ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the following key issues: the impact of colonialism on the people of Africa; the continued plundering of Africa through new forms of imperialism; African leader's complicity in human rights violations; debates around cultural specificity and universal human rights; and implications for social work intervention. There is often a mutually corrupt relationship between African leaders and their Western counterparts. African leaders must accept responsibility for their complicity in gross human rights violations, commit to curbing corruption and the criminalisation of the state, and not use culture as an excuse for the denial of civil and political rights. Colonialism has left an indelible footprint on the continent of Africa, as it changed its religious, cultural, economic and political landscape. Contemporary inter- and intra-country, inter-ethnic violence, rooted in a colonial history is one of the major contributors to human rights violations in Africa, with poverty being a precursor to and a consequence of conflicts and human rights violations.
