borah et al 00 fmt flip1.qxp 7/15/19 10:37 AM Page i Creative Incursions borah et al 00 fmt flip1.qxp 7/15/19 10:37 AM Page ii Recent Titles in the Carolina Academic Press African World Series Toyin Falola, Series Editor Africa, Empire and Globalization: Essays in Honor of A. G. Hopkins Edited by Toyin Falola and Emily Brownell The African Civil Service Fifty Years after Independence Edited by Emmanuel M. Mbah, Augustine E. Ayuk Against the Predators’ Republic: Political and Cultural Journalism, 2007–2013 Biodun Jeyifo Conflict Resolution in Africa: Language, Law, and Politeness in Ghanaian (Akan) Jurisprudence Samuel Gyasi Obeng Contentious Politics in Africa: Identity, Conflict, and Social Change Edited by Toyin Falola and Wanjala S. Nasong’o Contesting Islam in Africa: Homegrown Wahhabism and Muslim Identity in Northern Ghana, 1920–2010 Abdulai Iddrisu Creative Incursions: Cultural Representations of Human Rights in Africa and the Black Diaspora Edited by Abikal Borah, Bisola Falola, Toyin Falola Decolonizing the University, Knowledge Systems and Disciplines in Africa Edited by Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni and Siphamandla Zondi Democradura: Essays on Nigeria’s Limited Democracy N. Oluwafemi Mimiko Èsù: Yoruba God, Power, and the Imaginative Frontiers Edited by Toyin Falola Ethnicities, Nationalities, and Cross-Cultural Representations in Africa and the Diaspora Edited by Gloria Chuku Falolaism: The Epistemologies and Methodologies of Africana Knowledge Abdul Karim Bangura Gendering African Social Spaces: Women, Power, and Cultural Expressions Edited by Toyin Falola and Wanjala S. Nasong’o Ghana During the First World War: The Colonial Administration of Sir Hugh Clifford Elizabeth Wrangham Globalization: The Politics of Global Economic Relations and International Business N. Oluwafemi Mimiko A History of Class Formation in the Plateau Province of Nigeria, 1902–1960: The Genesis of a Ruling Class Monday Yakiban Mangvwat borah et al 00 fmt flip1.qxp 7/15/19 10:37 AM Page iii Horror in Paradise: Frameworks for Understanding the Crises of the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria Edited by Christopher LaMonica and J. Shola Omotola Ifá in Yorùbá Thought System Omotade Adegbindin Imperialism, Economic Development and Social Change in West Africa Raymond Dumett The Indigenous African Criminal Justice System for the Modern World Olusina Akeredolu Issues in African Political Economies Edited by Toyin Falola, Jamaine Abidogun Julius Nyerere, Africa’s Titan on a Global Stage: Perspectives from Arusha to Obama Edited by Ali A. Mazrui and Lindah L. Mhando “Life Not Worth Living”: Nigerian Petitions Reflecting an African Society’s Experiences During World War II Edited by Chima J. Korieh Local Government in South Africa Since 1994: Leadership, Democracy, Development, and Service Delivery in a Post-Apartheid Era Alexius Amtaika The Muse of Anomy: Essays on Literature and the Humanities in Nigeria Femi Osofisan Nollywood: Popular Culture and Narratives of Youth Struggles in Nigeria Paul Ugor Pan-Africanism in Ghana: African Socialism, Neoliberalism, and Globalization Justin Williams Perspectives on Feminism from Africa Edited by ‘Lai Olurode Satires of Power in Yoruba Visual Culture Yomi Ola The United States’ Foreign Policy in Africa in the 21st Century Edited by Adebayo Oyebade Urban Challenges and Survival Strategies in Africa Edited by Adeshina Afolayan and Toyin Falola The Vile Trade: Slavery and the Slave Trade in Africa Edited by Abi Alabo Derefaka, Wole Ogundele, Akin Alao, and Augustus Babajide Ajibola The Yoruba in Brazil, Brazilians in Yorubaland Edited by Niyi Afolabi and Toyin Falola Women, Gender, and Sexualities in Africa Edited by Toyin Falola and Nana Akua Amponsah borah et al 00 fmt flip1.qxp 7/15/19 10:37 AM Page iv borah et al 00 fmt flip1.qxp 7/15/19 10:37 AM Page v Creative Incursions Cultural Representations of Human Rights in Africa and the Black Diaspora Edited by Abikal Borah Bisola Falola Toyin Falola Carolina Academic Press Durham, North Carolina borah et al 00 fmt flip1.qxp 7/15/19 10:37 AM Page vi Copyright © 2019 Carolina Academic Press, LLC All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Borah, Abikal, editor. | Falola, Bisola, editor. | Falola, Toyin, editor. Title: Creative incursions : cultural representations of human rights in Africa and the black diaspora / edited by Abikal Borah, Bisola Falola, Toyin Falola. Description: Durham, North Carolina : Carolina Academic Press, LLC, [2019] | Series: African world series | Includes bibliographical references. Identifiers: LCCN 2019021482 | ISBN 9781531013097 (alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Human rights—Africa. | Marginality, Social—Africa. | African diaspora. | Africa—Cultural policy. | Africa—Social life and customs. Classification: LCC KQC572 .C74 2019 | DDC 323.096—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019021482 eISBN 978-1-5310-1310-3 Carolina Academic Press 700 Kent Street Durham, North Carolina 27701 Telephone (919) 489-7486 Fax (919) 493-5668 