A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO HUMAN
RIGHTS IN
UGANDA:
CHALLENGES TO THEOLOGY AND
PHILOSOPHY
The topic of this chapter refers to human rights expressed in Runyoro/Rutooro
(R/R) as obugabe bw’obuntu or bw’obuhangwa and in Luganda as
Eddembe ely’obwebange or
ely’obuntu.[i]
This means in brief that the human being has been freely and absolutely given
personal attributes
without having applied for or been consulted; these essential and
core commodities are had from
creation or birth, and noone has a right to
take them away.
Needless to say, in the disciplines of life
studies
or religious studies,
the giver of such inalienable rights is universally recognised
as the most important and generous reality in the cosmos.
The paper proceeds from the assumption that peace has always
been a sine-qua non for the enjoyment of any type of human rights reflection
on this topic
and the challenges from related theological and
philosophical perspectives is based on the fact that
peace cannot be secured merely by philosophy, law, peace
agreements or peace-keeping forces.
It is generally known that religion and
philosophy concern themselves with metaphysical and moral questions that long
have occupied
the consciousness of human
beings in Africa. Where do we come from? Why is there suffering? For what
purpose do we exist on earth?
Is there life after death? What is
good and evil? Is
there a
Creator? These and related questions are of great
concern to all human beings,
no matter what their academic disciplines.[ii]
This calls for is
the justification for discussion
of
the theological and philosophical challenges related to human rights.
Although we do know that knowledge in various fields of study interrelates,
it is sad to note that all too often some modern scholars prefer to concentrate
only on their own field of study. With proverbs like, amagezi
murro bagwiiha nju endi,
meaning that knowledge
and wisdom are essential commodities that
one gets from another house, the African traditional wisdom has some insights to
offer. It advises, the joy of discovering new knowledge and wisdom that should inspire
scholars to communicate their findings with love and in terms their audiences
can understand. People should not hesitate to borrow useful knowledge, wisdom
and enlightenment; they should
be most willing to listen to others lest their knowledge
becomes superficial and imprecise.
A related proverb in Runyoro/Rutooro
and other African languages says, (akaana)
akatabunga kagamba ngu nyinako nuwe acumba obunura: the
child who does not visit believes only its mother cooks the sweetest dishes! In
relation to this, we have some teaching from Confucius of
China who said: “A gentleman can see a question from all sides without bias.
The small man is biased and can see a question only from one side.”[iii]
We are committed here to
seeing questions from all sides for there is no single
discipline nor local prescription that can solve all the problems
facing humanity,
especially during this new millennium.
Before seriously reflecting on obugabe
bw’obuntu or bw’obuhangwa in
Runyoro/Rutooro and on Eddembe ely’obwebange or ely’obuntu in Luganda, let us recognize the cultural impact of
two
alternative views concerning the topic that
have influenced our understanding and practice of human rights.
A
legacy from the West for centuries has taught a high anthropology,
placing human beings over all created beings. It has considered the human being to
be above nature as
the apex of the whole creation.[iv]
Underlying this claim has been the inalienable dignity believed to have derived
from the biblical assertion that “man is created in the image of God” (Gen.
1.26b, 27).
This
has
been identified as the source of human rights.[v]
Together
with the command “have dominion” (Gen.1.28b) it has been the
theological basis for the claim
that human beings are superior to other
creatures. Nonhuman created beings were considered
inferior and,
at best,
fit for human use and dominion:
Descartes said, “Man is the Lord
and owner of nature.”[vi]
Some modern Western theologians have now concluded that
this inherent Western anthropocentrism and the domineering attitude of humans
has done much violence against the whole of creation. From the African point of
view, this traditional Western theology and philosophy is not only different
from the traditional African perspective, but has
limitations. We want to recognise
the impact these have had on African
culture,
which had been considered
a bygone story.[vii]
This paper argues
the need to consider very seriously the alternative worldview of the African
ancestors concerning obugabe bw’obuntu or bw’obuhangwa in Runyoro/Rutooro,
and ely’obwebange or ely’obuntu in Luganda as
indicated in the topic. In this connecting
African ancestors always had, and passed on,
a dual understanding of human rights: one, the
understanding of Runyoro/Rutooro or eddembe
human
rights in relation to the rights of the whole of creation, the other is
human rights in the context of human relationships.
Concerning human
rights and the rights
of the whole of creation,
traditional
African practices and beliefs contain many values that protect and promote human
rights and those of all of creation. Basic to
the African understanding is an
all-important eco-worldview. People claim their identity as deeply rooted in
nature: the land is the peoples’ life and identity,
to a point where the Baganda and some of their neighbours call a human being, omutaka.
The root word taka means “soil”:
hence that the omutaka becomes the person, son
or daughter of the soil is clearly
understood by the people. People live and grow up with nature;[viii]
they
feel one with it and this closeness
with nature and the whole of creation is central to their understanding
of their existence. The meaning and uniqueness of being human can only be found
in relation to the rest of creation.
