Forming lawyers otherwise: decolonising pedagogy and professional identity in Anglophone African law schools

As artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly automates the technical mechanics of “black-letter” law, the legal profession in Anglophone Africa confronts both a threat and a structural opportunity. This article draws on original empirical data generated by the author’s doctoral researchFootnote1 – to argue that the future of legal practice lies not in rule-based mechanics amenable to automation, but in distinctively human competencies: empathy, conciliation, cultural contextualisation, and relational intelligence. These capacities are already embedded in the African doctrine of Ubuntu and the processual paradigm of customary law, which the colonial architecture of professional legal regulation has long marginalised.The article takes the current policy momentum in Kenya and Ghana – where proposed reforms seek to decentralise professional legal training – as its primary site of analysis. It argues that, properly conceived, decentralisation presents a structural opportunity to integrate customary law skills into professional legal education, producing graduates better equipped for Africa’s plural legal realities and more resilient in an AI-saturated professional landscape. Using data from the doctoral study to illuminate the practical dimensions of this argument, the article charts actionable strategies for legal educators and regulators navigating the transition from inherited British models toward a genuinely Ubuntu-grounded conception of legal competence.