Product Description

All over the world, people are claiming their rights. Are these 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? The diversity of African countries considered in this book compels careful thought about these questions. The contributors show how African aspirations for democracy and rights are often fed by both individuals' and groups' desire for recognition and representation. By laying bare some of the inadequacies of liberal individualism in highly plural societies, these detailed studies provide innovative critiques of such taken-for-granted concepts as civil society, democracy, citizenship and human rights. The book affirms the far-reaching importance of studying Africa as a unit of analysis in its own right, and unsettles dominant Euro-American paradigms. All over the world, people are claiming their rights. Are these 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?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1383910 in Books
• Published on: 2004-07-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
'This book offers a diverse range of contributions whose collective merit is to show how local level, popular and personal quests for democracy and rights shape and are shaped by collective values and aspirations that add variety and colour to a global order that is dominated by neo-liberal policy preferences. The multi-disciplinary approach of the authors means that many students of Africa from various backgrounds will find the volume both stimulating and rewarding.' - Adebayo Olukoshi, Executive Secretary, CODESRIA 'This rich collection will be essential reading for anyone concerned with the interplay among identity and belonging, community, the nation and their fragments, and the mediation of power and politics by material and symbolic resources.' - Achille Mbembe, author of On the Postcolony

About the Author
Harri Englund is a Nordic scholar who has published extensively on Africa. Francis Nyamnjoh is a Cameroonian sociologist. He is associate professor in sociology at the University of Botswana. He has published widely in the fields of culture and development in Africa. The contributors are African and Western scholars.