The Fate of the African Child, as we enter 2011

The fate of Africa’s children, going into 2011
By Azubike Aliche

As the year 2010 comes to an end, today, I could not resist sparing a thought for the African child. After many months of not keeping up with writing my blog, I thought it was imperative that I do one today as an opportunity to reflect on the social condition of the African child, particularly the majority of Africa’s children that are poor and live, mostly, in the rural areas. Unable to write a full blown blog article, today, this would just be a case of a few random thoughts and cut-and-paste materials from other sources.

My first thought goes to the children of Cote de ‘voire (Ivory Coast), a West African country now on the verge of armed conflict, as its leaders squabble over who won the last election in that country and ECOWAS, the regional governmental body there, threatens to use force to install the internationally recognized winner. Reports show that about 173 people have already died from post-election violence. It can be assumed that some children have been orphaned as a result of this. Reports further say that hundreds of thousands of women and children have already fled to neighbouring countries, as armed conflict becomes imminent. There’s no question in my mind that school has been disrupted for thousands of children who are forced to assume refugee status in other countries.

My heart also goes to Nigeria’s children, thousands of them, reportedly working as prostitutes in Mali. A recent report says that a two-year effort to bring them back from Mali has not been productive, as authorities there fail to cooperate with the agents of Nigeria. The children were promised various kinds of legitimate employment when they left Nigeria, according to reports. Once in Mali, their traffickers are forcing them to work as prostitutes to make the money to repay the cost of their transportation or the cost to the agents who secured them. The face beating and torture when the refuse to sell their bodies to profit their abductors. Reports say that these are school age children, some as young as 12 years old. It is really a shame that children as young as that will, under any pretext, be lured into sexual slavery in another country. That the Malian authorities are not cooperating in getting these children from brothels already identified is a bigger shame and a blot on the image of that country.

Now, some cut-and-paste materials from Nigerian newspapers. There’s also a touching story below of a woman who is battling with raising six young children born within 18 months. The story was culled from the EaglenStyle magazine. It is safe to assume that children who are starting life as beggars will have little or no chance of getting formal education. Yet child begging is very common in Nigeria and many other African countries.

“... perennial high failure rate in the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in the last five years, which had been between 75 and 80 per cent. Last September, the low performance of candidates in 2010 WAEC and NECO examinations compelled President Goodluck Jonathan to call a Stakeholders’ Summit on the state of education in the country.”

“... recommended, among others, that poverty alleviation in the country should begin with increasing access to quality education by all children, irrespective of their gender, location or socio-economic status.”

“IT is certain that the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has an uphill task in getting all school age children across the country, estimated to be in the region of 10 million, into the classes.”
“Teachers are required in quantity, quality and specialty based on policy dictates and curriculum offerings of a particular school and level of education. However, reports indicate that teachers have never been sufficiently supplied in schools because of the high manpower demand, the comprehensive and diversified nature of the curriculum at all levels, huge financial demand for payment of teachers, high attrition rate, brain drain syndrome, lack of motivation, inadequate training facilities, low morale on the part of students to opt for a teaching profession, low rating of teaching profession, and low quality of those available for training.”
- Dr Nosa Aladeselu, the Executive Director of the African Women Empowerment Guild (AWEG)

Woman Gives Birth To 6 Kids In 18 Months
Donations flowed freely from passersby into the coffers of a destitute with six children begging for alms at Ikeja area of Lagos State Southwest Nigeria.
The woman with her six children
The woman, Mrs. Aisha Ibrahim, 30, from Kano State, it was gathered, gave birth to quadruplets in 2008 and a set of twins in June 2010 in her village in Kano and came to Lagos to beg for alms when she and her husband could not cope with the feeding of the children.
The woman was seen on Awolowo Way, Ikeja where a crowd gathered around her and six children (three boys and three girls).
Many passersby pitied her and gave her money freely. They called on the Lagos State Government to come to her aid by providing for the children.
Speaking with reporters, Aisha said she left Kano for Lagos when the suffering became unbearable and there was nobody to run to.
She gave the age of the quadruplets as two years old while the twins are six months old.
She described her husband, Ibrahim, as a peasant farmer who cannot cope with the upkeep of the children.
Aisha was accompanied by a woman and her sister, who help to carry some of the children while she begs for alms.
She received money ranging from N10 to N500 and even more from passersby.
Aisha who stays at the Lagos Central Mosque, Lagos Island, appealed to Governor Babatunde Fashola to come to her aid by providing her accommodation and job to take care of her children.
She also appealed to Nigerians to assist her take care of her malnourished children who are living on the benevolence of the public.

The Countdown has Begun ... on my Birthday!