African
traditions speak of this
interrelatedness of all. These traditions include
the Master Creator or God in English, the number one Mutaka,
human beings and the world. The human relationship with the whole of creation
is characterised by mutual
respect and interdependence, accentuated
by common responsibilities in caring for God’s created world. For
centuries African have
had this vision of a spiritual continuum within which the dead and the living,
natural objects, spirits, divinities, the individual, clan and tribe, animals,
plants, minerals and humans form an unbroken hierarchical unit of spiritual
forces.[ix]
With regard to the understanding of human rights in the context of human
relationships, the African legacy teaches that the human self is not only an
individual self, but an extended universal self, present and
actively participating in all parts of the human totality.[x]
Human rights
are perceived as universal with different personal, social, regional or
provisional conceptualisations
or interpretations. Thus in African history, human rights cannot be understood
apart from the rights of all of creation,
including even the
rights of the dead, nor can the dignity of the person be understood apart from
the dignity of the whole of
creation. People argue, that we do not have the
right to what we have not created.[xi]
In African society one is always a member of a community that comprises
God, the living and the dead, and the entire cosmos. On the purely human level,
one prominent practice has always been that important decisions are taken by the
family sitting around the hearth. Many
creation myths picture all creatures discussing together animatedly, consultating
and arriving at consensus after having taken into
account the words of wisdom and guidance from Ruhanga
(God).[xii]
This is indicative of the universal family that requires
the participation and cooperation of all its members
in decision-making
and in carrying out given responsibilities
according to that cultural
protocol of each.[xiii]
The Ganda cosmology today
has the chain of authority in the cosmos ranging in descending order from Katonda (God) to Kabaka
(king-human), to Mukulu
w’akasolya (head of the kika
clan), to
ow’amasiga (head of the line of one’s great-grandfather),
to
ow’omutuba (head of the line of
one’s grandfather’s brothers and sisters), to
ow’olunyiriri (the line of one’s grandfather), to
luggya (the large family of uncles,
aunts, cousins, nieces) and to
ekka (the nuclear family).[xiv]
The whole of creation
is depicted as one of co-workers and
partners with responsibilities that involve caring for God’s created world. It
is in this God given relationship among all creatures and human kind that the
rights of all creation are founded. In other words, the basis of the fundamental
rights of the whole of creation is God’s right.
The above means that God owns and claims all creatures and the whole of creation.
This entails,
for creatures—human beings included—that rights in their
true sense are gifts from God and never a privilege granted by the state or society.
Moreover, human
rights are
community or social rights: no rights can be
exercised apart from one’s relationships, service and
responsibilities. Hence,
the ultimate court of appeal for justice is always God, to whom appeals
of justice are addressed regarding all
aspects of life: political,
economic, religious and social.
However,
many
Euro-American
nations have seriously critiqued the above point of view, and instead have
enthusiastically praised extreme individualism and sexual liberation. These
trends to lead to the breakdown
of the family,
drug abuse and AIDS. In effect, the leading
ideologies in Euro-American
nations such as Christianity, Marxism, Socialism and a few others have so far
failed to provide solutions to the fundamental problems related to the issues of
human ethics and morality.
The
issue remains of
what should be done to prevent immorality. Many solutions have been suggested
including the
urgent need to reestablish
conjugal love, which founds family ethics and
then expand to social and state ethics.[xv]
Additionally, cosmic oneness means all creatures are interrelated under
their Creator. The kinship-family relationship refers to the African folktale that
people,
and all creatures for that matter, originated from the bowels of the Earth. When
they come out, Kyozaire is the
mid-wife and their first
baby-sitter.[xvi]
When the Earth is symbolically perceived as giving birth to people,
mushrooms and other creatures, she is perceived as the
most generous mother who not only gives birth to the people,
but nurtures and sustains them by the produce of the land. She commands the
highest respect from all creatures. This explains why issues concerning the
soil, mother earth,
and human mothers are among the most
sensitive.[xvii]
The closeness of Africans with nature and other created beings is further
seen in the practice called totemism in
English. Many blood-lineages (clans),
social lineages, or even spiritual
lineages trace their origins to a totem animal or
plant or other creatures. In Makerere University, and reminiscent of the
centuries old custom, there are members of the community known as elephants,
crocodiles, spirits, rats, goats, boxers and so on.
In
the larger
Ugandan society are the
Baganda people with their 52 bikka,
the Banyoro-Batoro with their 83 enganda,
and the Luo of Uganda and Kenya with their 99 blood-lineages each and everyone
of them claiming affinity with some totem. Of course, we find a number of
individuals whose identity is tagged to the Creator.[xviii]
In the African culture, totems command a great deal of respect because some
clans trace their origin to the totem animal or plant. People do not eat their
totem animals or plants, which would be tantamount to destroying their
ancestors. That animal
or plant is accorded a status that ensures
protection.
