Ethics, Human Rights and Development in Africa
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CULTURAL HERITAGE AND CONTEMPORARY CHANGE SERIES II, AFRICA, VOLUME 8 ETHICS, HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA Edited by A.T. Dalfovo James. K. Kigongo J. Kisekka G. Tusabe E. Wamala R. Munyonyo A. B. Rukooko A.B.T. Byaruhanga-Akiiki M. Mawa The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy Copyright © 2002 by The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy Gibbons Hall B-20 620 Michigan Avenue, NE Washington, D.C. 20064 All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Ethics, human rights and development in Africa / edited by A.T. Dalfovo… [et.al.]. p.cm – (Cultural heritage and contemporary change. Series II, Africa; vol. 8) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Ethics—Uganda—Congresses. 2. Human rights—Uganda—Congresses. 3. Uganda— Economic policy—Congresses. 4. Ethics—Africa, Sub-Saharan—Congresses. 5. Human rights—Economic policy—Congresses. I. Dalfovo, A.T. II. Series. BJ981.U33 E88 2002 2002005992 170’.96761—dc21 CIP ISBN 1-56518-172-7 (pbk.) TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION by A.T. Dalfovo 1 Chapter I. Applied Ethics and the Experiential Dimension in African Philosophy by A.T. Dalfovo 27 Chapter II. The Relevance of African Ethics to the Contemporary African Society by James. K. Kigongo 51 Chapter III. The Destiny of the Individual in Contemporary Africa by J. Kisekka 67 Chapter IV. Ethnicities and the Challenge of Social Cohesion in Contemporary Africa by G. Tusabe 83 Chapter V. Freedom and Human Rights: The Development Dilemma in Sub-Saharan Africa by E. Wamala 101 Chapter VI. The Privatisation Process in Africa: Ethical Implications by R. Munyonyo 115 Chapter VII. Human Values as the Unifying Reference of Human Rights and the African Perspective by A. B. Rukooko 137 Chapter VIII. A Holistic Approach to Human Rights in Private Uganda: Challenges to Theology and Philosophy by A.B.T. Byaruhanga-Akiiki 159 Chapter IX. Human Rights and Development in Uganda: Reflections on the Constitutional Provisions of the Right to Development by M. Mawa 183 Index 207 INTRODUCTION ETHICS, RIGHTS, DEVELOPMENT A.T. DALFOVO PART ONE: THE GENERAL APPROACH THE BACKGROUND TO THIS PUBLICATION The collection of papers published in this book is part of an endeavour initiated some ten years ago. At that time, the staff of the philosophy department of Makerere University embarked on a series of seminars on “Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Life.”* The project had been launched worldwide by the Council for Research in Values and Philosophy (RVP), initiated and coordinated by Professor George F. McLean of the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, founder and Director of the RVP. The Philosophy Department of Makerere University has succeeded in realizing three of these seminars in the past ten years. The first seminar went through four stages. It began with the staff of the department choosing the general theme for discussion. Then each member picking, in agreement with the rest of the staff, picked a specific topic related to the general theme and, at the same time, to African thought and life within the context of Uganda. The African and Ugandan reference was naturally felt to be the essential contribution of any seminar in the department. Each staff member had about 6 weeks to prepare his paper, which was then circulated to the other colleagues for a critical analysis. Three months later, a series of staff seminars was scheduled at which each paper was presented by the author and extensively discussed by the participants. Following these encounters, each author revised his paper in the light of what had emerged from the seminar discussions. The papers were then assembled, edited, and finally submitted to Professor G. McLean who proceeded to their publication under the auspices of the RVP. The resulting volumes were The Foundations of Social Life in 1992 from the first seminar and Social Reconstruction in Africa in 1999 from the second seminar. The collection of papers being presented is from the third seminar. The papers in this volume continue the tradition of the previous seminars but with a difference in scope. The previous seminarswere held among the members of the Philosophy Department of Makerere University, and the nature of the seminars was purely philosophical. However, the third seminar was opened to the input from other disciplines, although it was agreed that this third seminar was to remain basically philosophical. The contributors from other disciplines were made aware of this philosophical distinctiveness, and they were actually interested to offer their contribution in view of a final philosophical appraisal of the issues presented. This philosophical expectation on their part posed a challenge to the philosophy department to offer its specific contribution to the problems presented. Participants felt that the seminar succeeded to a considerable degree. Whether the final papers in this publication have attained this expectation, it will be for the reader to judge. THE TOPIC OF THE SEMINAR The choice of the general