Education Is The Most Powerful Weapon

Education and Child Labor in Africa

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

Nelson Mandela, an anti-apartheid revolutionary, politician, and a philanthropist said the words above and by themselves these words mean a lot more than anything else, especially when it comes to Africa! (Wikipedia.org, 2016) By 1920’s, countries in Africa had already started fighting for their freedom against the British Colonial Rule and many of the state unions had procured freedom through revolutionary methodology, but what is the first issue any free government has to deal? The answer is continuation of the freedom for future years to come! In this article we will understand how the new independent states of Africa fought for the issue of Child Labor and, created policies and regulations to install education systems for the education of the future of the country, the children!

Rhodesia was one the first states whose administration started thinking about the education of its people and children. Between 1920 and 1930, more than 100,000 Africans were part of the education system set by the Rhodesian administration but the bigger question was if the Africans were getting the adequate education they adversely needed? Rhodesia set up five systems of schooling which included kraal schools (public schools), central mission schools (boarding schools), central mission day schools (day boarding schools), government schools, and special schools for blind, deaf, or leprous. (Summers, 1994) Most of the schools in Africa were Kraal because of lower setup and maintenance costs. The education provided in kraal schools were minimalistic and most of these schools did not attain the minimum education standards initially. The cond...

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...e fees for the school were to be paid either in cash, cattle, or student labor. (Grier, 1994) It is quite interesting how children were used by the parents as a tool of profit for themselves.

The severity of Apartheid, Child labor, and adverse conditions of Education that were available to the children in Africa is heartbreaking and during the research and writing this article, it seems that the authorities either suppressed these adverse conditions or plainly denied their existence. Many activists and missionaries who took action against the ill-behavior against children had no success and even their voices were unheard of. It seems that during the colonization and post-colonial, the birth right of children were stripped away and seemingly this kind of behavior was brought on to them so that they get accustomed to the behavior and forget about their right to freedom.