Justice

In the African conceptual system, justice is inseparably linked to freedom. Justice is not sustainable without freedom, which in turn has no anchorage in an unjust system of human organization. Justice is viewed alongside freedom as an important characteristic of the Supreme Creator.

Justice implies that an individual contribution to society is just as important as the societal contribution to the development of the individual human essence and spiritual existence. This is the principle of equal standing in nature from which justice is projected to the individual and the social collectivity. In African social formation, justice maintains within society the equality of human essence established in nature. In this respect, social justice is derived from belief in the characteristics of creation and seeks to establish general forms of societal rules that must be applicable to all under conditions of freedom. Thus, there is a complete rejection of the idea of injustice. Differences are nothing but manifestations of the same Thing that is All and All that is in the Thing (God).

Differences among individuals can never be used to violate the principle of equal standing because difference is an asset of the universal idea of unity among human beings. Any violation leads to injustice, which is contrary to the postulate of a Just Creator (God). The Creative Force is Infinite and Just. This is revealed in the Principles of Opposites. The Creative Force is in All and is the All and hence sits in judgment of all to constitute the socially derived principle of justice.

The principle of justice is thus composed of two subprinciples: natural justice and social justice. Natural justice constitutes a primary category of fairness because it is an implementation of freedom that we find in nature. Social justice is a derived category of fairness from natural justice as the work of the Creative Force toward the implementation of freedom in society.

The principle of social justice compels humans to behave so that each works in defense of all and all work in defense of each. Thus, social justice ensures collective unity and social stability so as to avoid destructive conflicts that may be generated by the dynamics of individual-community duality in a manner that can undermine the foundations of the society. This principle of social justice formed the foundational construct of Maat, the moral ideal in ancient Egypt, as revealed by the Book of the Coming Forth by Day and its administration. This principle of justice is also the foundation of African land tenure system, where land distribution is democratized; land is collectively owned and held while the individual temporally owns a piece of the land according to need and use.

Freedom and justice are inseparable in nature; moral rules and legal parameters must be derived from natural rights in such a way that natural freedom supersedes social justice, whereas social justice is a guide to social freedom and collective security. Freedom and justice as one combined principle define a framework where social responsibility, duty, and benefits are shared equitably by individuals and society in terms of ability, strength, and need. Thus, this construction of the combined principles constitutes human activity in the administration of social production and distribution. It is this principle of justice-freedom that gives rise to social oaths of allegiance and the rites of passage.

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