Enquiring into the contributions of African philosophic conceptualisations of human rights to the modern disource of human rights

Abstract

It can hardly be gainsaid that the splendour of African history has but received disproportionate attention in international scholarship on peoples and societies of Africa. A plethora of various scholarships on the African continent spilled so much ink on unfounded and academically feeble claims that the history of the Africa is shrouded in darkness. This misleadingly erroneous view about the African continent, though increasingly losing currency, has unfortunately influenced scholarship on the origin and philosophy of human rights. This explains therefore, the failure of eurocentric writers’ to consult or examine the rich tapestry of cultural values of African societies in their assertions about the origin and philosophy of the modern phenomenon of human rights. However, like its predecessor, this fallacious academic position has attracted scholarly responses from afro-centric scholars. Zeleza has noted that the: western appropriation of human rights does grave intellectual and political disservice to the global human right discourse and movement. Intellectually it homogenises and oversimplifies the human rights traditions of both the west and the rest of the world and undermines theoretical advances that can come from serious and sustained intra and inter-cultural comparisons and conversations.