An African Constitution in the 13th Century: The

Kurukan Fuga: Mande Charter of 1222.

olanrewaju oginni
2012 January
Today, thousands of NGOs, as well as government institutions, exist and millions of dollars are
being poured into them, for the purpose of teaching Africans about human rights and
democracy. If it was not so tragic, it will be amusing. It is a measure of how low Africa has been
bent.
It was not always this way. There was a time when we were kings and we taught the world the true
meaning of our joint humanity. There was a time when we were responsible for our selves and took
care of ourselves in logical and philosophical ways.
The Kurukan Fuga Charter of Mali of 1236 and its predecessor, the Mande Charter of 1222 reveal
to us Africa's philosophical past in an extraordinary way.
The Kurukan Fuga is a Charter of Human Rights, privileges and obligations, principles for a
cohesive Empire, deliberated on and agreed upon some 800 years ago, on the plains of West Africa,
close to the borders of the modern nations of Guinea and Mali.
In describing the Mande Charter of 1922, Nick Nesbitt of Princeton University wrote, ...Five and a
half centuries before the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789, in many respects its
closest related text, one of the most original and important texts in the history of political thought
appeared.
UNESCO describes the Kurugan Fuga as one of the oldest Constitutions in the world! It, according
to the inscription page, contains a preamble of seven chapters advocating social peace in diversity,
the inviolability of the human being, education, the integrity of the motherland, food security, the
abolition of slavery by razzia (or raid), and freedom of expression and trade.
800 years ago, Africans knew how to arrange themselves and invented human rights but in the 21st
century are now being taught a reduced version of these principles. How the mighty have fallen!
The 1922 Mande Charter encompassed all the principles that are now being taught and touted as the
sole discovery and property of foreigners; the Charter encompassed and can infact be said to be the
earliest known legal instrument that enshrined the principles of human rights, environment

protection, women rights, universal education, universal employment, a delicate system of checks
and balances of power, foreign relations as well as the participation and inclusion of all members of
the society in the development of that society. The Kurukan Fuga is an elaboration of the original
and on it, the Mali Empire was built. The Empire was based on leadership by consensus and was
formed based on deliberation and agreement of its constituent units.
Pre-colonial Africa was not perfect nor was it a garden of Eden by any stretch of the imagination
but it was not the barbarous, lawless and ignorant backwater we have been programmed to believe
it was. Africans were intelligent, visionary, logical and philosophical thinkers that studied nature
and man and applied their observed phenomenon to providing intelligent and scientific solutions to
their everyday life. Of course there were also the bandits, despots, kidnappers, slavers, and
freebooters. At the point of contact with Europeans, these last set may have gained prominence and
eventually overshadowed the real Africans, just as today the corrupt, dictatorial governments and
criminal Africans dominate speech and perception of Africa. But we all know that not all Africans
are corrupt, not all are stupid, not all are starving and illiterate and not all are criminal entities. To
quote Leo Frobenius, The Children of the Gods have gone under because they failed to remember
the Law their awe-worthy ancestors had bequeathed to them.
A little background to the charters. Around 1222AD, Sundiata Keita, a member of the Mande, a
breakaway nation from the expiring Ancient Ghana Empire (which existed from around the third
century AD to the 11th century AD) led a revolution. At the Battle of Kirina, he and his troops won
a decisive victory over Soumaoro Kant. The victorious Sundiata convened, what in 21st century
parlance will be known as a Sovereign National Conference, known then as the great Assembly of
the People at Kouroukan Fouga in 1236 and laid the foundation of what will later be known as the
Mali Empire, whose fame travelled the length and breath of the known world at that time and one of
its principal cities, Timbuctoo, passed into fable. Its Emperor, Mansa Musa, a descendant of
Sundiata has recently been named the richest man of all time (see
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/17/mansa-musa-worlds-richest-man-alltime_n_1973840.html) based on estimates of the stupendous wealth he displayed on his pilgrimage
to Mecca in 1324.
On winning the famous battle, the new Emperor did not just take the throne to reign over his
conquered subjects. The Mande Hunter's Guild provided the intelligence, field work, manpower and
arms with which he won his battle. He was a member of this guild because it is sung in the over
3,000 line long Epic of Sundiata, that he wore his hunter's garb even as emperor; not for him was all
the pomp and pageantry of Kingship. The Great Assembly of all members of his new empire came

