Child Trafficking in Africa: Reimagining the Problem

Author:

Okorie Mitterand1ORCID,Okeja Uchenna2

Affiliation:

1. African Studies Centre, Rhodes University, Makhanda 6140, South Africa

2. Centre for Philosophy in Africa, Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth 6031, South Africa

Abstract

Current perspectives on the intractability of child trafficking in Africa considers the problem as a failure of law enforcement or a lack of political will by state actors. In response, these works tend to suggest the need for strengthened institutional mechanisms as a preventative measure to curb the problem. We contend however, that this perspective does not fully appreciate the seeming detachment of civil society in Africa regarding the plight of children. In light of this, we argue that an examination of child trafficking as an intractable human rights problem ought to first, interrogate how childhood is viewed in the continent. Such interrogation creates the possibility of reimagining the problem by observing the lived realities of children in Africa and the (in)ability of society to keep track with their humanity. Further, we propose the need to memorialize the harms that children in Africa have been exposed to in the past and present through commemorative markers, as a means of appreciating the precarity of childhood in the continent. We reason that doing so will create a stronger sense of responsibility for state and civil society towards children and potentially curb child trafficking.

Funder

Rhodes African Cluster Centre

African Multiple Cluster of Excellence of the University of Bayreuth, Germany

Publisher

MDPI AG

Subject

General Medicine

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4. (2022, October 05). African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child—ACRWC. Available online: https://au.int/en/treaties/african-charter-rights-and-welfare-child.

5. Association between girl-child marriage and intimate partner violence in Sub-Saharan Africa: Insights from a multicountry analysis of demographic and health surveys;Ahinkorah;Journal of Interpersonal Violence,2022

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