Indigenous European Justice and Other Indigenous Justices

Abstract

All human beings are indigenous because everyone originates somewhere and is therefore indigenous there. However, the imperialist reason of Europe refuses to be confined geographically, making global claims to universalism in its knowledge-power axes even while remaining peculiar, especially from the points of view of the rest of us who wonder where to place the emphasis in Eurocentric criminal justice systems. This papyrus will remind us of the old African saying that no palm is big enough to hide the sky and so even the good qualities of European empires of law would never be enough to meet the needs of the entire world. The papyrus will emphasize what the world could learn by rejecting Eurocentrism and by bending down low to learn what others know, as Bob Marley called for. The papyrus will conclude with emphasis on lessons from Africa-centered philosophies of justice that run the risk of being lost due to the onslaught of white supremacy in jurisprudence.