What does it mean to be an African child?

Deborah is a second-year student at the Ghana Institute of Journalism. A former sponsored child with Plan, she has a strong interest in girls’ rights. In this blog, Deborah writes in her own words about what she believes it means to be an African child.

Growing up in Africa is unpredictable. There are moments where you feel like giving up, and other times, you are inspired to go on. At the center of this is the African child; the innocent Black child who is struggling to find their footing in the midst of the ancestral savannas.

Africa, cradle of humanity and haven of proud warriors, is a beautiful continent with beautiful people and children with equally beautiful dreams.

Deborah, the author of this blog post, is a former sponsored child from Ghana.

Take the case of 10-year-old Wuntiti, who lives in the northern part of Ghana. Wuntiti aspires to be a journalist, yet he has to walk for miles to go to school. He dreams of becoming a reporter to cover stories on such issues so students like him can get help.

Naa Afi is a 12-year-old who dreams of becoming an architect someday, but her father is strongly against the idea. He believes such professions are for boys only.

Young Adzo yearns to be a fashion designer. Yet her parents believe she is worth much more than “someone who sews clothes.”

Somewhere on the coast, Serwaa assists her old grandmother in selling fish because she can’t continue her education to become the doctor she dreams of being.

These instances show the profile diversity and different kinds of obstacles the African child has to go through before they realize their dreams. The dreams of these four children and every other African child out there have to go through the mill, and provided those children are determined and resilient enough, those dreams may see the light of day.

The average child aspires to become someone, something, and depending on the environment they find themselves in, that dream may come true or die at a point.

This is because opportunities and privileges for such disadvantaged children vary from country to country. The child in sub-Saharan Africa may not have the same opportunities as the one in West Africa, and even on an individual country basis, the child living in a small village in northern Ghana does not have the same opportunities and privileges as those in the urban and cosmopolitan southern Ghana.

In realizing every dream, the availability of resources is an essential factor. For many countries the opposite is true. Education facilities are either under-resourced or nonexistent. Ghana, for instance, does not have active community libraries in many districts across the country.

Furthermore, the importance of technology in education cannot be overemphasized. For most African countries, it took the COVID-19 pandemic for governments and educational institutions to realize the need for a technological upgrade in our educational systems.

In order to contain the spread of the virus, all public gatherings have been suspended indefinitely — schools included. The only available alternative to keep students engaged is online learning. Another struggle for African children who, in majority, do not have access to digital tools.

Due to the fact that most educational institutions do not have the capacity and resources, most students have been left idle at home. By virtue of the underperforming educational systems in Africa, the talents and energies of the youth are poorly harnessed.

Admittedly, some governments and educational institutions are working hard to improve the state of basic education, but there’s still significant work to be done.

Considering the pace at which the world is evolving, the young African would have to put in double effort, an unwavering commitment and determination to see their dreams come true. That is the story of the African child. Every day is a battle against all odds to become someone better.

Despite the numerous obstacles the African child has to face in their bid to realize his or her dream, some have been successful and are now role models and mentors for many African children: Nelson Mandela, Kofi Annan, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, etc.

The resilience, hard work and determination of such people is the light at the end of the tunnel to all those who look up to them. However, these are just the visible tip of the iceberg.

For many, the struggle continues their whole lives, just for the fact that they are Black, or they are of African origin. Millions of very able Africans still don’t find it easy even when they have been exposed to better educational systems in the Western world.

Is it a conspiracy against Africans? Resilience and struggle in childhood, resilience and struggle in adulthood? Definitely no — I want to believe. I shout to the whole world, “Please tell me it is no!”

It is time the world offers the African child and all African people the justice, equality and equity we deserve as fundamental human rights.