The Banyan Tree Paradox – Culture and Human Rights Activism

Reviewed by Shailja Patel

The press release for this book posed two key questions:

1) How can we together better protect the right to culture?

2) How can we do a better job of protecting people from harms caused by cultural practices?

It goes on to say:

"IHRIP's goal in developing ‘The Banyan Tree Paradox’ was to better equip us as activists to do both."

"Activists" is an umbrella term. The book seems aimed as much at NGO workers, legislators, scholars, teachers, students, as grass-roots activists. At US$30 plus postage and handling, it's outside the budget of most individual activists in Europe and North America, much less those in the global South. However, a limited number of copies will be made available free-of-charge to human rights NGOs (details on how to order at end of article). In the next several months IHRIP will publish Spanish, Arabic and French translations of the book.

Mentioning "culture" and "human rights" in the same sentence instantly calls up issues from global headlines in recent years: Female Genital Mutilation in Africa, South Asia's caste system, Amina Lawal. Notice they are all located in the developing world. Far less likely to pop up are the US prison industrial complex, polygamy and child marriage among American Mormons, discrimination against the Sami people of Finland, archaically restrictive divorce laws in Ireland or Italy.

‘The Banyan Tree’ does not, by and large, challenge this bias. It cites, a couple of times, the civil rights struggle in the US. One of the 6 case studies in the appendices is a bold and searching examination of United States Exceptionalism - "the notion that the United States is different from other countries, and that this uniqueness gives the country the freedom to act as if it were exempt from international laws and human rights standards." But all other experiences, insights, and testimonies are from Africa, South Asia, Latin America. East Asia rates one mention. Europe and Australasia are conspicuous by their absence.

That said, simply hitting every continent does not guarantee a book's quality. And in all fairness, The Banyan Tree is the result of a specific convocation: a workshop held by IHRIP at Siem Reap, Cambodia in August 2005. The title itself comes from the location. Over centuries, huge Banyan and silk trees have grown around and through ancient temples at Angkor Wat. "While it would be tempting to kill off those trees whose roots are dislodging large stones in the temples, at the same time other roots of the same trees surround the stones, so that they seem to be holding the stones together…This image seems particularly fitting [in considering] the very fundamental role that culture plays in constructing and maintaining human societies at the same time that various cultural institutions and practices can deeply harm, even kill, human beings."

In its 140 pages, the book delves into questions of universal standards vs. "cultural relativism", challenges notions of monolithic cultures, highlights the conservative religious discourse that designates women (without choice) as custodians of community identity, and bearers of culture. The language is clear and direct and encourages the reader to engage and examine her own assumptions and identities. Frequent questions and exercises enhance this participatory experience. The beautiful design, with illustrations by Jonah Lobe, drawn from traditional art around the world, spacious layout, and consistent use of text boxes and shading, make it an excellent teaching and reference resource, although the index could be more detailed. Particularly useful, from a practical point of view, are the chapters on fact-finding and documentation, and developing strategies - framing terms, advocacy, working with international law, formal and traditional legal systems, translating human rights language to make it accessible.

Appendices include six case studies presented at Siem Reap: Amina Lawal in Nigeria, the 2004 Communal Land Rights Act in South Africa, Female Genital Mutilation across Africa, the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Committee, concessions in Cambodia of land and resources to private companies in Cambodia, and US Exceptionalism.

Perhaps the most important thing about "The Banyan Tree" is that it presents, without simplifying, the complexity of the myriad ways in which culture and human rights intersect, merge, diverge, and clash. At one end of the spectrum, Dalit (untouchable) women in India speak of the most important right as "the right to survive…access to food, clothing, housing, education, and secure life, but not at the expense of their personal and community honour."

At the other, South African researcher Aninka Claassens attacks the "false dichotomy" between rights and culture posed by the fiercely-opposed 2004 Communal Land Rights Act in South Africa. "Most dangerous of all, however, is the fact that a discourse which says that human rights are foreign to Africa denies the existence of and potential inherent in, sophisticated African systems of relative rights, which, in balancing needs and entitlements, prioritise meeting basic needs. These systems should be assessed on their merits, not through the prism of Westerm pre-conceptions about the nature of human rights. They have much to teach about the realization of socio-economic rights and survival mechanisms in a hostile world. To ignore them makes it easier for them to be destroyed by a variety of forces, including elites cloaked in ‘tradition’.”

‘The Banyan Tree’ posits that human rights are fundamentally about power – protecting individuals from the power of the state, or maintaining an equal balance of power among individuals and groups. It suggests that: "Human rights standards represent the best current understanding internationally of what is needed to protect human dignity." Perhaps this is nothing more than the latest, most codified incarnation of the innate human need for justice, that goes back to the dawn of time. But for anyone seeking a preliminary understanding of why this is so hard to achieve, ‘The Banyan Tree’ is a good place to start.

To order a copy of "The Banyan Tree Paradox", contact IHRIP at:

e-mail: [email][email protected]
tel: (1 202) 326-7725
fax: (1 202) 326-7763
web: http://www.hrea.org/lists/hr-education/

* Please send comments on this review to [email protected]

* Shailja Patel is a Kenyan Indian poet and spoken word artist. Visit www.shailja.com