Not just any wigs . They are the long , white, horsehair locks worn by high court judges ( and King George III) . They are so old - fashioned and so uncomfortable , that even British barristers have stopped wearing them .
But in former British colonies — Kenya , Zimbabwe , Ghana, Malawi and others — they live on , worn by judges and lawyers . Now , a new generation of African jurists is asking : Why are the continent ’ s most prominent legal minds still wearing the trappings of the colonizers ?
It’ s not just a question of aesthetics . The wigs and robes are perhaps the most glaring symbol of colonial inheritance at a time when that history is being dredged up in all sorts of ways .
The relics of colonialism are scattered across the continent . There are the queen ’s namesakes: Victoria Falls north of Zimbabwe ; Lake Victoria, bordering three countries in eastern Africa ; Victoria Island in Nigeria . There is the left- lane driving , the cricket , the way public education is organised ( not organized ) .
Most cities and streets have received new names since European rule ended . Yet the wig survives, along with other relics of the colonial courtroom : red robes, white bows, references to judges as “my lord ” and “my lady .”
In nearly every former British colony , op- eds have been written and speeches made about why the wig ought to be removed . In Uganda , the New Vision newspaper conducted an investigation into the cost of the wigs , reporting that each one cost $ 6, 500 . In Ghana, a prominent lawyer , Augustine Niber, argued that removing wigs would reduce the “ intimidation and fear that often characterize our courtrooms .”
One of the editors of the Nigerian Lawyer blog wrote that wigs weren ’t made for the sweltering Lagos heat , where lawyers wilted under their garb . “The culture that invented wig and gown is different from our own and the weather is different,” Unini Chioma wrote .
Increasingly , though, opponents of the colonial outfit aren’ t just arguing against inconvenience but against a tradition that African judiciaries appear to be embracing. Britain ’s “colonial courts,” which preceded independence , were sometimes brutal . In response to Kenya ’ s Mau Mau rebellion in the 1950 s, for example , the wigged white judges sentenced more than 1 ,000 people to death for conspiring against colonial rule .
“The colonial system used law as [ an] instrument of repression, and we ’re still maintaining this tradition without questioning it,” said Arnold Tsunga , director of the Africa program at the International Commission of Jurists . “It’ s a disgrace to the modern courts of Africa .”
In Kenya , former chief justice Willy Mutunga appealed to remove the wigs from the courtroom , arguing that they were a foreign imposition , not a Kenyan tradition . He swapped the traditional British red robes for “Kenyanized ” green and yellow ones. He called the wigs “dreadful .”
The curly horsehair wigs have been used in court since the 1600s, during the reign of Charles II , when they became a symbol of the British judicial system . Some historians say they were initially popularized by France ’ s King Louis XIV , who was trying to conceal his balding head .
By the 18 th century , they were meant to distinguish judges and lawyers — and other members of the upper crust . Enter the word “bigwig ” into the lexicon .
Other countries in the British Commonwealth , such as Australia and Canada , also inherited the wigs and robes but have moved toward removing them from courtrooms . An Australian chief justice last year demanded that barristers remove their wigs before addressing her.
“The abolition of wigs is all part of the progression towards a modern way ,” said the chief justice , Marilyn Warren.
This year in Britain , the House of Commons lifted the requirement that clerks , who are experts in parliamentary law , wear wigs . John Bercow , the speaker, said the change would promote a “marginally less stuffy and forbidding image of this chamber .”
But aside from the wigs , African courts have adapted to a post- colonial context . New constitutions have been written . A new generation of judges has emerged . Even though some judiciaries have bent to political pressure , new legal systems are rooted in British common law but shaped by the traditions and cultures of their own countries.
Abridged from Washington Post
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