Before the Universal Declaration: The Kouroukan Fouga Charter and Africa’s Early Tradition of Human Rights

The Kouroukan Fouga Charter reveals that codified principles of rights, social responsibility and political order existed in Africa centuries before the UDHR. Its legacy challenges assumptions that modern human rights are an exclusively Western development.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, is a document that has gained global recognition for its role in regulating and codifying social behaviors and human interactions within modern social societies. It establishes a set of accepted regulations and norms that serve as guidelines for the conduct of individuals and nations alike. In France, despite the absence of official adoption, the Jacobins were instrumental in the creation of the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1793.” The utilization of these texts is predicated on their historical significance, weight, and importance. However, there is a text that has largely been disregarded or overlooked. This text predates both aforementioned texts and is referred to as the Kouroukan Fouga (or Manden) Charter. This text, which was composed in 1235, is widely regarded by scholars as one of the most ancient documents to address fundamental rights.

The objective of this study is not to compare or contrast the various texts, which ultimately share the same objectives, but rather to demonstrate that the concept of a codified human rights charter existed long before in Africa. The demonstration’s significance lies in the fact that African countries and leadership appear to be consistently reminded of the concept, existence, or importance of the UDHR, as if they were unaware of it. However, the Kouroukan Fouga Charter demonstrates that within African culture, there has always been a social order that has guided and constructed human moral and value systems throughout the continent. Therefore, the question that can be posited is whether there is an instrumentalization and politicization of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by Western nations as if the concept is inappropriate for certain regions of the world, a way to put in the frame of Samuel Huntington’s “the clash of civilizations and a remaking of the world order”. It is imperative to employ an empirical and epistemological approach to understanding human rights in Africa and verify the Kouroukan Fouga as evidence of the existence of such codification in the African context. This approach is necessary to refute the fallacious assertion that certain societies are recent arrivals in the realm of human rights.

Originally, the Kouroukan Fouga was the constitution of the Mali Empire, established in 1235, when an assembly of nobles convened to establish a government for the recently formed empire. It also delineated the operational framework for this federation and established the legal principles that would guide the people’s conduct. The “Manden Charter, proclaimed in Kurukan Fuga,” was inscribed in 2009 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity maintained by the United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The Kouroukan Fouga principle bears a striking resemblance to the principles that guide modern societies. Indeed, it appears to have foreseen many of the issues that plague contemporary society, including the protection of vulnerable populations, such as women and children. Here are some of its articles;

• Article 5: Everybody has a right to life and to the preservation of physical integrity. Accordingly, any attempt to deprive one’s fellow being of life is punished with death.
• Article 9: Children’s education behooves the entire society. The paternal authority in consequence falls to everyone
• Article 16: Women, apart from their everyday occupations, should be associated with all our managements [governments].
• Article 14: Never offend women, our mothers, elevating the societal status of women and making their mistreatment a civic offense.

In consideration of the aforementioned two articles, it is evident that violence against women has been proscribed and the promotion of gender has been identified as a matter of importance for ensuring equality and equity between men and women in the context of tradition.

An analysis of the charter reveals notable parallels with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the French Declaration, particularly with regard to the shared presence of certain characteristics. One might hypothesize that the oversight regarding this chart was due to either a lack of awareness or a deliberate cultural dismissal. Although UNESCO has commendably acknowledged the existence of the aforementioned document, this chart could serve as a valuable contextual reference for the establishment of legislation in various African countries. It is therefore recommended that scholars and legislators thoroughly examine the chart and integrate it with the current constitution.

The integration of text into a specific context facilitates social interaction. A considerable number of individuals have characterized African countries as reluctant to acknowledge and implement universal legal principles. Nonetheless, the Kouroukan Fouga charter provides compelling evidence that this assertion is demonstrably false. It is widely regarded as the most ancient document extant that explicitly endorses human rights. The acknowledgment of the Kouroukan Fouga signifies a rejection of prevailing stereotypes concerning the African continent and the realization of universal principles in their true sense.