¹ For a detailed analysis see Poulter, S. M., Family Law and Litigation in Basotho Society, Oxford, 1976.Google Scholar

² The full citation is Khosi Molapo v. Lepoqo Molapo, High Court Civil Appeal No. 8 of 1973; Court of Appeal Civil Application No. 1 of 1974.

^{page 67 note 1} For a description of the origins and development of the Laws of Lerotholi see S. M. Poulter, “The Place of the Laws of Lerotholi in the Legal System of Lesotho”, (1972) African Affairs, 144.

^{page 69 note 1} For a graphic account by an eye witness of the skirmishes during 1880–4 see Doctor to Basuto, Boer and Briton 1877–1906: Memoirs of Dr. Henry Taylor, CapeTown, 1972, 59–103, 109.Google Scholar For a general picture of the disputes over the chieftainship in the Molapo wards during 1868–1920 see Jones, G. I., “Chiefly Succession in Basutoland”, in Goody, J. (ed.), Succession to High Office, Cambridge, 1966.Google Scholar

^{page 70 note 1} The Basuto (O.U.P., 2nd ed., 1967), pp. 193–4.Google ScholarPubMed

^{page 70 note 2} Op. cit., p. 69.

^{page 70 note 3} See also Jingoes, S. J., A Chief is a Chief by the People, London, 1975.Google Scholar

^{page 71 note 1} The rule first appeared in written form as section 4 of Part 1 in the 1946 version of the Laws of Lerotholi.

^{page 71 note 2} Despite the apparent statement to the contrary by the High Court in Qhobela v. Qhobela, High Court Civil Appeal No. 24 of 1943, which was accepted without argument by the Court of Appeal in the present case.

^{page 72 note 1} The most important of these, Qhobela v. Qhobela (above), is referred to in Duncan, P., Sotho Laws and Customs, London, 1960, 19.Google Scholar

^{page 73 note 1} The correspondence is reprinted in Report and Evidence of a Commission on Native Laws and Customs of the Basutos (Saul Solomon & Co., 1873), 21–31.Google Scholar

^{page 73 note 2} Report and Evidence, 40–1, 43–4.

^{page 74 note 1} High Court Civil Appeal No. 8 of 1946.

^{page 75 note 1} Laws of Lerotholi, Part II, s. 8. This provision was first incorporated in the 1946 version of the Laws.

^{page 75 note 2} Support for this is available in Sekese, A., Mekhoa le Maele a Basotho, Morija, 1907; reprinted 1968, 30.Google Scholar

^{page 76 note 1} This is a reference to section 9 (1) of the Central and Local Courts Proclamation 1938 in terms of which the customary courts may only administer Sesotho law “so far as it is not repugnant to justice or morality”.