By Ashu Nyenty. PhD
The prevailing discourse in contemporary times suggests that Africa is at the receiving end of most civilizations. One such civilization widely believed to be extraneous or alien to the African continent is the concept of human rights. Many in the international intellectual fraternity assume that Africans’ earliest intercourse with human rights was with the advent of colonialism. However, empirical historical data has fortunately debunked and jetissoned these narratives. Due to civilizational bias, the strides made by African communities in this regard have been swept under the carpet of knowledge and schorlarship.
Although human rights are unequivocally a universal concept, many nations unfortunately perceive them as alien to African society. Yet, historical evidence substantiates the notion that African traditional societies were indeed precursors to human rights discourse as we know it today. The first human endeavor to outline the concept of human rights took place not in Europe or the Western world but in sub-Saharan Africa, in the great Malian Empire in the 13th century. In 1222, the Lion King of Mali, Sundiata Keita, pronounced the Manden Charter or the Kurukan Fuga Charter.
This charter predates the following instruments:
– The Magna Carta (1215-1297, with the caveat that the comprehensive version was completed in 1297)
– The English Bill of Rights (1689)
– The French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789)
Therefore, we argue that while these instruments are usually cited as influencing the later drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the omission of the Manden Charter smacks of ignorance or a deliberate attempt to erase established African history.
The Manden Charter, also known as the “Constitution,” had a preamble and seven chapters, with a profound division of human rights into three parts:
– Rights of humans
– Rights of animals
– Rights of nature itself
The charter delineated rights such as:
– Right to education
– Right to food security
– Freedom of expression
– Sanctity of human life
– Abolition of slave trade by razzia (raids)
– Equality under the law
– Protection of foreigners
– Rights of women
– Rights in war (kill the enemy but don’t humiliate him), a precursor to the Geneva Convention of 1949.
UNESCO’s Redemption
Notably, the Manden Charter was orally based and passed down through generations. As a complete document, the Manden Charter was almost lost to history before a version was compiled and written down during a workshop held in Kankan in Guinea in 1998. UNESCO later recognized its historical significance, adding it to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009.
We recommend that African scholars of international human rights law study and reference this important historical document. The African Union, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and African governments should also quote this 1222 Charter in their narratives on human rights in Africa.
The misconception that Africa had no viable existence before colonization is unfounded. Given Africa’s historical role in human rights, the question remains: Have African countries respected human rights today? Has Africa reinforced its avant-garde role in human rights observance or regressed? That is the question.