You are pushing a false thesis that Fela Kuti debunked long ago - the idea that human rights were gifts from Beasts of No Nation to African human beings. Please refer to Cheikh Anta Diop (Precolonial Black Africa) and Chancellor Williams (The Destruction of African Civilization) to see that African declarations of the rights of all human beings (not just of free men) and respect for human rights predated the Magna Carta and the US Bill of Rights.
The novels that you cite pale into insignificance in the annals of African women's rights in comparison to the daring raids of Harriet Tubman to free the enslaved; Jamaican Maroon women did the same; the Aba Women's War of 1929 against British colonialism; The Abeokuta Women's deposing of the colonial puppet - the Alake; the Kikuyu women's resistance against forced labor in the 1950s; and the South African women's resistance against Pass Law in the 1950s.
Far from being lessons learned from the West, women's rights, just like human rights are lessons that the West learned from Africans. First, they debated for centuries to determine whether Africans were human or property the way they debated whether women were property or human. Enslaved Africans in Haiti answered affirmatively to teach the Europeans that we are human, all too human. Soon after wards and with the support of African men like Frederick Douglas and Du Bois, women also won the recognition that they are fully human too.
Fanon teaches us that Europeans are human rights frauds to the extent that they were never tired of talking about human rights but abominate human beings everywhere they found them. The invasion of Libya has nothing to do with humanitarianism except in the sense of vegetarianism.
Biko
--- On Tue, 6/28/11, kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:
> From: kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu>
> Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Imperiled Revolutions
> To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
> Date: Tuesday, June 28, 2011, 4:11 PM
> hi gloria
> i agree that the absence of moral authority makes the
> rhetorical reasons for invading sound hollow. they mostly
> are hollow.
> i couldn't begin to examine the moral authority of an
> invading force to judge the validity of the invasion.
> i want to turn it around and claim that nations always act
> on their own national interest. if a leader were not to do
> so, he or she would be booted out.
> so the question for me becomes, given that france and the
> u.s. and the u.k. are acting in libya for their own national
> interest, is the intervention itself something that i am
> happy is happening. and i mostly feel that ghaddafi should
> not have been allowed to quash the movements against his
> regime by the use of force.
> i wish there were a way we could lend support to the
> uprisings in syria and bahrein and yemen, the democracy
> movement in morocco, even in algeria. i find these movements
> enormously inspiring.
> i am skeptical that support for these movements will
> "install democracy." i am opposed to a model of
> african/arab/latin american peoples sitting around waiting
> for outsiders to install things into them.
> on the other hand, on both sides, that of the invaders and
> the invaded, there are complicated mixed motives for action.
> sometimes it might be a simple landgrab, but often the
> contradictions between rhetoric and actions point to mixed
> motives.
> i've only recently come to see this, that despite the
> oppression of colonialism africans took away from the
> encounter with the colonialists much that they wanted and
> were able to use to their advantage, included ideas about
> liberal human rights, gender rights, and so on. and some of
> this, maybe most of it, was despite colonial policies. for
> instance, colonial censorship was very severe, but the ideal
> of freedom of the press and rights of self-expression
> couldn't be extinguished, and they carry through today with
> journalists in africa some of the very bravest people on
> earth. in country after country that i follow, i see
> journalists on the firing line, and willing to risk jail or
> their lives. why is that?
> we in the west talk about freedom of the press. there is
> much we could criticize about murdoch's press as biased and
> worthless trash; but that ideal of a free press, especially
> in countries like cameroon and senegal, is lived at a much
> much higher level than i've ever seen in the u.s.
> basta
> thanks for your response and thoughts
> ken
> (by the way, to justify my comment about women's
> rights being something african women took to their
> advantage, i would offer the novels of nwapa, emecheta,
> mariama ba....the older women authors who set the stage for
> african women's writing, as testament to my claim. they
> themselves wrote about their experiences in schools when
> they were young that gave them a spirit of freedom. add
> aidoo to that list.
> another great example is wangrin by hampate ba, but that is
> another story)
> On 6/28/11 7:06 PM, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) wrote:
> > Ken, this time around I am merely the messenger, not
> the author,
> >
> > although I note your comments.
> >
> > Incidentally I disagree with your view that an
> invading power should not at least
> > have some semblance of moral authority and some
> 'locus standi'. Without that
> > its justification for invasion sounds hollow and it
> joins the league of blatant hypocrites.
> >
> > To say that you, as a power, are invading to
> install democracy whilst
> >
> > your own government is undemocratic is weird. What do
> you think?
> >
> > Dr. Gloria Emeagwali
> > www.africahistory.net
> > www.esnips.com/web/GloriaEmeagwali
> > emeagwali@ccsu.edu
> > ________________________________________
> > From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
> [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com]
> On Behalf Of kenneth harrow [harrow@msu.edu]
> > Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2011 5:51 AM
> > To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
> > Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Imperiled
> Revolutions
> >
> > the binary postulated here is too neat. "Islam" is
> better written
> > "Islams." there are strong divisions in most countries
> in the middle
> > east, i believe, concerning more conservative versus
> more liberal
> > understandings of islam.
> > i think one could also argue that liberal secularism
> is also the product
> > of a relatively small segment of most societies around
> the world, with
> > differences. in the u.s. conservatives run against
> "secular humanism,"
> > and have managed to demonize it, for example. and the
> split here in
> > france is clearly along similar left-right divisions
> over liberal
> > secularism.
> > ken
> >
> > On 6/26/11 4:15 AM, Emeagwali, Gloria (History)
> wrote:
> >> Islam is embraced by the vast majority of the
> Middle East. The idea of a liberal secular republic is the
> vision of the bourgeoisie, professional elements among the
> middle strata, and the more organized and skilled sections
> of the working class. There is little doubt that the mosque
> provided an institutional foundation for opposition to
> secular authoritarian leaders – the Church took on a
> similar role in Eastern Europe under communism – and it
> makes sense that organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood
> should have a jump start on political organization in the
> post-revolutionary society.
> > --
> > kenneth w. harrow
> > distinguished professor of english
> > michigan state university
> > department of english
> > east lansing, mi 48824-1036
> > ph. 517 803 8839
> > harrow@msu.edu
> >
> > --
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>
> -- kenneth w. harrow
> distinguished professor of english
> michigan state university
> department of english
> east lansing, mi 48824-1036
> ph. 517 803 8839
> harrow@msu.edu
>
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