HUMAN RIGHTS AND COMMUNAL RESPONSIBILTY IN AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY

Human rights are a matter of global concern. This is because every individual possess these inalienable rights and there is no nation or country who would say that this does not concern them, as it is the duty of the country to protect the rights of her citizens. This paper focuses on discussing the idea of this human rights within the context of the African philosophy, discussing the role of communal responsibility in protecting human rights within the context of African philosophy. Through the analytical approach employed on this research by breaking down the different concepts within the ambient of this discussion, it is very obvious that in African philosophy, the idea of human right is intertwined with the communal life of the Africans. This is embedded in some of their philosophies like Ubuntu built strongly on the principle of communalism, African Socialism (Ujamaa, built on the principle of brotherhood and on the African understanding of person and personhood. The paper also discovered that even though African philosophy is built on the principle of communalism, the community still has a role in protecting the human rights of her citizens. However, the community in protecting the rights of the citizens faces some challenges such as: cultural biases, economic differences, and some other factors, including traditional practices. The paper suggests that to surmount these challenges, the community needs to take some steps such as: continuous education, cross-cultural dialogue, and others approaches which can foster communal values with global human rights standards.