'Sovereignty as Responsibility' and the Negation of Nationalists Liberation Ethos : When is Africa a Threat to Itself?

Abstract

Since the turn of the 21st century, there have been spirited campaigns to revise the concept of classical state sovereignty in favour of the international human rights doctrine. Leading theorists on the revision of the concept are Africans like Francis M. Deng and Kofi Annan. Deng and others developed the theory of sovereignty as responsibility which was adopted by the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) in 2001. African leaders challenged the theory as they saw the classical adherence to state sovereignty as the last fortress against re-colonization. On the other hand, there has been considerable internal tyranny in Africa. This paper argues that the negation of classical state sovereignty threatens the achievement of full African development in the continent's diverse nature, and that internal tyranny is also a threat as it negates the values of African nationalism and independence, and invites external interference that will further divide...