Africa’s Zara Yacob: A Father of Early Modern Classical Liberal Thought?

Does classical liberalism, a philosophy rooted in the belief that liberty is
the most important political value—have intellectual roots in Africa? Was early classical liberal thought unique to European culture?

Consider the following claim. All men are equal in the presence of God; and all are intelligent, since they are his creatures; he did not assign one people for life, another for death, one for mercy, another for judgement.

It sounds like it might have come from the pen of John Locke, or perhaps Voltaire, Mary Wollstonecraft, or Thomas Paine. The sentiment it expresses animates the American Declaration of Independence. What European or American wrote those lines? That proclamation comes from….

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