Sundiata’s Charter may be the world’s earliest human-rights declaration

Evidence

For the 10-year-old (Ages 9–11): Sundiata’s reign (1235-c.1255) was foundational for the Mali Empire (1235-1670), which was for centuries one of the wealthiest empires on earth. The Charter he proclaimed has been called by some historians the world’s earliest declaration of human rights. The Sundiata epic has been preserved orally for seven centuries. — , A Year of World Stories, 4869

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: which historians make this claim about the Charter, and what does the actual Charter text say? Also what conditions enabled seven centuries of oral transmission?
• SEED: Article angle: non-Western forerunners of human-rights declarations, and how oral tradition can outlast written archives.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s interest in survival of cultural knowledge and precolonial African history, echoing leads from other Africa-focused sources. — connects to: The Charter is not a declaration of constitutional doctrine. — Winston Churchill, A History of the English-Speaking…, 397

Related

• The Charter is not a declaration of constitutional doctrine. (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• The Charter is not a declaration of constitutional doctrine. #contradicts (0.40) — Winston Churchill, A History of the English-Speaking…, 397