Dignity For The Voiceless

Willem Assies died in 2010 at the age of 55. The various stages of his career as a political anthropologist of Latin American illustrate how astute a researcher he was. He had a keen eye for the contradictions he observed during his fieldwork but also enjoyed theoretical debate. A distrust of power led him not only to attempt to understand “people without voice” but to work alongside them so they could discover and find their own voice. Willem Assies explored the messy, often untidy daily lives of people, with their inconsistencies, irrationalities, and passions, but also with their hopes, sense of beauty, solidarity, and quest for dignity. This collection brings together some of Willem Assies’s best, most fascinating, and still highly relevant writings.

Dignity, or karama in Arabic, is a nebulous concept that challenges us to reflect on issues such as identity, human rights, and faith. During the Arab uprisings of 2010 and 2011, Egyptians that participated in these uprisings frequently used the concept of dignity as a way to underscore their opposition to the Mubarak regime. Protesting against the indignity of the poverty, lack of freedom and social justice, the idea of karama gained salience in Egyptian cinema, popular literature, street art, music, social media and protest banners, slogans and literature. Based on interviews with participants in the 2011 protests and analysis of the art forms that emerged during protests, Zaynab El Bernoussi explores understandings of the concept of dignity, showing how protestors conceived of this concept in their organisation of protest and uprising, and their memories of karama in the aftermath of the protests, revisiting these claims in the years subsequent to the uprising.

The idea of human dignity is central to any reflection on the nature of human worth. However, the idea is a complex one that also takes on many different forms. This unique collection explores the idea of human dignity as it arises within these many different domains, opening up the possibility of a multidisciplinary conversation that illuminates the concept itself. The book includes essays by leading Australian and International figures.

What is a human being? What makes humans special, different from other creatures? Or is a human just another animal? Drawing on Scripture, Aquinas, and science, this book seeks to articulate both why and how humans should be understood as special. Despite amazing similarities to other creatures, humans are physiologically, psychologically, and spiritually unique beings. No other creatures--not even angels--have the unique combination of capacities nor the divine calling that humans have. Vanden Berg argues that only humans are material-spiritual, intellective, worshipping beings created specifically for a personal relationship with their Creator and with the stated vocation of caring for God's world and representing God in it.

In this volume, scholars draw deeply on negative theology in order to consider some of the oldest questions in the philosophy of religion that stand as persistent challenges to inquiry, comprehension, and expression. The chapters engage different philosophical methodologies, cross disciplinary boundaries, and draw on varied cultural traditions in the effort to demonstrate that apophaticism can be a positive resource for contemporary philosophy of religion.

God and the Human Environment: Catholic Principles of Environmental Stewardship as a Template for Action in Nigeria brings into conversation the Church’s theological reflection on the mandate to care for God’s creation and the circumstances of the environment in Nigeria. In vivid terms and with systemic thinking, Fr. Jude Osunkwo, a theologian who specializes in Environmental Studies and Pastoral Catechesis, explores the biblical, theological, magisterial, and doctrinal bases that underlie a faithful response to contemporary environmental challenges. After setting the stage with a summation of the issues and a survey of significant ecclesiastical statements on the topic of the environment, God and the Human Environment addresses Catholic theological principles of stewardship, Christian responsibility, and the ethics of development. Then the discussion turns to the environment of Nigeria, assessing its current state and reviewing the causes and consequences of environmental challenges before proposing pastoral responses for the Church. Finally, some chapters address likely developments in Nigeria and the Church. An extensive bibliography and several appendices provide additional support. God and the Human Environment is a rigorously researched and passionately presented exploration of the issues growing out of the environmental circumstances Nigerians currently face. Whether you live in Nigeria or count yourself as a member of the Catholic Church and live somewhere else, God and the Human Environment explores a topic that promises to make a difference in your life and to protect the part of the environment that God has created for you to tend.

Even though this study was primarily on human traffi cking and prostitution among Edo women and girls of Edo state in Nigeria, human traffi cking, however, is a widespread, visible phenomenon in the world today. It is a global problem. A report from United Nations Offi ce on Drug and Crime in 2014 says that human traffi cking involves over three million people in the world, bringing their slaveholders an annual profi t of 32 billion dollars. According to the same report, there is no place in the world where children, women, and men are safe from human traffi cking. In the background, the stark reality of poverty, unemployment, social marginalization, political crises, wars, interethnic confl icts, and the militarization of entire territories has increased the massive displacements of the population, fuelling the illegal sex trade linked to them. Many youngsters who desire to improve their living conditions and those of their families fl eeing their homes often become prey to criminal organizations who take advantage of them, exploit them, and dehumanize them. Little do they know when they are leaving their homes to go to overseas, what is waiting for them is often something altogether diff erent, namely intimidation, blackmail, violence, nightmare, and slavery that strip them of all dignity and respect. To make matters worse, most of the victims and their families not only lose credibility but are also ostracized by their local communities when what happened comes to light. Th erefore, the victims of this painful chain are not only young girls and boys but also families. Unfortunately, some parents, especially mothers, have also been perpetrators of this deplorable crime. Th ey push their daughters into the arms of their torturers, lulled by the dream of a brighter future. To stop and to prevent the reoccurence of this criminal network of complicity, which has been more or less voluntary, conscious and unconscious, a joint commitment by all governments, organizations, local communities, and individuals is necessary. Everyone needs to remember and never forget that every human being, every person has been created and procreated in the image and likeness of God and is a subject of essential rights, which should never be violated but rather should be respected and upheld by everyone in every time and place.

This book sets out to understand the ethical dimension of Black lives and deaths in the modern period. Recent events—from the brutal murder of George Floyd to the pervasive violence meted out daily on the streets of our cities—have demonstrated all too clearly the fundamental trait that shapes our contemporary moment: the Black condition is defined by indignity. Ajari takes dignity as his starting point because dignity is what white people try to abolish in their violence toward Black people, and it is what they deprive themselves of in exerting this violence. Dignity is also what Black people collectively affirm when they rise up against white domination. When a young Black man or woman’s dignity is taken from them as the result of assault, rape, or assassination at the hands of the state, the roots of a long history of struggle, conquest, and affirmation of African humanity are exposed and shaken. Above all, dignity is the ability of the oppressed, trapped between life and death, to remain standing. Dignity or Death offers an uncompromising critical analysis of the European philosophical tradition in order to recover the misunderstood history of radical thought in Black worlds. Slave uprisings, Negritude, radical Christian traditions in North America and South Africa, and political ontology are all steps on a long and troubled path of liberation.