Rights and the Politics of Recognition in Africa

Front Cover
Harri Englund, Francis B. Nyamnjoh
Zed Books, Sep 18, 2004 - Political Science - 283 pages
This timely volume shows that, despite the global spread of neo-liberal economic ideology, the need remains to understand variations in cultural values and political institutions. Are human rights claims prompted by similar values and aspirations? And even if human rights are universal, what are the consequences of claiming them in different historical, cultural and material realities? How does liberal individualism suit different traditions that value sociability, negotiation and conviviality? The contributors to this book address such questions with original research in a variety of African countries whose diversity compels careful thought about the meaning of universal values such as democracy and rights.
 

Contents

recognizing identities imagining alternatives
1
contradictions
3
Beyond liberalism? 4 Differenceblind rights and the communit
19
Reconciling the rhetoric of rights with competing notions
33
On the rhetoric of rights 33 Lessons from Africa on the reality
41
Changing attitudes towards foreigners in Botswana 47 Implications
53
individualization
64
Human rights and the legal expansion of political space
74
education 130 Remaking the incompetent 133 Deafness as
137
Conclusion
143
accommodation and exclusion 150 Inventing
156
Ethnic struggles and the invisibility of women 157 Export
165
the politics
195
Civil society and ethnicity 196 Voluntary associations in Burkina
211
language religion and identity in poly
219
REDIE BEREKETЕАВ
226

The new politics of rights and South Africas transition
86
Liberalism versus nationalism 94 Conclusion
98
context and background
104
An inalienable right111 Ugandan versus Western imperialist
117
problems of recognition in contemporary
127
Beyond dualisms 229 Conclusion
232
participation as a precondition for sustain
253
the new dialogue with postliberalism
261
Permeable ethnicities and elites 266 The global and the post
270
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