topic for this last seminar took quite sometime to be decided. It was finally agreed to have a topic combining three issues considered very crucial at the present moment for the life of the individual and of society in this part of the world. The topic was Ethics, Human Right and Development. The issue of ethics was considered to be clearly emerging above any other philosophical challenge in Uganda and, in all probability, in the rest of Africa as well. Ethics continues to stand out as the basic and pervasive component among the multifaceted challenges that the Ugandan society and individuals are facing. The Ugandan government has instituted a Ministry of Ethics and Integrity. The department of philosophy in Makerere University has introduced a postgraduate programme on “Ethics and Public Management.” At the moment of independence 40 years ago, the general agreement among Ugandans was that the political issue was paramount. As the nation developed, it became clear that in practice the economic problem underlay all others. Over the past few years, the general opinion seems to be that ethics is actually at the root of any problem, whether political, economic or otherwise. An element that is becoming ever more associated with ethics is human rights. Human rights are seen practically as “applied ethics”. Some thinkers see in human rights that core of basic principles and values around which there could grow the widely desired “world ethics” that should interest humanity beyond particular ethics. People increasingly perceive human rights as associated with every aspect of thought and life, to the point that such association is automatically extended to any problematic issue even when, upon a more considerate examination, such association may not be so relevant. This tendency nevertheless testifies to the importance attributed to human rights. The third component of the seminar topic is development. Although some people are weary of the ubiquitous term “development,” the concept of development cannot be sidelined in a country like Uganda which is so characterized. A thoughtful consideration of the issue of development cannot but lead any person “of good will” to be “convinced—as the Preamble of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights states—that it is, henceforth, essential to pay particular attention to the right of development and that civil and political rights cannot be dissociated from economic, social,- and cultural rights in their conception and universality. The satisfaction of economic, social, and cultural rights is a guarantee for the enjoyment of civil and political rights.” THE TOPICS OF THE PAPERS The participants contemplated the topic of the seminar from different perspectives. Some issues were typical of each paper while others occurred as significant themes in most of the papers. These latter issues can confidently be interpreted to represent characteristic aspects of African philosophy, like the contextualization of philosophy, applied philosophy and ethics, the holistic approach to issues, testing theory vis-a-vis practice. The following survey of the papers could probably help to discover what is common and what is specific in each contribution. The paper of A.T. Dalfovo considers, first of all, applied ethics, a theme that occurs in most of the papers, highlighting a constant concern in African philosophy. Philosophy in Sub-Saharan Africa has many organisational paradigms inherited from colonial time namely from Western tradition. The legitimate reaction of African thinkers has been to engage African contours to their philosophy, which has meant applying philosophy to the African context. Such application has been not merely theoretical. Namely, it did not only consider the possible particularities in African mental paradigms vis-à-vis the claimed universality of Western paradigms. The application has been brought to bear also on African life in its practical dimension. In other words, the holistic approach has characteristically marked African philosophising. Reality has been viewed and analysed comprehensively, namely in its totality. Dichotomising between mind and body, thinking and doing, spiritual and material, substantial and accidental, inner and outer, spiritual and material, has not been generally effected to the detriment of a comprehensive vision. A.T. Dalfovo notes this perspective in the second part of his paper dealing with the experiential dimension in African philosophy. J.K. Kigongo goes to the core of applied and experiential philosophy in Africa highlighting the need to contextualize philosophical issues when such contextualization may appear to lead to contradictory situations. J.K. Kigongo points realistically to the fact that such contradictions, though obviously problematic, are nevertheless there to be faced and solved. Focussing on ethics, the topic of his paper, the author explains how such enigmatic challenges have arisen from the encounter of the African and the European traditions in ethics. The problematic outcome of such an encounter is presently compounded by the fact that it has to be managed within a context of intense change affecting cultures and societies.