www.cap-press.com Printed in the United States of America borah et al 00 fmt flip1.qxp 7/15/19 10:37 AM Page vii Contents Series Editor’s Foreword ix Notes on Contributors xi Introduction 3 Abikal Borah 1 · Beyond Culture and Constitution: Economic Marginalization, Social Exclusion, and Legitimizing Human Rights in Africa Bonny Ibhawoh 19 2 · The Role of Traditional Leaders in Addressing Women’s Rights in Postcolonial Africa: The Case of FGM and Forced Marriage Serges Djoyou Kamga 35 3 · “Relative Universalism” of Human Rights: The Tragic Human Drama and the Debates on Homosexuality in Uganda Ogenga Otunnu 63 4 · Human Rights and the Postcolonial African Literati Bernard Steiner Ifekwe 97 5 · Articulations of Human Rights Ideas in Contemporary Yorùbá Poetry Arinpe G. Adejumo 117 6 · Harmony between Two Worlds: Urhobo Lamenting and the Politics of Mourning Felicia Ohwovoriole 135 vii borah et al 00 fmt flip1.qxp 7/15/19 10:37 AM Page viii viii Contents 7 · Domestic Expectations and Igbo Women’s Victimhood in B for Boy Chinedu Anumudu and Owusu Ansah Boakye 153 8 · Delirious Aesthetics and Human Rights in Music Videos about the LRA Atrocities in Northern Uganda Okaka Opio Dokotum 167 9 · The Rhetoric of Silence: Listening to Women’s Nonverbal Activism in Anglophone Cameroon Delphine Fongang 197 10 · Hip Hop Politics: Agitation through Film and Music in West Africa Rita Keresztesi 213 11 · The Right to Narrate African Heritage in the Diaspora: Writing as a Political Gesture Felipe Fanuel Xavier Rodrigues 225 12 · Diasporic Experiences in Amma Darko’s Beyond the Horizon and Chimamanda Adichie’s Americanah Bosede Funke Afolayan 245 Bibliography 265 Index 281 borah et al 00 fmt flip1.qxp 7/15/19 10:37 AM Page ix Series Editor’s Foreword The Carolina Academic Press African World Series , inaugurated in 2010, offers significant new works in the field of African and Black World studies. The series provides scholarly and educational texts that can serve both as ref - erence works and as readers in college classes. Studies in the series are anchored in the existing humanistic and the social scientific traditions. Their goal, however, is the identification and elaboration of the strategic place of Africa and its Diaspora in a shifting global world. More specifically, the studies will address gaps and larger needs in the developing scholarship on Africa and the Black World. The series intends to fill gaps in areas such as African politics, history, law, religion, culture, sociology, literature, philosophy, visual arts, art history, ge - ography, language, health, and social welfare. Given the complex nature of Africa and its Diaspora, and the constantly shifting perspectives prompted by globalization, the series also meets a vital need for scholarship connecting knowledge with events and practices. Reflecting the fact that life in Africa con - tinues to change, especially in the political arena, the series explores issues em - anating from racial and ethnic identities, particularly those connected with the ongoing mobilization of ethnic minorities for inclusion and representation. Toyin Falola University of Texas at Austin ix borah et al 00 fmt flip1.qxp 7/15/19 10:37 AM Page x borah et al 00 fmt flip1.qxp 7/15/19 10:37 AM Page xi Notes on the Contributors Bonny Ibhawoh is a professor of History and Global Human Rights at Mc - Master University, Canada. He has taught in universities in Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. He was previously a human rights fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics and International Affairs, New York; a research fellow at the Danish Institute for Human Rights, Copenhagen, Den - mark; and an associate member of the Centre for African Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK. He is the author of several books and journal articles on human rights and imperial history, in - cluding Imperialism and Human Rights , Imperial Justice: Africans in Empire’s Court , and Human Rights in Africa . Serges Djoyou Kamga holds an LLD from the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria and is currently an associate professor at the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute, University of South Africa. He is a member of the “building committee” of the Cross-Cultural Human Rights Centre, a consortium of one European university, ten Chinese universities, and four African universities aimed at bringing concepts and ideas from the global south in the area of human rights to northern audiences. His areas of interest include leadership and African renaissance, development and human rights, human rights from a cross-cultural perspective, and disability rights. He is a co-editor of the African Disability Rights Yearbook . Ogenga Otunnu is an associate professor of history at DePaul University. He is the co-founder of the Center for Forced Migration Studies at Northwestern University. He has lectured at the summer program on refugees and forced migration at the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University for more than a decade.