together to deliberate on the best way in which peace could be assured and growth and prosperity
promoted. The first thing they did, which many analysts have overlooked, is that they sought to
break down tribal barriers, or anything that can cause conflict on the us against them platform.
They based their deliberations on the earlier 1922 Mande Charter, which was probably the
ideological principle of their war of independence, and its central theme, the eternal principle of
equality of humanity and nature. They emphasized the fact that all Mali was one and can only
achieve its purpose on an inclusive and united front. The Mande charter rejected the identification
or differentiation of human beings based on their physicality. Instead, it based its definition of
humanity on the soul or the spirit which animates all human beings. The empire was not divided
by language or nationality but by function; and so the society was divided into different groups
based on specific functions of each group in the society.
Article 1 of the Mande Charter and Article 5 of the Kurukan Fuga are arguably the earliest
legalization of Universal human rights for all members of the society as opposed to a small section
of that society. It anticipated by centuries, the European Enlightenment philosophy of human rights
as well as Kant's theory of the universality of human dignity. The Kurukan Fuga was based on
citizenship for all peoples of Mali and was negotiated and deliberated on by both King and
representatives of the people for all of society. The Magna Carter was written by a group of 13thcentury barons to protect their rights and property against a tyrannical king who had to be forced to
accept the document at the risk of his throne. The Kurukan Fuga on the other hand was enacted by
the General Assembly called by a victorious King and agreed upon by all. The Kurukan Fuga was
concerned for the rights of ALL peoples of the nascent Empire.
It makes for an interesting sociological study on the structure of society in pre-colonial Africa as
opposed to the rigid class structure with which sociologists and political scientists wish to fit an
unwilling Africa into. Even today in Africa, when a billionaire goes to the family meeting, the head
of the family presides, even if that head is only a farmer. It sort of contradicts the whole rigid class
structure and class conflict with which Africa's problems are currently being analysed.
The Mande Charter is based on the central theme of eternal principle of equality of humanity. Its
very first article states Ko nin b nin which loosely translates to mean Every life is a life; that
is, ALL life is important. It does not accept the principle of collateral damage for instance. This
underlines an important philosophy of conflict resolution: war becomes such a weighty prospect
that it should be embarked upon only after the gravest of deliberations and when ALL other
avenues for conflict resolution has been exhausted.

What started as a war of liberation for the Mande escalated into an empire wide revolution, bringing
different tribes and peoples under the vanguard of Sundiata's authority and hence the Mande's
Charter had to be adjusted to accommodate political exigencies, the realities on ground and the
expanded nationalities of the new empire. Hence the Kurukan Fuga waits till the 5th article to state
unequivocally and without discrimination that,
Everybody has a right to life and to the preservation of its physical integrity. Accordingly, any
attempt to deprive ones fellow being of life is punished with death.
Concerning Universal Education, its 9th article states:
The childrens education behoves the entire society. The paternal authority in consequence falls to
everyone.
Concerning Women's Rights, its 16th article states that:
Women, apart from their everyday occupations, should be associated with all our managements.
On diplomacy and foreign relations, its 25th article states that:
The ambassador does not risk anything in Mande
Articles 31-36 deals with property rights while Articles 37-39 deals with environmental issues.
In 2009, The Kurukan Fuga was inscribed by UNESCO on the Representative List of the Intangible
Cultural Heritage of Humanity
Misunderstanding of the Kurukan Fuga
It has been sometimes interpreted to mean that Mande society was divided into rigid and unyielding
classes and the functions of each group was frozen in time, for all time. This is not African. The
different groups were divided on the basis of order in society, effective administration, division of
labour and specialisation. They were not rigid classes; in pre-colonial times, movement across
disciplines were possible and occurred all the time. As in most other pre-colonial African society,
even the evil of slavery did not transcend generations. War captives were absorbed into society
usually within one generation. Additionally, if the child of the blacksmith does not want to learn the
trade, he was free to learn to become scholar or a quiver carrier.
It is also important to note that constitutions were not limited to only the Mali Empire in Africa.

