Children and Youth in the Labour Process in Africa

3. Getting Them Young: Child Labour in Ikot Ekpene from a Historical Perspective

3 Getting Them Young: Child Labour in Ikot Ekpene from a Historical Perspective Ufom Umoren Ekpe-Otu Introduction Much has been written about child labour from various parts of the world, so, it is not a new area of study. However, despite the proliferation of scholarly and nonscholarly work on the subject, the phenomenon still remains to be fully grasped, a clear indication of its complexity. The estimates of child labour remain a contested terrain induced in the main from definitional fuzziness. There still remains a lack of theoretical consensus on the question, who are the child labourers? Child labour has been variously defined in terms of occupational types and age, with the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) prescription often taken as a working criterion. ILO Convention No. 138 (1973) pegs the minimum age of employment at 15 years for different countries or the minimum age of completion of compulsory education. In recognition of the variation across different societies, this is lowered in cases of light work to 13 years for developed countries and 12 years for developing nations. In the case of hazardous work deemed harmful to the safety, health and morals of children, the legal age is unilaterally fixed at 18 years. The premise for the evolution of child rights, upon which the ILO’s prescriptions are fixed, has come in for considerable criticism, especially from Third World scholars. It has been derided as the standardization of western notions of childhood and has contributed to the attempt to distinguish between child work and child labour. The 1999 Convention No. 182, on the abolition of the worst aspects of child labour, is indicative of a greater awareness of the complexity and variation of child labour in different cultural contexts. In spite of these attempts by the international agencies, the study of child labour continues to be fraught with problems and contradictions. This is visible in unanswered questions relating to beneficiaries of child labour, and the call for a re-evaluation of the role of the child as a consumer of economic value. 22 Children and Youth in the Labour Process in Africa The commonly acknowledged conclusion that child labour is contextual necessitates an analytical framework deriving from specific contexts and existent politico-economic and socio-cultural milieus. There is need for a perspective of child labour that draws its basic premise from the social construction of child labour in the country. The notion of children working is not perceived as an anathema in Nigerian society, but is regarded as a natural and legitimate practice entrenched in the local custom and tradition. At the same time, cultural practices could, and do indeed, facilitate the exploitation of children in the labour market. For instance, the practice of fostering has been utilized in the trafficking of children into forced labour. The cultural toleration of children working therefore plays an important part in any analysis of child labour issues in the country. This study takes, as its point of departure, the historical interrogation of children in the labour process during the colonial era. It is posited here that the complex social and economic relations occasioned by colonial imperialism effected a systematic exploitation of children’s labour power. It is not intended here to deny the existence of child labour in pre-colonial Nigeria. There are many instances in the rural areas where recalcitrant children were sold as slaves, as would be shown in the study. This notwithstanding, there is the need to interrogate the societal perception of such practices in pre-colonial Nigeria. Is it a question of a wrongful and alien deconstruction of the African child by the West? Selling undesirable children to slavery was not seen as the perpetration of child labour, but rather as a way of correcting societal ills. The practice of fostering may have led to undue hardship for certain children but, by and large, kinship ties, the communal ownership of children, which underpinned fostering, inhibited exploitation of children. The point being made here is that despite the existence of certain practices now termed child labour, traditional practices were inimical to its institutionalization, until the imposition of colonial rule. In examining child labour in Ikot Ekpene, a town in south-eastern Nigeria, this study raises several questions. What fed child labour in Ikot Ekpene? How has societal perception of child labour evolved from the colonial to the contemporary period? In what ways has the utilization of children’s labour power changed from a benign act to one of...