Blood in the transcendental and corporeal, has always typified redemption. The amount of bloodletting that Africa has experienced over the years on mostly tenuous grounds and in relation to colonialism has been, to say the least, excruciating. The redemption of Africa from actions initiated and carried out by the western world is a milestone yet to be attained. Nevertheless, the impact of some incidents experienced through the various actions of various freedom fighters could be said to have laid good structures for quite a number of practices and policies maintained over the years.
The Soweto Uprising of 16th June, 1976 in South Africa is a good example of a fatal situation which laid the groundwork years later for the evolution of the Day of the African Child. Apartheid, while it held sway in South Africa and South West Africa in the twentieth century was an embarrassment to human morality. A system of institutionalized racial segregation, apartheid ensured that the dominant minority white population subdued black-owned South African socially, economically and politically.
The African Union formerly Organization of African Unity [OAU] in 1991 initiated the International Day of the African Child in honour of those who participated in the Soweto Uprising of 1976. Since then, it has grown into a global celebration of African children and their resilience despite difficult circumstances they face daily. It is also an opportunity for everyone around the world to help make sure that every child can reach their potential through education and support.
The focal point here is to raise awareness of the continuing need for improvement of the education provided to African Children. The onus of this responsibility actuates Civil Society Organisations, governments and other stakeholders to assemble every year on June 16, to chew over the challenges still being faced in the area of education for the African Child and the doors of opportunities that could be opened by a modernized adherence to the rights of the African Child to acquire globally-standard education.
These challenges cannot be understated with the not-so good statistics staring us in the face. For instance, statistics show that thirty million of the world’s 57 million out of school children are in sub-Saharan Africa; one in six children born in sub-Saharan African do not live to their fifth birthday -an indication to the high rate in child mortality in the region; child marriage across Africa is still on the rise as one in three girls in low and middle-income countries are married by the age of 18 and the pertinent challenges of female genital mutilation. There is no other better time to act than now.
The theme of this year’s 2023 International Day of the African Child is ‘The Rights of the Child in the Digital Environment’. We are currently living in a world that gets more digital by the minutes; a world that is gradually relying on web-based resources for its very existence. The African Child and their education has to be carefully considered in relation to protecting the rights of the child, both from intrinsic and extrinsic influences, in the digital environment.
Written by OGOCHUKWU OKOYE
Comments are closed for this post.