Beyond Rights Talk and Culture Talk. Mahmood Mamdani (ed). New York: St. Martins' Press, 2000. Pp.170.

Beyond Rights Talk and Culture Talk emerged from the papers presented at a conference on Cultural Transformations in Africa, held at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, in March 1997. Beyond the "Talks" lay issues of the relations of power and identity, contest and conflicts of interest, power and privilege, and justice and freedom. The essays draw from scenes as diverse as Tanzania, the USA, Nigeria and India. Different disciplines, from sociology, law, politics, political economy, and theology are covered; the diversity of fields and case studies is indeed a strong point of the book. Despite the variety of the text, there are some regions that are unfortunately neglected. For instance, a look a China would have been useful because a focus of Western relations with China in recent years has been couched in terms of human rights. Thus a critical examination of the human rights issue from Chinese perspective would have been especially relevant.

That said however, the subject is topical particularly in the African context, which is experiencing a series of economic, social and political crises, in which zealot-like social engineers forcefully impose social models or ideas on a disempowered citizenry. It is no wonder then, if the rights movement, as Mamdani notes, "is intolerant of competing world-views…[tending] to dismiss every local cultural assertion as masking a defense of privilege and inequality at the expense of the individual rights of the disadvantaged in the same society (p.3)."

Martin Chanock argues that the cultural-orientation of rights in Western cultures is noted by African states whose leaders "have tried to push rights issues out of the realm of both state and society and into that of 'culture' (p.35)." But this does not "dispose of the question of the desirability of 'rights' being universal (p.19)." On the other hand, Thandabanto Nhlapo observes that rights talk continues to be problematic in non-Western settings. First, in its ordinary perception of who is entitled to what, and secondly, there is the perception that the historical origin of the "rights talk" is linked to Western value systems (p.137). It is questionable whether the ratification of rights conventions would achieve expectations that are difficult to fulfill in the context of "Third World, poor, rural, non-Christian, drought stricken and war-torn or other specific situations (p.138)." However, it should be emphatically stated that none of these arguments justify appalling human rights violations by some repressive regimes in Africa.

Issa Shiviji explains the relativism of the notions of rights and justice manifested along customary, state and religious laws. He places his analysis in the context of land tenure in Tanzania and concludes that for a consensual national ideology to exist, there ought to be a contest between Western-statist-liberal concepts of justice and rights and the social democratic conceptions and perceptions -- the right to life and self-determination -- of the large majority (p.60).

Writing on the US civil rights movement, Kimberle Crenshaw argues that the "rights discourse can both facilitate transformative processes and insulate and legitimize power (p.63)." While the era in which the civil rights movement in the US produced meaningful reformist victories has come to a close, it is the same tone that creeps into the contemporary human rights discourse in Africa as something with the vision for social change. The confrontation between "modernity" and "tradition" is evident.

In the case of India's Uniform Civil Code, which makes provisions for individual and collective rights, the confrontation plays out between women's rights, and the rights of religious communities to maintain their ways of life. There, the feminist debate is locked within the perception of modernity as a liberator hero, while, at the same time tradition is viewed as "the quiet and dignified defense against the alienating, dislocating thrust of modernity (p.75)."

The tension for varying rights is even more acute in Africa. According to Hussaina Abdullah, the right movements in Nigeria focuses around religious revival, human rights activism and women's rights. While the trends of religious "fundamentalism" is becoming all too common in many countries of Africa, the Nigerian state was interested in women's issues promoting the process of "femocracy" or "state feminism" linked to the "First Lady" phenomenon and supported by international organizations (p.96). This essay puts in clear focus the economic and political circumstances through which assorted social movements came to the fore. Noting the problematic of different human rights movements, Abdullah prescribes "a more inclusive and holistic concept of human rights that will embrace the needs and aspirations of all minority and historically marginalized groups, including women (pp.119-120)."

Just as the civic rights movements in the US were allied with the religious community, in South Africa the history of religion and the support of church leaders including Desmond Tutu may explain its importance in the anti-apartheid struggle and its liberation theology. According to Ebrahim Moosa, in the 1980s different religious groups formed a coalition whose "representatives articulated a social message rooted in their respective religious teachings against the evil of enforced racial separation (p.123)." In what is described as "one of the most advanced liberal documents of its kind," the South African Constitution is given to increasingly secularized framework, and it is "bound to impact on the transformation of religion (p.134-5)."

In sum, the book is a commendable work; it is a superb resource for human rights activists, theorists, law professionals, sociologists, feminists and Africanists. It contributes to our understanding of intense conflict underpinning what occurs within a "cultural transformation," from which most readers will benefit.

Seyoum Hameso
The Sidama Concern
Essex, UK