Imperialism and Human Rights: Colonial Discourses of Rights and Liberties in African History2007 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title In this seminal study, Bonny Ibhawoh investigates the links between European imperialism and human rights discourses in African history. Using British-colonized Nigeria as a case study, he examines how diverse interest groups within colonial society deployed the language of rights and liberties to serve varied socioeconomic and political ends. Ibhawoh challenges the linear progressivism that dominates human rights scholarship by arguing that, in the colonial African context, rights discourses were not simple monolithic or progressive narratives. They served both to insulate and legitimize power just as much as they facilitated transformative processes. Drawing extensively on archival material, this book shows how the language of rights, like that of "civilization" and "modernity," became an important part of the discourses deployed to rationalize and legitimize empire. |
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Imperialism and Human Rights: Colonial Discourses of Rights and Liberties in ... Bonny Ibhawoh No preview available - 2006 |
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Abeokuta African context African elites African societies antislavery argued articulated Atlantic Charter Benin bride wealth British colonial Christian civil claims colo colonial administration colonial Africa colonial government colonial land colonial legal system colonial officials colonial period colonial rule concept of human constitutional cultural relativism custom customary law debates deployed discussions about rights divorce E. D. Morel economic Egba empire European freedom Freedom Charter groups historical Ibadan ideas Idumuashaba Igbo Ijebu imperial indigenous indirect rule individual rights Issele-Uku justice Lagos Standard Lagos Weekly Record land rights language of rights legitimize London Mahmood Mamdani marriage missionaries nationalist Native Courts native rights nial Niger Delta Nigerian Youth Movement Nnamdi Azikiwe Ordinance ownership pawnship petitions postcolonial protect regime rhetoric of rights rights and liberties rights discourse Rights in Africa rights talk slave slavery social Southern Nigeria tion treaty trusteeship UDHR University Press West African Pilot women World Yoruba