Comparative Analysis of Human Rights Protection Paper Example

Given that Africa was viewed as the humanity cradle, it would seem logical from the perspective of Afro-centric that the human rights must have also been born on the same continent, in particular, the West part of Africa, located in Sudan-Sahelian region. In considering the protection of the human rights, it is vital to first of all look at foregrounding the tradition intervention as the only production model which was established in the maximal distance found between Europe and Africa. The Mande charter refers to the permit that was created at the time when Mali Empire was being formed. The first emperor and the founding father of Mali together with a team made up of several advisors authored the creation of the worded text which spelled out the human beings rights and started the efforts meant to abolish the slave trade and slavery in the entire empire. The oath which was undisclosed for several centuries as being a part of the history secret of the Mali empire, made the Mande oath become the secret document that was only taught to the historian initiates (Nesbitt, 2014). Among these initiates was known as Kamissoko who was the master historian from Krina commonly known for deciding that time had come for revealing of some of the history secrets to public from the time of modernity which became rapidly eroded from all systems of traditional knowledge. Additionally, Youssouf Tata, Malian historian, became fascinated by the dignity of Kamissoko, dedication as well as the fantastic knowledge scope for spending several years documenting and studying his discourses. His most essential dialogue was for the revelation that the Made oath focused on abolishing slavery in the entire Mali Empire, a charter that had been broken about twenty years after Sundiata died.

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The Diodorus' book is divided in its length forming two critical volumes, the first volume includes the preface of the entire treatise and it has the accounts that are given by Egyptians about the beginning of the world as well as the initial forming of the universe, the book tells the founding gods of the Egypt cities, the earliest way of life and the first men. The next volume entails a discussion of the topics that discuss the early kings found in Egypt and help in setting forth of their deeds after describing the summary fashion of the most ancient way of life experienced in Egypt. This paper will highlight in particular the elements of convergence and divergence of the two texts, Diodorus Silicus, Book I (61-85), and Siriman Kouyate, The Charter of Kurukan Fuga, in regards the protection of human rights in ancient Africa.

One aspect of convergence of the two texts is that the two books assert that all human life is equal. The equality of human life was promoted in ancient Africa as a way of offering protection of human rights. Given that one of human life can appear to exist before other lives, there is no need for classifying any life as being more respectable or more ancient than different life (Amselle, 2013). The two texts emphasize that similarly, there is no living being that is superior to the other living person. In efforts to protect human rights by asserting that all lives are equal, the Mande Charter focused on ending slave trade and slavery in the Mali Empire as the charter was established on the basis that all beings are same and there should be no given life that should be treated as being superior of other entities (de SARDAN, 2015). In the context of the Diodorus Silicus Book, all human beings were treated equally in ancient Egypt as the laws set to govern the nation applied equally to all human beings in the Egypt Empire regardless of the position they have in the society.

The other convergence element that the two texts have is that they both claim that the ruling leaders never control of their daily fare. The Diodorus Silicus book states that the king of the Egypt Empire never had the entire control of their regular fare as the kings were not given the power of rendering any given legal decision or transacting any given business at random or punishing of anyone dwelling in their territories by malice or when they were in anger. The kings and other leaders of ancient Africa could not make the legal decision for any given wrong reason, but they were expected to make a judicial decision by observing the established laws that were relative to every offense. The practice of having the kings and other ruling leaders being governed by the established laws of the Ancient Africa societies protected human rights as the practice made sure that the leaders did not follow their passions when passing legal decisions. Given that the kings were following a right course when they were dealing with all their subjects, it manifested the goodwill to protect the human rights. Similarly, the Mande Charter postulated that every individual had the mandate to observe over their fellow men just like it was expected to have each venerate all their ancestors. These expectations of the Mande Charter acted as important guidelines meant to protect the human rights by ensuring that everyone in society acted following the established laws governing the land.

