Literary Analysis Essay on Book 1 of the Library of History of Diodorus Siculus and "The Charter of Kurukan Fuga"

Introduction

Book 1 of The Library of History of Diodorus Siculus is divided in its length forming two critical volumes, the first volume includes the preface of the entire treatise, and it has the accounts given by Egyptians about the beginning of the world as well as the initial forming of the universe. The book tells them about the founding gods of the Egyptian cities, the earliest way of life and the first men. The next volume entails a discussion of the topics on the early kings found in Egypt and helps in setting forth of their deeds. "The Charter of Kurukan Fuga" by Siriman Kouyate is a human rights version adopted in the Mali empire that was collected in Guinea. "The Charter of Kurukan Fuga" established a means of governance and laws of the land that would dictate the way of life in the Mandinka and other clans. The two texts have several elements of convergence and divergence regarding the subject of human rights. Diodorus Siculus's Book I of The Library of History (61-85), and Siriman Kouyate's "The Charter of Kurukan Fuga" show great similarity in the treatment of human rights in ancient Africa.

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Given that Africa was viewed as the cradle of humanity, it would seem logical from the perspective of Afrocentrism that human rights must have also been born on the same continent, in particular, the West part of Africa, located in Sudano-Sahelian region. Communities formulated sets of rules that guided their interactions with one another and dictated how people would treat one another. The sets of rules formed the fundamentals of human rights legislation. "The Charter of Kurukan Fuga" was a permit created at the time when Mali Empire was being established to enable protection of human rights. The first emperor and the founding father of Mali together with his several advisors authored the creation of the worded text which spelt out the human rights and started the efforts meant to abolish the slave trade and slavery in the entire empire.

An oath which was undisclosed for several centuries as being a part of the historical secret of the Mali empire made "The Charter of Kurukan Fuga", a secret document that was only taught to historian initiates (Nesbitt, 2014). Among the historian initiates was a historian known as Kamissoko. He was from Krina and was commonly known for deciding whether to display the secrets of modernity to the ancient people and erode forms of traditional knowledge. Additionally, Youssouf Tata, a 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 work was for the revelation that an oath focused on abolishing slavery in the entire Mali Empire, a charter that had been broken about twenty years after Sundiata died. Sundiata was a prominent prince who founded the Mali Empire.

Egypt was one of the countries where people settled in Africa. The country is rich in Arable land and continuous supply of water from the mighty Nile River. The Egyptians believed in two gods; the sun and the moon which they called Isis and Osiris respectively (Amselle, 2013). The ancient Egyptians were a churched nation and trusted their priests. However, the priests received no special treatments as they were considered only as messengers of their gods. The gods were just to them and provided harvests in their farms. They believed all humans were equal and only the gods had deity statuses. One of the aspects of convergence of the two texts is that the two asserts 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. Human life was treated as equal since no human was more sacred than the other and all had come to be through the same mean (Amselle, 2013). In efforts to protect human rights by asserting that all lives are equal, "The Charter of Kurukan Fuga" 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 that no individual life is superior to the other (de Sardan, 2015). In the context of The Library of History, all human beings were treated equally in ancient Egypt as the laws set to govern the nation applied equally to all human beings regardless of the position one had in society.

The other convergence element that the two texts have is that they both claim that the ruling leaders never controlled the fate of offenders. The Library of History states that the king of Egypt never had the entire control of their regular fare as the kings were not given the power of rendering any legal decision or transacting any business at random or punishing anyone dwelling in their territories by malice or when in anger. Kings and other leaders of ancient Africa could not make a legal decision for any given wrong reason, and they were expected to make a judicial decision by observing the established laws that were relative to every offence. The practice of having kings and other ruling leaders being governed by the established rules of the Ancient African societies protected human rights as the method made sure that the leaders did not follow their passions when passing legal decisions. Given that the kings were following the right course when dealing with all their subjects, it manifested the goodwill to protect human rights. Similarly, "The Charter of Kurukan Fuga" postulated that every individual had the mandate to observe over their fellow men just like it was expected to have venerated for their ancestors. These expectations of the "The Charter of Kurukan Fuga" acted as important guidelines meant to protect the human rights by ensuring that everyone in society served following the established laws governing the land (Jansen, 2011).

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, labor organization and regulations concerning oath, and violent conflict (Amselle, 2013). All these different domains were focused on the protection of human rights in the ancient communities as they provided the way that needed to be followed by the social order of society. The two texts agree that all the laws implemented in the ancient African countries arose mainly from providing a standard, and fixed juridical status to the practices that were performed in different ways over a given time. The laws that were meant to enable regard of human rights were adequately protected since they comprised of a type of oral codex that was invented by the leaders in the societies. Furthermore, all the contexts 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 comparing 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 The Library of History emphasizes that three classes divided the free citizens. These classes include the husbandmen, the artisans, and the herdsmen. The husbandmen were given the responsibility to rent and till the arable land that was held by 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 categories were treated unequally.

Furthermore, the old community was divided into three separate 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 worshipping. This was because the education virtue led the people in the first part to bear higher intelligence than other individuals in society. This class of educated people seemed to undermine the protection of human rights since ordinary citizens were exploited by being made to pay taxes, whereas the kings and their descendants never paid any fee. The second class of the old community was taken by several kings who used revenues to finance wars and support their courts. The third and final class encompassed all the warriors. Warriors were subjected to calls for various military duties; it was absurd trusting the warriors for the entire security of the state. Many young men were forcefully recruited into the military since the recruitment was hereditary which seemed to undermine the rights of the warriors.

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

Conclusion

Both "The Charter of Kurukan Fuga" and The Library of History show great regard for human rights. The Ancient African tradition had core values and beliefs that shaped the interactions between people in the community. The two texts are similar as they offer common elements concerning the protection of human rights. Both books assert that all human lives are equal, the ruling leaders never had full control of the fate of the offenders, 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: The Library of History emphasizes that there were three classes that divided the free citizens whereas the "The Charter of Kurukan Fuga" stresses on the entire clan as being one with no subdivisions.

References

Amselle, J. L. (2013). Chapter Five Has Africa Invented Human Rights? Global Society, Cosmopolitanism and Human Rights, 79.

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.

Jansen, J. (2011). The Intimacy of Belonging: Literacy and the Experience of Sunjata in Mali 1. History in Africa, 38, 103-122.

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.