Chapter 11: Freedom from Exploitative Child Labor Practices in East Africa: Strategies and Complications

After presenting the findings of a research report on child labor, my colleagues and I facilitate a discussion among the assembled teachers, district officials, and community members. One of the officials raises his hand and rises to speak. “Why all this emphasis on children’s rights?” “Why aren’t we talking about children’s responsibilities?” he asks. In the African context, after all, children have responsibilities to their families. Children must work. We can’t talk about rights, he points out, until we understand responsibilities. Nods ripple around the room.

His skepticism about children’s rights was echoed in other meetings and seems to be a common theme of community conversation about child labor in Africa (cf. Kielland & Tovo, 2006). As staff members of a regional East African child labor project, we were involved in raising awareness about the problem of child labor and the potential of education as a positive solution. But we needed to first affirm the value of children’s work. As the district official indicated, children are expected to work in Africa. Children collect water, weed gardens, make bricks, and sell food in markets. Families often depend on children’s work for a portion of their sustenance; work is a responsibility related to family welfare and intergenerational obligations. And for impoverished families, the immediacy of children’s responsibilities often trumps abstract notions of children’s rights.