How central is the African Union to the promotion of traditional African values? - a critical engagement : Centre for Indigenous Law

• Author: Babatunde Fagbayibo
• DOI: 10.10520/EJC-797846b57
• Published date: 01 January 2014
• Date: 01 January 2014
• Record Number: sapr1_v29_n2_a5
• Pages: 313-322

LLD (Pretoria), Senior Lecturer, Department of Public, Constitutional and International Law, Unisa,

*

fagbabo@unisa.ac.za. The author sincerely appreciates the useful comments of Ms Mmatsie

Mookie on this article.

How central is the African Union to the

promotion of traditional African values?

– A critical engagement

Babatunde Fagbayibo*

Abstract

In addition to the Charter for African Cultural Renaissance, many of the

normative instruments of the African Union (AU) underline the importance

of traditional African values. Through its policy documents, action plans

and charters, the AU expressly points to the centrality of traditional

African values in the attainment of organisational objectives and goals.

These include instruments on human rights, women, youth, elections and

dem ocra cy, ec ono mic deve lopm ent and g ener al reg iona l integ ration. T his

acknowledgement raises two critical questions. The first relates to the

level of implem entation o f this ideal by m emb er states, a nd the se cond is

the extent to which the AU provides an effective coordinating platform for

the promotion of traditional African values. These two interrelated

enquiries lie at the heart of understanding how the AU can play an

essential ro le in the prom otion of traditional African va lues.

This article intends to home in on the institutional perspective of

promoting traditional African values through transnational mechanisms.

The central argument is that AU member states should demonstrate the

nece ssary politic al will to stren gthen Afric an Union in stitutions to b e able

to effectively coordinate and implement efforts aimed at channelling

traditional African values into development efforts at both the national and

transnational levels.

1 Introduction

The discussion on the promotion of traditional values naturally lends itself to a

national context. In other words, the assumption is that national governments