Not Just a Victim: The Child as Catalyst and Witness of Contemporary Africa

Social scientists examining contemporary Africa take considerable pains to resist portraying Africa as nothing more than a land of victims unable to escape historical cycles of war, exploitation and tyranny. However, children are still frequently conceptualised as passive actors, mere extensions of adult societies and receptors of culture. The authors in this volume argue that children are dynamic contributors to the shaping of contemporary Africa. Through novel and unorthodox ethnographic research methods, each chapter provides insights into children’s perspectives on kinship, work, caring, health, migration and conflict, shedding light on children’s views and the vital roles they play in the emerging Africa of tomorrow.

Sandra J.T.M. Evers, Ph.D. (Amsterdam 2001) is associate professor and senior researcher at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, VU University Amsterdam. She specializes in Africa and South West Indian Ocean studies. Dr Evers’ research covers the anthropology of children, migration, slavery, memory and cognition, natural resource management, and sustainable development.

Catrien Notermans, Ph.D. (Nijmegen 1999) is an anthropologist working as a senior researcher and lecturer at the Department of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology at Radboud University Nijmegen. Her fields of interest include religion (African Christianity, pilgrimage, witchcraft, Hinduism, material religion) and kinship (polygyny, fosterage, transnational kin networks).

Erik van Ommering is a PhD candidate at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, VU University Amsterdam, where he attained his M.Sc. in 2007. His research focuses on children’s experiences of primary education in settings of violent conflict. The regional focus of his study is Lebanon.

'This edited collection is an especially welcome contribution to the development of childhood studies in Africa because it explores the agency children across the continent are able to demonstrate despite the structural constraints within their societies. The interplay between structure and agency as they relate to children’s daily lives is the overarching theme of ten substantive chapters. As part of the editors’ goal of highlighting children’s agency, a secondary theme of the volume is innovative, childfocused methodologies that are appropriate within African contexts.
...
As in many edited collections, some chapters in this one speak very strongly to the aims and objectives of the book, while others struggle to show their relevance. Nevertheless, I welcome the contribution the collection as a whole makes to theorizing about childhood studies in Africa'.

University of Sheffield, AFUATWUM-DANSO IMOH
In: African Affairs, Vol. 112, Issue 449, October 2013