Restraining universalism: Africanist perspectives on cultural relativism in the human rights discourse

Let me begin with an anecdote that underscores the salience of the theme of this chapter. The story is told of a British anthropologist who, in pursuit of his grand career aspirations, decided to travel deep into the most obscure fringes of Africa for his research on a "primitive tribe." This "primitive tribe" of Africa, he had been told, was so remote and distant that it had made no prior contact with civilization. So, armed with his safari outfit, camping boots, and research tools, he sets out for this exotic part of Africa, through vast virgin jungles and isolated deserts. Finally, he arrives at this most isolated and obscure African village, tired and exhausted, but glad that he has at last fulfilled his lifelong ambition of discovering another "lost tribe" of Africa. He is still wondering how these "primitive, stone-age tribesmen" will react to their first contact with civilization when a scantily clad lad walks up to him and says in impeccable English, "Sir, you look very tired, do you want a Pepsi?" The moral of this anecdote cannot be lost on anyone who lives in our age-an age in which a broad range of trends and forces changing the face of the earth has made our world truly a "global village." The reality of globalization in today's world is that unprecedented dispersion of varied political, social and cultural phenomena across national boundaries have compressed time and space in a way that territorial distance has become of limited significance. This overwhelming force of globalization manifests in almost every facet of human endeavor: in communications through satellite television; in economics with the virtual integration of the world financial system; and in consciousness, with people concerning themselves with issues like human rights and biodiversity in a way that transcends spatial borders. Such is the reality of globalization that much as enthusiastic anthropologists may try-fewer "lost tribes," removed from the rest of the world, remain in Africa or elsewhere-remain to be discovered. Although globalization manifests itself in many ways, it is with the "globalization" (or to use the language of the discourse, "universalization") of human rights that my chapter is concerned. On no other theme is the "globalization of consciousness" more obvious and contentious than on the theme of human rights. Human rights have become a veritable battlefield where the tensions and contradictions of globalization have been elaborately played out in the debate over whether human rights are universal or whether they are culturally relative. Indeed, the debate over the universality or cultural relativity of human rights has for the most part of this century, dominated the global discourse of human rights. At the core of the debate is whether modern human rights conceptions are of universal character and applicability or whether they are culturally relative-that is, dependent on socio-cultural contexts and settings. Simply put: Are human rights of universal viability and applicability or are they better understood and evaluated within specific social and cultural contexts? What level of cultural specificity can be accommodated within the emerging global human rights regime to accord it cultural legitimacy within various societies? This debate precedes partly from the various international human rights documents, particularly the United Nations instruments on human rights, which, in spite of the obvious Western influence in their formulation, declare their contents to be universal, inalienable and cross-culturally valid. Also implicit in this debate is the tension between "collectivist" theorists who place the community above the individual in their conception of human rights and the " individualist" theorists who place the individual above the community. The contending arguments in the universality versus cultural relativity debate have been quite extensively examined elsewhere and it would serve little purpose to restate them in detail here. 1 The object here is to broadly review the discourse on the cultural relativism of human rights and the relevance of the Africanist contribution to this discourse within the context of the globalization of human rights and the quest at enhancing the crosscultural legitimacy of the emerging universal human rights regime. This chapter seeks to outline some of the major arguments in the Africanist discourse on cultural relativism with reference to their relevance in understanding the concept of human rights and its relationship with cultural orientations in particular societies, and specifically, the contemporary African state. Copyright © 2004 University of Pennsylvania Press. All rights reserved.