Comparing American and British Legal Education Systems: Lessons for Commonwealth African Law Schools
Powered By Xquantum

Comparing American and British Legal Education Systems: Lessons f ...

Chapter 1:  Introduction
Read
image Next
The task proved very difficult as the gene pool had been thoroughly mixed between all Namibians (white and black) since the time of the arrival of Europeans in the country in the early 19th century. Eventually, though, most ‘ coloured’ Namibians in Windhoek where settled in ‘Khomasdal’ , five kilometres outside of Windhoek, and the black population divided from ‘Khomasdal’ by a five hundred meter ‘buffer zone’ in what is known as ‘Katatura’ —which means ‘ a place where we don’t want to stay’. These so-called townships now form parts of Windhoek, and the buffer zones have been filled to connect these apartheid creations with the canter of Windhoek.8

A common denominator, however, linking Botswana to Swaziland and Lesotho, is that they all shared one regional university at some point, the multi-campus University of Basutoland, Bechuanaland and Swaziland.9 And the development of legal education at this regional university could have been influenced by the more developed legal education system of the neighbouring South Africa.

1.3 Expatriates and the Development of Legal Education in Commonwealth Africa

Some factors that helped to shape the landscape of legal education in Commonwealth Africa included the intellectual interpretation of the law by the early judges, the civil servants and academics in the newly independent African States. At independence, most African States had very strong economies and these economies attracted professionals and academics from Europe, Asia and the US. Most of these professionals migrated to Africa not because they wanted to help Africans. A number of expatriates, especially the younger ones that did not have much work experience and decent qualifications, migrated to Africa partly because in their home countries they would not have found the right kind of jobs and they would not have earned themselves the respect that they quickly acquired in Africa.