Putting Africa First

Africa is home to many peoples, nations, cultures, languages, traditions and systems of belief. Across the continent and throughout the African diaspora, Africans have developed their own ways of organising communities, resolving disputes, protecting families, governing societies, preserving culture and maintaining relationships between generations. Yet modern African societies also operate within many institutions, systems and belief traditions that originated outside the continent. Africans participate in international and continental organisations such as the African Union (AU), ECOWAS, the United Nations and the International Criminal Court (ICC), while Christianity and Islam, among other global religions and philosophies, have become deeply established across many African societies. International financial institutions, corporations, charities, governments and other organisations also play significant roles in Africa’s political, economic, social and cultural life.

These relationships can provide important benefits. International cooperation can bring knowledge, investment, education, humanitarian assistance, technology, trade and opportunities for collaboration. ACCL does not reject cooperation with the wider world. However, Africa must also be capable of asking an important question:

Are African people and communities sufficiently able to determine their own priorities, protect their own interests and develop their own solutions?

ACCL exists in part because we believe the answer should be yes.

African Agency

The African Charter of Common Laws is founded on the principle that Africans should have the confidence and capacity to think, organise, cooperate and build for themselves. African people should not have to depend permanently on external institutions to determine what is best for African communities. Nor should African societies be expected to abandon their own traditions, knowledge and identities in order to participate in the modern world.

ACCL seeks to provide a framework through which Africans can develop and strengthen common standards for human dignity, community responsibility, justice, peaceful coexistence, cultural preservation, economic cooperation, business ethics, protection of children and vulnerable people, conflict resolution, leadership and accountability.

The objective is not isolation from the world. It is greater African agency within the world.

Examining External Influence

ACCL recognises that foreign influence can take many forms—political, economic, religious, cultural, institutional and ideological. Such influence should neither automatically be regarded as beneficial nor automatically condemned simply because it originates outside Africa. Instead, Africans should have the freedom and confidence to examine every external influence critically.

What does it serve? Who does it serve? Who makes the decisions? Whose interests are being protected? What responsibilities are being created? What are the consequences for African people and communities?

These questions should apply equally to governments, international organisations, businesses, religious institutions, political movements, charities, financial institutions and other external interests. ACCL therefore does not ask Africans to reject the world. It asks Africans to engage with the world from a position of awareness, confidence and self-determination.

Our African Foundations

Africa does not begin with modern international institutions. Long before colonial rule and the creation of today’s international organisations, African societies developed systems of governance, law, ethics, social responsibility, conflict resolution, family organisation and community protection. These systems differed greatly from one African society to another. There was never one single African culture or one universal African system of law. Africa’s strength has always included its diversity.

The Akan tradition is one example of this broader African heritage. The Akan 100 Common Laws provide an important foundation and source of inspiration for the development of ACCL. ACCL seeks to preserve valuable African knowledge while examining it honestly and constructively. Where traditional practices promote dignity, responsibility, community wellbeing and peaceful coexistence, they can provide valuable lessons for the present. Where practices cause serious harm or conflict with fundamental protections, they should be questioned and, where necessary, reformed.

African tradition should not be treated as untouchable simply because it is old, nor should it be discarded simply because it is African.

Unity Without Uniformity

Africa does not need to become culturally uniform to cooperate.

The continent contains thousands of communities and many different languages, cultures, histories, religions and traditions. ACCL does not seek to erase this diversity. Instead, it seeks to establish a common standard of conduct through which different peoples can live and work together while retaining their identities.

African people do not have to abandon their traditions.

Likewise, membership in ACCL should not depend upon a person adopting a particular religion or abandoning an existing belief.

The common ground is conduct and responsibility.

African First Does Not Mean Anti-Foreign

ACCL’s commitment to putting Africa first should not be misunderstood as a rejection of other peoples or cultures.

Africa can learn from the world.

Africa can trade with the world.

Africa can cooperate with the world.

Africa can welcome useful knowledge, technology, investment and ideas from elsewhere.

But cooperation should not become permanent dependency, and openness should not require the abandonment of African identity or decision-making power.

African-first means that African people should have the ability to place legitimate African interests at the centre of decisions concerning African communities and Africa’s future.

It means Africans should be able to determine what they wish to preserve, what they wish to change and what they wish to create.

It means African traditions should be allowed to contribute to the future rather than being regarded merely as remnants of the past.

A Common African Framework

ACCL therefore seeks to establish a common framework through which people and communities can cooperate across differences.

The 100 Common Laws provide principles concerning human dignity, responsibility, justice, peaceful coexistence, cultural freedom, protection of vulnerable people and community accountability.

They are intended to provide more than a collection of ideals. They seek to establish practical standards for how people and communities should conduct themselves, resolve problems, accept responsibility and build trust.

The framework is conduct-based. A person’s ethnicity, nationality, tribe, religion, wealth, social position or cultural background does not determine whether they are capable of upholding the Charter.

What matters is their conduct and their willingness to respect the common standards.

A Framework for Self-Development

ACCL is ultimately about more than resisting outside influence.

It is about developing the capacity to do more for ourselves.

If African communities can establish stronger standards of conduct, they can build greater trust.

If they can build greater trust, they can cooperate more effectively.

If they can cooperate more effectively, they can create stronger communities, institutions, businesses and networks.

And if these networks become stronger, Africans can increasingly develop solutions to African challenges using African knowledge, African participation, African resources and African initiative, while still cooperating with the wider world.

This is the direction ACCL seeks to encourage.

Our Purpose

The African Charter of Common Laws seeks to create a foundation upon which Africans and African communities can strengthen their ability to preserve, develop, cooperate and act in their own interests.

It does not seek to replace Africa’s many cultures with one culture or its many beliefs with one belief.

It seeks to establish common principles that allow those differences to coexist while providing standards of dignity, responsibility, justice and accountability.

ACCL believes that Africa should be able to engage with the world without losing itself.

It should be able to learn without becoming dependent.

It should be able to cooperate without surrendering its agency.

It should be able to modernise without abandoning its heritage.

And it should be able to build a future in which Africans are not merely participants in systems created elsewhere but creators of systems that serve their own communities and contribute to the wider world.

The ACCL Principle

Africa should be open to the world but capable of standing on its own.

Learn from the world. Trade with the world. Cooperate with the world. But build Africa for Africans, with Africans, and with African interests at the heart of African decisions.

This is why ACCL exists.