africa3

One only has to look around to realise that the notion of the happy “African Child”, proudly
eulogized by the author Camara Laye in his famous book of the same name has long since
gone. Recent events demonstrate that the present day African environment denies the
average African Child any true joy of living. The African Child continues to suffer the effects
of war, poverty, ignorance, mal-nutrition, under-nutrition, starvation, diseases especially
AIDS, exploitation, oppression and neglect. The African girl child in particular lives under
the constant threat of sexual, physical and emotional abuse.
The recent increases in the different forms of child abuse, exploitation and suffering in
Africa is extremely distressing. Under the guise of tradition and poverty, African children
continue to be exploited, oppressed and abused by so-called adults whose job it is to
protect them.
Although Child Abuse does not only exist in Africa, it is more prevalent here. Abuse of
African children takes many forms. The phenomenon of child trafficking for forced or
compulsory labour is growing so fast that most countries in Africa fit into one of three
categories - sending countries, transit countries and receiving countries. Child trafficking
has become a very profitable, multi billion dollar business for the organised syndicates
involved. As they flee poverty, Africa's children are being increasingly exploited by
traffickers, who make billions of dollars a year by buying children for as little as 14 dollars a
head and sending them to slavery in Europe or the Gulf.
According to a recent ILO report, an estimated 60 percent of sex workers in Italy are from
Nigeria. In the words of Meera Sethi of the International Immigration Organization, Africa
has become a "supplier of fresh flesh" for countries in the European Union, via paedophile
and prostitution rings. Sethi said Belgium, Britain and Italy receive the youngest African
girls, while Germany and Spain are major transit countries.
Child slavery, in which children are forced to work in very abject conditions, with little or no
pay is spreading widely around the continent, more than ever before. UNICEF estimates
that 200,000 children from western and central Africa are sold into slavery each year,
notably for seasonal work such as harvesting cocoa and other cash crops. In Ghana,
under the Trokosi traditional practice, young girls are regularly given up as slaves to
“atone” for crimes committed by other people in their families.
The issue of Domestic Child servitude - the modern day Cinderella syndrome, in which
children are subjected to the worst forms of labour within the home, most of the time under
very exploitative and abusive conditions, is very prevalent in most African countries. Many
children who are trafficked within the West African sub region usually under atrocious
conditions, end up feeding the domestic labour market in the main urban centres of
countries like Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon, Equitorial Guinea and the Congo. The case of Nigeria
is once again particular. According to the Child Welfare League of Nigeria, with the
presence of a child domestic servant in virtually every household, Nigeria could be seen to
have the largest number of child domestic workers in the world. Majority of these children
end up being physically, emotionally and if they are girls, sexually abused.
There are more tales of woe. Out of the 300,000 child soldiers around the world, it is
estimated that 120,000 of these are African children who have been forced and recruited
to take part in wars and fighting in some African countries. Sudan, Sierra Leone, Uganda,
Rwanda and Burundi, to name a few African countries, are all shamed by the tragedy of
child soldiers. The nature of child participation in wars ranges from active combat to
support roles such as spying, mine-clearance and manning checkpoints. Young girls are
made to provide sexual services for adult combatants. Since armed conflict does not
discriminate in terms of gender or age, child soldiers often suffer greatly from the physical
and psychological effects of violent conflict. They are exposed to atrocities such as mass
murder, torture and sexual abuse. Under the influence of drugs and alcohol, often they are
the perpetrators of such brutality, some of the time against their own family members.
Sexual exploitation, in which under-age young children are forced or cajoled into sex
sometimes under the guise of marriage is also on the increase. Most of these young
children end up emotionally and physically damaged. Some of them develop terrible
conditions like Vesico Vaginal Fistula (VVF). Others end up being infected with diseases
such as HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

All around us, we continue to see children being abused, oppressed, exploited and denied
their basic rights as human beings, as citizens and as children. Why has child abuse in
Africa risen to such a high level?
Experts have blamed the sudden rise in child abuse cases on the terrible economic
conditions in Africa, which has led to a high level of poverty especially in the poor, rural
parts of the continent. This means some parents, in order to relief the suffering, are often
willing for their children to move away, sometimes to live with a better off relative. Ignorant
of the possible dangers, they do this believing their child would be properly looked after.
Usually, the opposite happens.
In a number of African communities, some instances of child abuse are actually not seen as
such, but are considered an inherent part of the socio-cultural values and customs. In
other cases, children are bonded to others to pay off debts incurred by their parents. At
times, however, child abuse defiles any form of socio-economic reasoning and can be
downright evil. In 1996, the wife of a former Minister in the Republic of Benin was tried and
sentenced to a prison term for beating to death a child she employed as a domestic
servant.
But there are also other external reasons. Again foreign countries have been fingered for
their role in fuelling cases of child abuse in Africa. Recently, Cote d'Ivoire's Premier,
Paschal Affi N'Guessan charged international chocolate manufacturers as partly culpable
for the trade in child slaves in West Africa. This is due to the international firms' price
policies which prices cocoa from West Africa cheaper than elsewhere. For cocoa traders
to be able to reduce their overhead costs, they often rely on very cheap labour – easily
provided by children – to make this happen.
The problem of child soldiers is most acute in countries rich in natural resources like Sierra
Leone, Angola and Sudan. Foreign companies mining diamonds or extracting oil have
been accused of often knowingly using children as armed guards to protect their property.

As a token effort to help stem this tide of woe, almost all African countries have signed up
to implementing the 1990 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Most
African countries have ratified the ILO Convention on the Elimination of the Worst Forms of
Child Labour, most recently Nigeria. In almost all African countries, there is very little
government effort aimed at either regulating or legislating against child abuse. In countries
where such legislation exists, very little effort is made at enforcement.

So whilst the various African governments bid their time, Africa and its children continue to
suffer disastrous consequences of these acts of abuse. On a personal level, the victims
suffer harmful psychological, emotional and physical effects that stay with them for the rest
of their lives – that is if they manage to survive the trauma. This is in addition to being
condemned to a lifetime of abject poverty having been denied as children access to the
necessary education that would have enabled them to make something positive of their
lives. Socially, we are bringing up a generation of lost Africans who, deprived of their
childhood, might end up unable to function as responsible and capable citizens. For
example, there have been recent reports that countries like Sierra Leone and Congo DR
are decommissioning some of the child soldiers involved in wars in those countries. But with
no plans or thoughts given to how these children, most of them well trained in the use of
weapons, would be re-integrated into normal life, even when the war is over, one doesn’t
have to be psychic to predict the possible social consequences on those countries.

In other parts of the world, the concept of the knowledge-driven economy is fast becoming
a strategy for economic development. All over, technological advances, especially in the
areas of information and communication technology, are occurring on a tremendous scale.
However, with almost half of Africa’s children deprived of even the most basic education,
how do we begin to compete with those other continents? Africa’s future human capital is
being devalued and depreciated, thereby reducing the chances of any significant future
economic growth and competitiveness.

Globally, with a high proportion of our future leaders and citizens denied their basic rights
as children, sincerely speaking, we don’t really stand a chance against the other continents
who take pride in ensuring their children enjoy the best years of their childhood and are
groomed into becoming responsible leaders and citizens. What sorts of future leaders and
citizens are we bringing up? Or as a friend of mine would say:

“Who would lead Africa into the 22nd century?”