Abstract
This article uses a gender perspective to provide a re-reading of the historical meanings of British colonial rule, through an examination of the connections between the legal system and family law. The article is based on a case study of the Zanzibar Protectorate (1890-1963), which is now part of the United Republic of Tanzania.
The sources for this study are The Law of Zanzibar (5 vols., Zanzibar, 1961) and Zanzibar Protectorate Law Reports (8 vols., London and Zanzibar, 1919-1961). The first collection is used to gain an overview of racial, ethnic, class and gender discrimination as practiced under British rule, and on the basis of that overall picture 62 cases on family law from the second collection are analyzed.
In analyzing these cases I have used two perspectives. The first uses the " invention of tradition" perspective to look at the introduction of new legal ideas under the colonial administration and the second seeks to explore the preservation of women's autonomy. Finally, the current situation in Zanzibar is considered from a de-colonization perspective. While the introduction of British judges overthrew the existing Islamic system of court rulings resulting in a more advantageous position for women, this was not necessarily done with the specific intention of improving the status of women. I argue that the new legal system was simply casting light on already existing principles of female autonomy present in Zanzibar society. We can see that the British judges, by turning to Zanzibar customary practice, simply revised the interpretations that had been based on a more rigid, male-centered interpretation of Islamic law, restoring Islamic law's more flexible characteristics.
Thus when we examine the introduction of colonial rule from a gender perspective, we can see that the problems cannot be simply dealt within a dualistic framework, for example good and evil, modernity vs. tradition, or control vs. resistance. Rather, through a process of opposition, resistance, adjustment and compromise a new hybrid form was created that was based on concerns for African values, Islamic values, Western principles and commonly shared views in international society. Through this process we can see the creation of new gender relations and a new gender order.
