There has been much debate on the question of rights in African
communitarian thinking. Some scholars have averred that duties are
prior to rights in African communitarian society, and that to prioritise
rights is foreign to the non-Western perspective. Yet, there are others
who argue that in non-Western societies rights are prior to duties. I
share this view. I present my position by arguing that economic rights
in African communitarianism affirms autonomy of the individual,
though the same rights are expressed through the ideas of consensus and
human well-being. In my argument I state that human well-being is well
expressed as a communal effort climaxed through consensus where all
these are premised on individual autonomy. By arguing in this way, I
respond to the accusation that says African philosophers who argue for
the priority of rights have failed to demonstrate how rights are considered
prior to duties in African societies.
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