THE RULE OF LAW AND DEMOCRACY HUBRIS

Abstract

Operating under Euro-American ontological and epistemological paradigms gives the false impression that issues, questions, and challenges are mutually impregnated with homogenous human values and, for that matter, universal concepts of reality, being and existence. This underwrites such deceptive formulation of opaque questions such as the following: How do Europe and Africa cooperate and interact in the fields of rule of law and democracy? What is the impact of the rule of law and/or democratic backsliding on AfricaEurope relations? How are issues of rule of law and democracy backsliding linked to other areas of the European Union external action towards Africa and other regions? In this essay, we argue that these misleading questions are functions of epistemic obscurantism masquerading as shared notions of common humanity, common goals of global justice and equality. We urge for an epistemological paradigm shift in global Southern intellectual, economic, socio-political and other interactions between Euro-America and global Africa.