African Women, Colonial Justice and White Man's Mercy: Female Murderers and Capital Sentencing under British and French Rule in Africa, c.1920-40s

Abstract

As the first comparative analysis of the treatment of African women in British and French colonial law, this article shows the processes through which ideas of race, status and public order intertwined with European and local African gender norms, both within courtrooms and political offices, to determine the outcome of murder cases involving female accused. The article compares evidence from 115 trial records involving female accused from French West Africa and Kenya, Ghana and Malawi. It shows how intersections of racial and gendered stereotypes, many shared across French and British colonial cultures, often ended up working in favour of African murderesses through the operation of mercy processes. The article investigates the development of a colonial ‘white man’s mercy’, to show the cultural and politico-legal reasons why many African women were adjudged befitting of mercy and judicial leniency. It then explores the treatment of ‘wicked women’ who were only spared execution explicitly on grounds ‘of [their] sex’ and often against the opinion of on-the-ground colonial judges. Finally, it interrogates those cases where women were executed, to highlight the limits of gender in determining sentencing.