating to the "Golden Coast of Guinney," referred to in this edition, is substantially compiled from de Faria da Sousa, the Portuguese author, the travels of John Lok in 1553 and 1554, Towrson in 1555 to 1557, published in Hakluyt, and Artus who wrote in 1625. A study of these ancient authors abundantly proves that when, in 1481, Portuguese navigators and other European trading adventurers first appeared on the Gold Coast, they found an organized society having kings, rulers, institutions, and a system of customary laws, most of which remain to this day. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.