This timely volume shows that, despite the global spread of a homogeneous neoliberal economic ideology, the need remains to understand variations in cultural values and political institutions. All over the world, people are claiming their rights. But are these claims prompted by similar values and aspirations? And even if human rights are universal, what are the consequences of claiming them in different historical, cultural and material realities? How do Western notions such as liberal individualism suit very different traditions that value sociability, negotiation and conviviality?

These questions are addressed in a wide variety of African countries whose very diversity compels careful thought about the meaning of such apparently universal values as democracy and rights. What are the consequences of introducing liberal institutions to African realities? How do Africans' ways of claiming rights challenge dominant Euro-American-inspired ideas and institutions?

Problems of xenophobia, land tenure, women's rights, nationalism, multi-partyism, minority rights, and cultural and ethnic 'authenticity' are among the volume's central themes. By laying bare some of the inadequacies of liberal individualism in highly plural societies, these detailed studies provide innovative critiques of such taken-for-granted concepts as civil society, democracy, citizenship and human rights, and unsettle dominant Euro-American paradigms.