The Concept of Human Rights in Africa attempts to reconceptualise human rights ideology from the stand point of the working people of the continent. lt argues that the dominant human rights discourse in/and on Africa, however well-intentioned, is objectively a part of the ideologies of domination. Both the critique of the dominant discourse as well as the reconceptualisation are located firmly within the current social science and jurisprudential debates on democratic struggles in Africa. Hitherto, the human rights debate in Africa has been an exclusive preserve of lawyers and philosophers. Professor Shivji breaks new ground in this book in that he firmly anchors the debate on the social and political planes without losing sight of its legal and philosophical dimensions.
About the Author
Issa Shivji is Professor Emeritus of Law at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He taught law at the University of Dar es Salaam for 36 years (1970-2006). He was appointed the first Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Professor in Pan-Africanism between 2008-2013. He was the Director of the Nyerere Resource Centre at the Commission for Science and Technology (2014- 2019). He has published over a dozen books and numerous book chapters and articles. His latest book is a three-volume biography of Julius Nyerere called Development as Rebellion co-authored with other two colleagues.
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