The Reach and Boundaries of Moral Concerns: Which Way for British Aid in Africa?

Abstract

The British government’s recent threat to withhold aid from African governments that do not reform legislation banning homosexuality has generated a lot of resentment from African countries where homosexuality is still illegal. With supposedly different social norms and values, Africa’s anti-gay stance is largely seen as being precipitated by its cultural values. Whilst Britain and, more recently, the US and Canada, have all determined that the issue of homosexuality lies at the heart of human rights, many African countries have stressed that it boils down to cultural values and social norms, a notion which many Africans believe Western governments have failed to appreciate.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an insight into this issue. It examines whether patterns of particular culture are really incompatible with admitted standards of human rights. The paper also dwells on the debate raging over universal human rights and cultural differences. It concludes that the culture of transnational modernity, one that specifies procedures for collaborative decision-making, conceptions of global social justice, and definitions of gender and sexual roles, stands at risk if it fails to take into account cultural specificity in some regions.