Another 'Day of the African Child'

[Amelia]

Another 'Day of the African Child'

13 June 2007

Bukola Olatunji And

Lagos

All Africa.com

It has been 31 years since thousands of South African black school children marched on the streets of Soweto, on June 16, 1976, to protest the inferior quality of their education and to demand their right to be taught in their own language. Hundreds of them were shot down; and in the two weeks of protest that followed, no fewer than an additional 100 people were killed and more than a thousand injured.

To honour the memory of those killed and the courage of all those who marched, the Day of the African Child has been celebrated, worldwide, on 16 June every year since 1991, when it was first initiated by the then Organisation of African Unity (OAU).

The day serves as an opportunity to reflect on progress toward health, education, equality and protection for all African children. The theme for this year's celebration is, 'Child Trafficking'.

It may be impossible to get accurate figures of victims of child trafficking either nationally, regionally or globally. According Plan, a global partnership of caring people, founded in 1937 to bring hope and help to the world's poorest children; trafficking of children is one of the most severe violations of human rights in the world today, involving over a million children worldwide. It refers to the illegal transport of human beings, in particular women and children, for the purpose of selling them or exploiting their labour. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) says "Child labour is a massive problem, one that affects one out of every six children in the world today.

A 79-page report, 'Borderline Slavery: Child Trafficking in Togo', released in 2003 highlights Togo as a case study of trafficking in the West African region. It documents how children as young as three years old are exploited as domestic and agricultural workers in several countries. Traffickers lure children from their homes with promises of high-quality schooling and vocational training abroad. Many of the children are orphans, forced to become breadwinners following the death of a parent from AIDS or other causes.

A scandal over the issue of child labour in West Africa blew up in 2002, when nearly half the chocolate produced in the United States was linked to cocoa beans harvested by child labourers in Côte d'Ivoire. Many of these children had been trafficked from neighbouring countries such as Mali and Burkina Faso.

Why this has thrived is aptly captured in the words of Joseph Addison:

"Education is a companion which no misfortune can depress, no crime can destroy, no enemy can alienate, no despotism can enslave. At home, a friend; abroad, an introduction; in solitude, a solace; and in society, an ornament. It chastens vice, it guides virtue, it gives at once grace and government to genius. Without it, what is man? A splendid slave, a reasoning savage."

The average African child remains locked in the vicious circle where poverty is the prime factor for lack of education and lack of education, the prime factor for poverty. As such, poverty is passed on from one generation to the next.

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