Imperialism and Human Rights: Colonial Discourses of Rights and Liberties in African History

by Ibhawoh, Bonny

• ISBN13: 9780791469248
• ISBN10: 0791469247
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-01-01
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr

Summary

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.

Author Biography

Bonny Ibhawoh is Assistant Professor of History at McMaster University, Canada

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. ix
Foreward	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
List of Abbreviations	p. xv
The Subject of Rights and the Rights of Subjects	p. 1
Right, Liberties, and the Imperial World Order	p. 29
Stronger than the Maxim Gun: Law, Rights, and Justice	p. 55
Confronting State Trusteeship: Land Rights Discourses	p. 85
Negotiating Inclusion: Social Rights Discourses	p. 115
Citizens of the World's Republic: Political and Civil Rights Discourses	p. 141
The Paradox of Rights Talk	p. 173
Notes	p. 181
Bibliography	p. 207
Index	p. 221
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