Hence, even today, with modern philosophy and theology in Africa, totems
are
accorded a status that ensures their protection, while members
of a given blood-lineage recognize solidarity and
oneness with the totem.[xix]
To do otherwise would be
highly unethical. Thus, Africans have
long viewed creatures or nature as having personalities which emanate a
warmth of fellowship and maintain a mystic
kinship with them. This contrasts strongly with
Western traditional understanding of creatures as mere commodities for human
use.
What some philosophers and theologians are saying now in Europe and Asia
has
long been present in African traditions; they are not new ideas.
What
may be
new is that they have not been used for modern philosophical and theological
articulation. This is the challenge to current
philosophers and theologians in Africa.
Because of the
rejection of the African traditional perception of human rights and the focus
only on human beings, today humanity as a
whole is facing many dangerous problems. The greatest of these is the
possibility of global war and nuclear disaster,
which could occur only too easily amidst the struggles, confusion and conflict
of ideologies, owing to the absence of a correct
value system.
Without denying the existence of natural catastrophes like earthquakes,
ghastly hurricanes and floods, the above threat results from the misuse of
man-made scientific research by evil people and various political,
philosophical, theological and even economic interest groups. In
pursuit of their
own selfish purposes they end up sabotaging
human welfare and the
highest ideals. Even religion,
which is supposed rightly to guide the human
spirit, is not fulfilling its appropriate role. Such dangers threaten the very
survival of civilization.[xx]
Who then is to solve our problems? Is it possible to integrate the
African traditional perceptions of human rights and the imported perceptions?
The answer from the age-old African wisdom is that
no other choice is possible if
humanity is to survive. There is a belief that
the challenge
of our age can be met only by teams of
experts from a diversity of disciplines, including philosophy and
theology,
who
can cooperate in the examination
of problems from various perspectives.
Besides, it is observed, that past African
philosophies and theologies have had
their own views of value, each with strong points that
are still beneficial. People
have nearly left them behind, because the past values and principles could not
adjust to the present age. The strong recommendation is that we absorb all these
strong elements from the
past and redevelop
them in ways that meet the needs of
the modern humanity.
Since the human being consists of physical and spiritual content, to
bring real happiness, there is need to improve both the
spiritual and physical life at the same time. This is a major challenge for
human
rights. Modern science has put its efforts into improving material life to
which its horizon is limited.
Hence in
spite
of its
hard work humankind has not been able to escape distress and chaos.
There is a vast
difference between the standards of values:
from ancient
times to the
modern age, between the
Orient and the
Occident, of Europe from Africa. The great challenge
is to
set up standards of value that will cut across lines and
apply at anytime and in any
place. Love at different levels and since time immemorial has been defined as
one of the absolute values that is the
basis of the ethics of the family system.
After many years of the existence of African religion and philosophy, we
read and understand from the history
of Europe that much after the Renaissance,
so-called religious people felt threat from the discoveries of science. The
focus of their concern was with individual salvation without being concerned
with developing the knowledge and techniques necessary to solve the problems of
hunger, disease, old age, and inadequate housing and clothing. Later, there is
evidence that
despite the development of modern science and the prosperity of the economy, and
despite the scientists’ deep desire and diligent efforts,
many problems continue among nations.
With their philosophy of communal life centred on blood-lineages or clan
and social solidarity, African ancestors long developed integrated physical,
social, intellectual, moral and spiritual strategies of development for their
descendants. This was referred to as obugabe bw’obuntu
or bw’obuhangwa or eddembe
ely’obwebange. In
this light, human rights in Africa is are not something
fairly new or imported as is often thought.
In fact,
there is
urgent need not merely to reject whatever
negative values from the past,
but rather to retrieve
from past wisdom the many good values
and principles that will contribute
to the elimination of physical, social, intellectual and spiritual poverty,
illiteracy, diseases of all kinds, tensions, sorrows, pains, restlessness,
anxieties, fears, wars and hostilities and other evils experienced even in the
midst of luxuriously developed and highly scientific countries.
Africa can contribute to the needed education of body and emotions, mind
and heart regarding those values
and principles that regulate humanity’s behaviour by implementing ethical and
moral standards and norms of goodness.
How can this be done? The Greek philosopher, Socrates, gave a clue when he said “ the unexamined life is not worth living.”[xxi] Long before his time, African ancestors in their traditional wisdom taught that the ultimate giver of life and peace, called Ruhanga (Runyoro/Rutooro) or Katonda (Luo) and so many other names in Africa and God in English, has always been involved in the education of mind and heart.[xxii] No one should examine life and leave God out of the equation. The forefathers’ wisdom has always implied the need for a continuous interaction between humankind and its life context. We must follow in their footsteps by seriously examining our life situations. The spirit of the 21st century challenges us to develop a new philosophical and theological consciousness that will provide