In classical African communitarianism, individual rights have
tended to be accorded a secondary status to the good of the community.
What is prioritised are the duties and obligations the individual has to
the whole as opposed to the entitlements one can expect to derive from
a community qua individual. I seek to show that this view, by its own
standards and assumptions, is erroneous in framing rights as secondary
to the good of the community. I attempt to show that individual rights
are an inherent component of classical African communitarian accounts.
Further, I seek to argue for a non-communalist view of African communitarianism
which takes into full account the multiple factors that constitute
modern African communities. Such a view, I suggest, will avoid the
unnecessary dichotomisation of rights which has become synonymous
with the classical African communitarian account.
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