The other convergence element is that the two texts articulate that the laws that governed the ancient African societies included several different domains such as material possessions, ways of transmitting and obtaining them, inheritance, land rights, labour organization and regulations concerning oath, and violent conflict (AMSELLE, 2013). All these different domains were focused in the protection of human rights in the ancient communities as they provided the way that needed to be followed by the social order of the society. The two texts agree that all the laws implemented in the ancient African countries arose mainly from providing of a standard, and fixed juridical status to the practices that were performed in different ways over a given time. The laws were meant to enable that the human rights were adequately protected since they comprised of s type of oral codex that was invented by the leaders of the societies. Furthermore, all the context of the laws were endowed with values, norms, and rules even if these largely varied relying on the place and time as well as other complicating factors. The real challenge was that it was hard to compare the set of regulations regardless of whether they were in the code or the charter such as in today's Bills of Rights or even the declaration of the human rights and that of citizens.

One element of divergence that exists between the two texts is that in the Diodorus Silicus, Book emphasizes that three classes divided the free citizens. These classes were; the husbandmen, the artisans, and the herdsmen. The husbandmen were given the responsibility of renting on the reasonable terms of arable land which was held by the priests, warriors and the king (Salaam, 2004). These classes of free citizens seemed to undermine the efforts to enhance the protection of human rights in ancient Egypt as individuals from the distinct classes were treated unequally. Furthermore, the ancient community was divided into three distinct parts. The first part was held following the priest order which was accorded as the dominant veneration by inhabitants since the individuals were in charge of worshiping since the education virtue led them in bearing of higher intelligence than other individuals in the society. This class seemed to undermine the protection of human rights since the ordinary citizens were exploited by being made to pay taxes whereas the kings and their descendants never paid any tax. The second class that the country was divided was taken by several kings who used revenues to finance wars and support their court. In the last class that subdivided the ancient Egyptian country was the class of warrior. Warriors were subjected to call for various military duties; it was absurd trusting the warriors for the entire security of the country. Many young men were recruited through force to join the military since the recruitment was hereditary which seemed to undermine the rights of the warriors.

On the other hand in the Mande Charter, it was the responsibility of every individual to watch over their fellow men (Guillaume, 2010). This was emphasized with the notion that it would help in worshiping their ancestors. As a result, the country was never divided into unique set of classes which would lead to undermining of the protection of human rights.

Conclusion

In conclusion, through considering the protection of the human rights, it is vital to first of all look at foregrounding the tradition intervention as the only production model which was established in the maximal distance found between Europe and Africa. Both texts are similar converging elements regarding the protection of human rights as they assert that all human life is equal, the ruling leaders never had full control of their daily fare, and laws that governed the ancient African societies included several different domains. However, there exists one divergence element that undermines the protection of human rights between the two texts; Diodorus Silicus, Book emphasizes that there were three classes that divided the free citizens whereas the Mande Charter emphasized of the entire clan as being one with no subdivisions.

References

AMSELLE, J. L. (2013). CHAPTER FIVE HAS AFRICA INVENTED HUMAN RIGHTS? 1 JEAN-LOUP AMSELLE. Global Society, Cosmopolitanism and Human Rights, 79.

Amselle, J. L. (2013). Did Africa Invent Human Rights?. Anthropoetics, 19(1).

De SARDAN, J. P. O. (2015). Africanist traditionalist culturalism: analysis of a scientific ideology and a plea for an empirically grounded concept of culture encompassing practical norms. Real Governance and Practical Norms in Sub-Saharan Africa: the game of the rules. London: Routledge.

Guillaume, P. (2010). Review of Borgeaud, Philippe, Thomas Romer &Youri Volokhine (eds.), Interpretations de Moise: Egypte, Judee, Grece et Rome (Jerusalem Studies in Religion and Culture, 10; Leiden: Brill, 2010). Journal of Hebrew Scriptures, 10.

Nesbitt, N. (2014). Resolutely Modern: Politics and Human Rights in the Mandingue Charter. The Savannah Review, (4).

Salaam, N. K. A. (2004). An investigation of Malinke historiography: From Sundiata Keita to Almamy Samori Toure.