So said the learned Chief Justice in the year 1912, when he held, after ‘consulting the authorities’, that ‘inheritance is not from father to son’ in Accra custom!

For many years learned judges in the Gold Coast courts have expressed a similar opinion, each taking comfort as to the correctness of his decision from the words of his predecessors. This colossal pyramid of error rests on several facts:—

1. The earliest customary law with which British judges in the Gold Coast became familiar was that of the Fantes, especially around Cape Coast.

2. In Fante custom inheritance is matrilineal.

3. Practically the sole written authority as to customary law consulted by the judges has been Sarbah's work, which, despite its title of Fanti Customary Laws, has frequently been invoked to decide cases concerning Gã and Ewe custom.

4. The evidence submitted in each particular case tending to disprove the proposition that Gã succession is matrilineal has been rejected as a result of the prejudice (derived from facts 1, 2, and 3) that ‘the ordinary rule of native customary law [sic] as to descent of property through the female line prima facie applies’ —Aryeh v. Dawuda: (1944) 10 W.A.C.A. 188; and sole reliance has been placed on the ‘expert’ witnesses who have solemnly sworn that Gã inheritance is matrilineal.