Africa is a continent that bleeds with extremes of injustice. There is no particular point in history where the continent as a whole rested from wars and conflicts. These are traced down to some form of injustice.
Today justice is one of the most complicated matters to speak about globally. These complications arise from cultural relativism and historical injustices. Failed reconciliation processes, global inequalities, political polarization, and endless debates on the boundaries of rights, laws, and the sovereignty of people also contribute to the complexity.
Africa is a continent that bleeds with extremes of injustice. There is no particular point in history where the continent as a whole rested from wars and conflicts. These are traced down to some form of injustice. The colonial legacies include artificial borders, legal systems, land dispossession, and racial hierarchies in some countries. Indirect rule, suppression of traditional leadership, and an economic system that is extractive and under external pressure also contribute. These factors together create a complex of injustices that has become a collective trauma.
To narrow down the discourse, African countries seem to reflect a certain unique blueprint in terms of dispensing justice. Despite having a very deep philosophical foundation in what we proudly call African Philosophy, or which some scholars even argue for its diverse and rich plurality, there is a clearly visible disconnection between such deep thought and the reality in the socio-political and socio-economic reality of the people.
Anyone who happens to read our African philosophical thoughts on justice as relational (as in Ubuntu), restorative (for restoring relationships an harmony), and as consensus building and spiritual (as most African philosophers subscribe to the idea that harm/injustice affects the cosmic spiritual order), and later experience the reality of justice in African countries will certainly be shocked by the divergence.
Some of the classics that nuance this crucial locus of our humanist philosophy are: Kwasu Weredu’s “Cultural Universals and Particulars” (1996) and “Philosophy and an African Culture” (1980), Kwame Gekye’s “African Cultural Values” 1996, Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s “Decolonizing the Mind” (1986), and the recent “Something Torn and New” (2009), and Francis Deng’s “Identity, Diversity and Constitutionalism in Africa” (2008) and “War of Visions” (1995).
As a people, to systemically fail in administering justice, such that justice is first, socially available, and systemically accessible, is proof that we have institutionalized a collective failure at the very basis of human values. Justice is a fundamental and indispensable moral value for humans; it makes us human as we constantly and firmly ensure that we fairly give each other our due. Justice not only affirms our inviolable dignity as persons, but it also regulates our relationships with all other persons within society. Even animals, by instinct, protest against injustice; it is a shame when humans are insensitive and indifferent.
Philosophers such as Aristotle ranked justice as a cardinal virtue, together with and inseparable from three others: prudence, temperance, and fortitude. In religious circles all around the world, including traditional religions, whether monotheistic or polytheistic, or natural or historical, or oriented towards salvation or towards harmony and ethical living, the converging point is justice, and the maxim that is found in all religious, however far they sprouted from states: “Do unto others as you would like them to do unto you.” It simply means being fair and just, as you would want to be treated by others. As such, denial of justice, however minute, wounds the heart of humanity as it breaches humanity’s indispensable value.
Coming to the political arena, the most problematic matter to talk about, and most risky, is that no progress can be built on injustice. The first and utmost progress is the protection of human life and dignity. This entails passing on social values to the younger generations, but at the same time, having a firm rule of law that holds everyone accountable, without recourse to personal authority built on fame, wealth, or family names.
While earned charisma and public honour cannot be denied to persons, no one should impose personal authority to step over what is allowed by law, be it security personnel or even retired and current politicians. When personal authority overrides the rule of law, it creates dissent, vengeance, and a trail of corruption which widens over time in both magnitude and harm. But these are the things that we have in Africa, hence most political circles function like power cabals controlled incognito by oligarchic networks.
In many countries, courtrooms are sometimes used as tools of oppression. That is not a matter for debate here, how or where it happens. There are many cases that remain in court for so long that they become clearly unjust, bringing shame to the rigorous legal training of professionals. While some countries do not have enough legal experts, many others continue to engage in endless debates that unjustly favour political interests. Delays in delivering justice harm both individuals and the common good. The situation is even worse when such delays are institutionalised.
From the look of things, younger generations in Africa are likely to inherit complex endless problems and lasting trauma, as those in leadership make injustice their modus operandi, through rigged elections, suppression of opposition, the use of state power to instil fear, extreme violence, narrative control and the manipulation of information. At its worst, this results in authoritarian hegemony, nepotism, dynasticism, and the weaponisation of the law.
Shimbo Pastory is a Tanzanian advocate for positive social transformation and a student at the Loyola School of Theology, Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines.
