“The Option of the Judicial Path”: Disputes over Marriage, Divorce, and Extra-Marital Sex in Colonial Courts in Libreville, Gabon (1939-1959)

From Cahiers d'études africaines

“The Legal Option.” Conflicts over Marriage, Divorce , and Extramarital Sex in the Colonial Courts of Libreville, Gabon, 1939–1959.  – Drawing on contemporary documents from the multiple levels of the indigenous courts of Libreville, Gabon, from 1939 to 1959, this article argues that it is difficult to identify what constituted marriage and women’s rights during this period of socioeconomic change. After World War II, the French sought to establish an indigenous legal system that alternately emphasized African and French mediators to instill the principles of customary marriage law. By contrast, in the villages and neighborhoods of the Libreville region, elders acted as arbiters in courts that were not recognized by the colonial state. Gabonese men and women—husbands and wives, lovers, fathers, uncles, brothers, and in-laws—strove to find all sorts of legal venues to arbitrate disputes over marriage, divorce, adultery, and custody. These indigenous courts offered men and women room to maneuver in negotiating their marital status.