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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
To what extent do the methods of treating criminal offenders in African states require revision ? This question is increasingly under discussion at present. Problems of crime and punishment are changing. To some extent such problems appear in a changed form after the end of the colonial period, when foreign governments have been replaced by representative national governments. The prison, an alien institution in much of Africa, which, moreover, in colonial days may have contained popular political leaders, does not confer on its inmates the stigma which is an important punitive aspect of imprisonment elsewhere.2 Most African governments are seriously concerned to combat crime: partly because many forms of crime are inimical to nation-building and economic development, but partly too from idealistic determinations to cleanse national life.
page 20 note 2 On this aspect, see further Junod, H.-P., “African penal conceptions and the emancipation of African states”, Genéve-Afrique, Vol. 1, No. 2, 156–175.Google Scholar
page 20 note 3 Toward full re-Africanization, 1959, 46.
page 21 note 1 Act No. 29 of 1963 (Tanganyika).
page 21 note 2 Cap. 422.
page 21 note 3 Defined in the Act: see below.
page 22 note 1 Penal Code, cap. 16, and Corporal Punishment Ordinance, cap. 17.
page 22 note 2 LAW, J., in Ungani v. Republic, Law Report Supp., T. Gazette, No. 2 of 1964, p. 1.
page 22 note 3 For the debates, see National Assembly Debates (Hansard), 11th and 12th June, 1963.
page 22 note 4 During a seminar for senior prison officers at the University College, Dar es Salaam, 21st November, 1963.
page 23 note 1 Hansard, loc. cit., cols. 99–100.
page 23 note 2 Ibid.., col. 22.
page 23 note 3 Gilchrist Alexander, Tanganyika Memories, 1936, p. 194.
page 23 note 4 Circular to Magistrates No. 6 of 1911, East Africa Protectorate, 4 E.A.L.R., App. I, xvi.
page 24 note 1 The Kenya Native Punishment Commission.
page 24 note 2 Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Administration of Justice in Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika Territory in Criminal Matters, May, 1933, paras. 175–176.
page 24 note 3 Ibid.., para. 178.
page 24 note 4 Annual Reports on the Administration of Prisons in Tanganyika, 1958–1962.
page 24 note 5 Annual Report of the Tanganyika Police Force, 1962, Part IV, Table II.
page 25 note 1 Per LAW, AG. G.J., in Mgasa v. Republic, April 1963, unreported: see Cole and Denison, Tanganyika, 1964, p. 311.
page 25 note 2 Annual Report, cited supra.
page 25 note 3 Annual Report on the Administration of Prisons in Tanganyika, 1962, and earlier Annual Reports.
page 25 note 4 Cap. 17. The Order directs the punishment to be inflicted (in the case of an adult) with a light rattan cane, free from knots, not exceeding 3 feet 6 inches in length and between 
inch and 
inch in diameter, upon the bare buttocks over which a piece of thin cotton cloth soaked in antiseptic must be kept spread. The prisoner must be kept secured.
page 26 note 1 Section 15.
page 26 note 2 Section 5 (3), second proviso.
page 26 note 3 Presumably not to increase them, although this is by no means clear for if the punishment is stopped after 10 strokes say, then the offender has been unable to undergo one of the (full) instalments, and the prison officer's discretion comes into operation: can he direct the full instalment of 12 strokes to be repeated ?
page 27 note 1 High Court Criminal Appeal No. 651 of 1963, unreported, but this extract quoted at [1964] E.A. 345.
page 27 note 2 Sajile Salemulu v. Republic, [1964] E.A. 341, 346.
page 27 note 3 Per BIRON, J., in High Court Criminal Appeal No. 646 of 1963, unreported, quoted at [1964] E.A. 344.
page 28 note 1 Sajile Salemulu v. Republic, [1964] E.A. 341, 345.
page 28 note 2 (1942) 28 Cr. App. Rep. 171, 172.
page 28 note 3 Republic v. Muna s/o Daghao Tang. H. Ct. Bulletin 1964, Case 243.
page 28 note 4 Charles s/o Nyangwiru v. Republic Tang. H. Ct. Bulletin 1964, Case 199.
page 29 note 1 High Court Circular No. 8 of 1963. Republic v. John s/o Waya, Tang. H.Ct. Bulletin 1963, Case 134.
page 30 note 1 High Court Circulars Nos. 7 and 8 of 1963. And on the warrant of committal to prison the magistrates must endorse a statement that the conviction is for a scheduled offence: s. 10 of the Act.
page 30 note 2 Hadja s/o Hemed v. Republic, Law Report Supp., Tang. Gazette, No. 1 of 1964, p. 4.
page 31 note 1 Republic v. Chotara s/o Ulungile Tang. H. Ct. Bulletin 1964, Case 196.
page 32 note 1 Republic v. Aloys Kapande, [1964] E.A. 287, 289.
page 32 note 2 Law Report Supp., Tang. Gazette, No. 1 of 1964, p. 1.
page 32 note 3 Tang. H. Ct. Bulletin 1964, Case 250.
page 33 note 1 Act No. 55 of 1963.
page 34 note 1 Sajile Salemulu v. Republic, [1964] E.A. 341, 348.
page 34 note 2 Ibid.., 348.
page 34 note 3 Siwandet Losingo v. Republic Tang. H. Ct. Bulletin 1964, Case 253.
page 34 note 4 [1964] E.A. 341.
page 35 note 1 At P. 349.
page 35 note 2 Pages 350–351.
page 35 note 3 At pp. 351–352.
page 37 note 1 Tang. H. Ct. Bulletin 1964, Case 224.
page 37 note 2 Ungani v. Republic, Law Report Supp., Tang. Gazette, No. 2 of 1964, p. 1.
page 37 note 3 Republic v. Elias s/o Nyota, Tang. H. Ct. Bulletin 1964, Case 221.
page 37 note 4 High Court Cr. Rev. 233 of 1963.
page 38 note 1 High Court Cr. Rev. 299 of 1963, cited at [1964] E.A. 355.
page 38 note 2 High Court Cr. App. 46 of 1964, cited at [1964] E.A. 358.
page 38 note 3 [1964] E.A. 353.
page 38 note 4 At p. 356.
page 38 note 5 Lim Chin Aik v. R., [1963] 1 All E.R. 223; Sherras v. De Rutzen, [1895] 1 Q.B. 918; R. v. Tolson (1889), 23 Q.B.D. 168; R. v. Prime (1875), L.R.2 C.C.R. 154.
page 39 note 1 Cole and Denison, Tanganyika, 1964, p. 313.
