JUDICIAL ABOLITION OF EDUCATIONAL AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IN AMERICA: POTENTIAL IMPACT ON EQUALITY RIGHTS AND DEVELOPMENT AGENDA IN AFRICA

This paper examined the potential impact of the recent decision of the American Supreme Court, which abolished affirmative action in university admission processes. Affirmative actions were designed by the universities to assist candidates belonging to minority races to gain admission into their choice of universities. Hitherto, persons belonging to those groups found it difficult to compete with the white candidates for admissions, as a result of some historical deprivations which subjected them to an inferior educational background in the lower schools. Affirmative actions, which started in America in the 1960s and quickly spread to other jurisdictions, are a reverse discrimination policy aimed at remedying the systematic injustice/ disadvantages to which the victims were subjected in the past. After many decades of recognition and application of this reverse discrimination policy in the United States, the Supreme Court in June 2023 held that the policy is unconstitutional. Considering the enormous influence of American Supreme Court decisions on constitutional and human rights matters in foreign jurisdictions, it is not unlikely that courts in Africa may begin to strike down affirmative actions. This paper, using the doctrinal methodology involving case law review, reports of dailies/periodicals and analysis of regional instruments, recommends that African courts should not be in a hurry to follow this American decision, which is detrimental to equality rights and the development agenda on the continent. Recommendations were also made on how to streamline and improve Affirmative Action implementations in Africa.