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In this article, I provide the rationale for conceptualizing a rights-based development model for Africa, necessitated by the conviction to seek African solutions to African problems. For the first time since independence, Africa has formulated a consolidated roadmap for development named "Agenda 2063," which looks promising and attainable but leaves unanswered questions relating to the right to development enshrined in the African Charter and ancillary treaty instruments. In retrospect, I illustrate how the right to development originated and has evolved in Africa, potentially setting the pace for development and human rights protection but has not yet recorded significant impact. I contend that Africa's development future is attainable only through a self-reliant consciousness, not by letting the development agenda be shaped by imported paradigms. I justify why and how this is achievable by advancing arguments in favor of right-to-development governance as a homegrown model for development in Africa.

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In this article, we examine the prospect of securing intellectual property protection of African traditional medicine within the legal framework of the right to development in Africa. We do so with the aim to advance the right to development as an imperative to improving living standards for the peoples of Africa. Our analysis involves determining to what extent adequate protection could be secured to the benefit of the communities that engage in the practice of traditional medicine as a livelihood. Despite the imposition of western medicine, which has dominated traditional medicine since the colonial era, the latter has survived and, as we argue, deserves protection for gainful purpose as part of the common heritage, which the peoples of Africa are entitled by law to benefit from. With the renewed impetus directed towards re-establishing African value systems against the iniquities of imperial domination, our central focus in this article is to demonstrate that the practice of traditional medicine is deeply rooted in African culture, which under the African human rights system is granted as a human right. In essence, the advancement of African culture constitutes an integral aspect of the right to socio-economic and cultural development enshrined in the African Charter. Unlike other intellectual property regimes, which we argue are not sufficiently protective, we posit that the right development provides a sui generis framework within which intellectual property protection of African traditional medicine could effectively be claimed as a measure to secure redistributive justice, which the peoples of Africa have been deprived of over the decades.

In this article, I provide a historical narrative and legal analysis of the Southern Cameroons’ quest for sovereign statehood on the basis of the right to self-determination under international law, which grants entitlement to political independence and to socio-economic and cultural development. This account is motivated by the manner in which the question of self-determination for the Southern Cameroons has been dealt with since the times of decolonisation, resulting in yet another bloody conflict on the African continent. Contrary to the global commitment to secure universal peace and security and the adherence by member states of the African Union to human rights and a peaceful and secure Africa, the escalating conflict in the Southern Cameroons not only challenges these aspirations but has also generated a humanitarian emergency of enormous proportions. Because self-determination is guaranteed to apply unconditionally within the context of decolonisation, I post two important questions. First, why was the Southern Cameroons deprived of the right to sovereign statehood when other trust territories gained independence? Second, is the Southern Cameroons still entitled to assert sovereignty on the basis of the inalienable right to self-determination? In responding to these questions, I explain how self-determination for the Southern Cameroons was compromised and further provide justification for the legitimate quest to sovereign statehood.