How our rights affect their rights: rethinking animal rights in Africa
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Date
2018-11
Authors
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Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Zululand
Abstract
The issue of animal rights protection is a fundamental one for the animal rights
activists especially in Western societies. There are animal rights organisations in
the USA, UK and some European countries, with the sole aim of protecting and
rescuing animals around the world. There are series of legislations also from the
governments of various countries with the aim of prohibiting wanton and
unreasonable killing of animals or violation of animal rights. But is it the same in
Africa? The answer is not straightforward. Why is this so? Do Africans really
believe in the validity of such rights? If they do, are they really thinking about it, just
like Westerners? These questions are addressed in this paper, which agrees with
the view of the supporters of animal rights. Essentially, it argues that given the
enormity of socio-economic and political challenges confronting African countries,
the issue of animal rights seems not to be a matter of priority in practice for many
African leaders. The focus of this paper is that the inherent challenge of securing
human rights in Africa, coupled with socio-economic and political problems
confronting African countries, is basically responsible for ineffective protection of
animal rights in Africa. Thus, this paper concludes that if human rights are taken
seriously in Africa, animal rights will be taken seriously.
Description
Peer reviewed article published under Inkanyiso journal, Volume 10 Number 1, p.122 - 129, November 2018
Keywords
Animal rights, human rights, African beliefs, African religions, Culture
Citation
Olanipekun, O.V., 2018. How our rights affect their rights: rethinking animal rights in Africa. Inkanyiso: Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 10(1), pp.122-129.