Abstract
This article attempts to defend Kwame Gyekye’s moderate communitarianism (MC)
from the trenchant criticism that it is as defective as radical communitarianism (RC)
since they both fail to take rights seriously. As part of my response, I raise two critical
questions. Firstly, I question the supposition in the literature that there is such a thing
as radical communitarianism. I point out that talk of radical communitarianism is
tantamount to attacking a “straw-man.” Secondly, I question the efficacy of the
criticism that MC does not take rights seriously, given that there is no account of what
it means to take rights seriously in the African tradition. This criticism, insofar as it
does not specify a criterion of what it means to take rights seriously, remains
defective. The central contribution of this article is to call our attention to the fact that
the intellectual culture of rights will surely be affected by Afro-communitarianism,
which emphasises our duties to all.