Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I How to Understand Childhoods in the Postcolonial Context
- Part II Children Under Colonial and Postcolonial Rule
- Part III Children’s Rights and the Decolonization of Childhoods
- Epilogue: Childhoods and Children’s Rights Beyond Postcolonial Paternalism
- References
- Index
6 - Pitfalls of Postcolonial Education and Child Policies in Africa
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 March 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I How to Understand Childhoods in the Postcolonial Context
- Part II Children Under Colonial and Postcolonial Rule
- Part III Children’s Rights and the Decolonization of Childhoods
- Epilogue: Childhoods and Children’s Rights Beyond Postcolonial Paternalism
- References
- Index
Summary
Africa proper, as far as History goes back, has remained – for all purposes of connection with the rest of the World – shut up; it is the Gold-land compressed within itself – the land of childhood, which lying beyond the day of self-conscious history, is enveloped in the dark mantle of Night. (G.W.F. Hegel, The Philosophy of History, [1837]2001: 109)
‘Did not the great thinker Hegel call Africa a land of childhood?’ Professor Ezeka asked, in an affected tone. – ‘Maybe the people who put up those NO CHILDREN AND AFRICANS signs in the cinemas of Mombasa had read Hegel, then,’ Doctor Patel said, and chuckled. – ‘Nobody can take Hegel seriously. Have you read him closely? He's funny, very funny. But Hume and Voltaire and Locke felt the same way about Africa,’ Odenigbo said. ‘Greatness depends on where you are coming from…’ (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun, 2007: 50)
Introduction
With 70 percent of people under the age of 30, more than 450 million children and adolescents under the age of 18, including approximately 150 million children under the age of five (UNICEF, 2014: 190), Africa is the continent with the youngest population. However, there are only a few social studies that deal comprehensively with children and childhood in Africa. Childhood research is even less likely to address postcolonial issues. It usually refers to specific issues such as child labour, child trafficking, street children, children in armed conflicts or child orphans as result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and wars. These accents fit into ‘a completely outdated blanket presentation of Africa as a horror continent of backwardness and disasters in the public and media’ (Lundt, 2016: 33).
In this chapter, I want to give an impression of how the situation of children and the characteristics of childhood in Africa are influenced by postcolonial power and childhood politics. I want to concentrate on three aspects. First, on the changes that follow with the establishment of schools according to Western patterns. Second, the debate on the appropriateness and implementation of children's rights, especially with regard to particularly marginalized and precarious groups of children. Third, the relationship between children and adults, and the limitations and opportunities for them to play an equal and active role in their societies.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Decolonizing ChildhoodsFrom Exclusion to Dignity, pp. 99 - 124Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2020