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Systemic source of 'working children' in Africa: the case of Nigeria

Department of Sociology, University of Ibadan, Nigeria

The focus of this paper is that the emergence of working children can be traced to the pre-colonial epoch in African countries. We posit that this seems inevitable to the people as a method of exploiting the environment especially because of the pre-capitalist nature of these countries. In spite of the emergence of new methods of exploiting the environ ment, the persistence of 'working children' as a category is a major concern. Since the capitalist mode of production became established, in one form or the other, one expected that the development of means of production to replace child labour in the capitalist system would bring about individualism and affluence. The growing individualism and improved level of technology ought to improve the welfare of the people. Conversely, for most African countries, and Nigeria especially, the level of poverty has increased drastically. The system engendered in the capitalist economy, as in the pre-capitalist economy, has, more or less, justified the persistence of the phenomenon.

Key Words: childlabour • culture • Africa • socialization • family.

Childhood, Vol. 2, No. 4, 207-211 (1994)
DOI: 10.1177/090756829400200404


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