Other societies and empires existed based on ideological principles. The various nations that are
today called the Yoruba people, for instance, did not call themselves any such name before the 19th
century. They did not identify themselves by language or city. They identified themselves, as all true
Yoruba people still identify themselves today, as Omo ile Karo ojire, which translates loosely into
the land in which when you wake up in the morning, you extend greetings and goodwill to all you
meet. The underlining principle is the same, the brotherhood and interdependence of all humanity.
The Oyo Empire like the Mali Empire was not strictly an empire in the known sense of the word. It
was a federated unit that encompassed, either by war or by choice, different nationalities that
subscribed to the same philosophy. While tribute was paid to the federating centre, as taxes are paid
today to the Federal governments, each unit largely maintained its own identity. The ancient Ghana
Empire was more of the same. Under the authorities of the Kaya Maghans, Soninks, Peuls,
Maures, Wolofs, Malinks and Songhays lived together for centuries without losing their ethnic
identities, language or their specific characteristics.
These systems of course were not perfect and eventually broke down due to various factors. The
Africans were only human. It is the dehumanization of the Africans that now requires Africans to be
superhuman in order to prove they are human. Our forefathers were striving towards an ideal. There
has never been an ideal society in the world. It does not however remove from them their
extraordinary foresight to seek this ideal which the world today is still searching for; The ideal of a
just world based on equal rights and opportunities for all.
Apparently, no one should be able to teach Africans about human rights, representative government,
diplomacy, administration or economics. But because we have forgotten our past, we continue in
repeated circles of underdevelopment wherever we may be, whether at home or in the Caribbean,
South America or in the Western world.
The Charter provides the world with an ideological basis on which to structure a better, more just,
more equitable world solely needed in this present construct filled with conflicts, wars, economic
depression, suicides, environmental degradation and criminality everywhere. And it was conceived
by African brains, 8 centuries ago.
New solutions are needed to address current problems facing humanity as a whole.
If you do not know where you are going, you must, at least, know where you are coming from

African Proverb
African history is not just some exotic folklore in some distant past to be used to boost our
destroyed egos or to be used for sloganeering. African history contains a rich source of research
material for us to go back to and use to analyse our present and construct new discussions and new
solutions for our future.
All the recommended solutions for Africa and Africans everywhere have refused to produce the
desired results. It may be that the problem lies in the solutions being offered in the first place. The
real problems, and not the symptoms, need to be properly diagnosed in order for us to be able to
apply probable solutions. When you go to a doctor today, the first thing a good doctor should ask
you is your history, in order for him to be able to make an informed diagnosis.
Africa was not created in the 19th century. Africans are the oldest human beings in the world, we
have a history dating back at least 150,000 years. We cannot throw away tens of thousands of years
of experience for a 500 year old experiment. The Charter was not perfect and it existed in relation to
the realities of the times in which it was enacted as do all documents and legal systems everywhere
else in the world but it exists, and not only does it exists, it contains some solutions that are still
valid 800 years after it was enacted.
Sankofa is one of the series of philosophical Adrinka symbols of the Akan people in modern Ghana.
It means to return and look, seek and take; that is, we should not be afraid to go back to our past to
take whatever is useful to guide our understanding of our present and to direct our plans for the
future.
As Professor Djibril Tamsir Niane wrote in the conclusion of his address Kinship of pleasantry:
historical origin, preventative and regulatory role in West Africa delivered at the workshop titled
Initiative on Capitalising on Endogenous Capacities For Conflict Prevention and Governance,
held in Conakry in 2009,
We must not give into Afro-pessimism. We should release forces of invention and creativity and
base our actions on the genius of our peoples. I am convinced that if we find the meaning of
progress within ourselves, we will overcome the prejudices that hinder the continents progress
towards the future.
Africans, both at home and in the diaspora, Sankofa!

For more on the Mande Charter, Kurukan Fuga and the full 44 articles, see the following websites
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/56/56/38874847.pdf
http://www.oecd.org/swac/events/38515935.pdf
http://www.realalternativesite.com/kouroukan-fouga-a-636.html
http://www.afrik.com/IMG/doc/LA_CHARTE_DE_KURUKAN_FUGA.doc