The Countdown has begun … on my Birthday!
On Monday, August 2, 2010, Mrs. Ebere Obiocha reported at my ancestral home, Osusu, to assume duties, as the first ever headmistress of the Chiehika Aliche Memorial Nursery School. The nursery school is part of the Chiehika Aliche Memorial Early Education Center (CAMEEC). The nursery school is opening its gates, this September. Incidentally, August 2 is also my birthday! When I reflect on this coincidence, I’m thrilled because Chiehika Aliche happened to be my father, a very good father at that! The realization that honoring him and his memory with something that can make a difference in the lives of others is becoming a reality even makes me more elated. And, when I thought of how best to honor his memory, I couldn’t think of anything better than giving people, particularly children, the opportunity to avail themselves of functional, affordable education, something that my dad worked hard to do and something that made me who I am, today!
My dad had us when he was already old and paying our school fees was a herculean task. He did not benefit from any formal western education, but for what he picked up in night adult school. He did not, therefore, have job skills. He had to live off his machete, doing all kinds of menial jobs to fend for the family, and particularly to send us to school. More than anyone that I knew, he was determined that we went to school, all six of us! By dint of hard work, he saw us all through the equivalent of the sixth grade, two through high school and me through college. Not that he paid my way through college. In fact, he died in my first year in college – The University of Lagos, Nigeria, in 1984. I actually stopped school after the sixth grade, stayed home for two years and started off in what was called a “commercial school,” a form of high school that was not in the public school system. It took a government free education program, in 1975, to get me back to the public school system and eventually to college.
Going by the stories that he told us and the evidence that he provided, my dad had been interested in supporting children get formal education, long before he had us, his children! He was an early believer in girl education and, in our own extended family, my dad had sponsored two girls to school before we were born. One of these is still living today. In our village, I know a few men who have shared their stories of how my dad chipped in small but fundamental assistance while they struggled to go to school. My dad also told me stories of how he helped a few people from outside our village gain admission into our local primary school, many years ago when Osusu had the only school with what was called “Standard Six” class in the neighborhood. So, against this backdrop, it was not difficult for me to determine that education was a good area to invest, in efforts to give my father what he would have liked to see, should he be living! As someone who had his first job as a teacher, it was also not difficult for me to determine that I’ll have the most impact if I invested in early childhood education, hence CAMEEC!!
Now, back to Mrs. Obiocha and CAMEEC! Mrs. Obiocha trained as a Grade Two teacher before earning the Nigerian Certificate of Education (NCE) in 1991. She retired recently from Nigeria’s public school system, as an assistant headmistress. At the CAMEEC nursery school, she will be in charge. I’ve interviewed her several times and have had extended discussions with her on issues of policy and strategy; I’m confident that she can give the school the leadership that it requires. She’ll be joined by another NCE holder next month to care for the first batch of three-year-olds in the nursery school. So, the countdown has begun, in efforts to build a center of excellence in early childhood education and development. So, far, CAMEEC has been built, essentially, on the resources that I’ve provided. I’m grateful to a few donors who have contributed to this effort. If you would like to help with a donation or get more information about CAMEEC and its nursery school and other programs, go to www.alichechildcenter-ngr.org.
Azubike Aliche

More Pictures from Ogechi's Graduation, Thurs, June 24, 2010

*In one picture, Oge shares a spot with little sister, Kelechi, and a friend.

Finally, Oge had her Graduation

Finally, Oge had her Graduation
This Thursday, Ogechi, my three-year-old daughter, had her graduation. Ordinarily, this shouldn’t be news or something that merits a blog article, except the attitude that she brought to the event! For the past three weeks, since she announced the upcoming event, she has reminded me about it, at least, five times. And when it was over, she had only one regret, in fact disappointment: Daddy wasn’t there at the graduation!
Even though she now has a baby sister who is as enthusiastic as she is about her daddy, Oge remains daddy’s girl. I drop her off at school every morning, before heading out for work. Most evenings, I pick her up, too. On those days that I’m not able to pick her up, it’s not good enough for her that her mommy picks her up. On this graduation event, mommy was there to take her pictures but when I returned to ask if she missed me, she readily answered in the affirmative.
The way Oge fussed about her imminent graduation, you’d think that she was graduating with a Ph.D. Indeed, from what I know now, it was her own Ph.D. I was, totally, wrong about what the “diploma” that she received meant to her. As soon as I walked, Thursday night, the diploma was the first thing that she presented to me. I could see from her eyes that it meant the world to her. If I knew this much, I would have taken the day off from work and be there for her! To understand my miscalculation, not that it is an excuse, you’d have to understand that I belong to a different order and a different generation!
I grew up in Nigeria, not in America! Twelve years after I arrived these shores, I’m still learning how Americans do their things. Sometimes, I’m intrigued by what I see; at other times, I’m flatly amused at how Americans approach issues! Take, for example, everyone who sets foot in any kind of academic institution, from preschool to the university is a student. In Nigeria, you’d have to have got to America’s equivalent of the 7th grade to earn the title of student. At the primary school level, you are addressed as a pupil. Another example: For completing preschool, Oge came home with a diploma! In Nigeria, you’d have to be in college (university) to earn a diploma. Here, high school graduates earn a diploma, not certificate, as we have it in Nigeria. Even the word, graduation, is reserved for college students in the system that I’m accustomed to. Anyway, Up America! Whatever anyone or system does to motivate our kids to learn and like school is worthy of praise!
Any time that I see Oge and her friends (that is what they call their classmates), I’m reminded that I did not have the opportunity of a formal early childhood education. More, importantly, my heart and thoughts go out to the millions of Africa’s children who have no access to early childhood education, more than three decades since my generation left primary school. In Nigeria, alone, only about 4.6 million out of about 23 million children, under the age of six are enrolled in any form of formal early learning centers. We can do better. If you are concerned about this appalling situation, as much as I am, visit my website at www.powereducationfoundation.com to see how you can help change it. If you would like to contribute to make the early learning center that I’m building in memory of late father be the best that it is designed to be, you can visit www.alichechildcenter-ngr.org and make a donation. For the entire year, Oge studied free of charge, under what is called the Abbot program in New Jersey. It is a form of head start program; something that you cannot see in Nigeria, perhaps much of Africa, at that level of education. In Nigeria, though, education is free from the equivalent of first grade to the ninth grade but, ironically, not at the preschool level.

Our Children are growing --- away from our culture

Our Children are growing…away from our Culture
In the last two weeks, I’ve taken my kids to two marriages, one a church wedding and the other a traditional Igbo (African) marriage. I’ll return to this to dwell on how these two marriages present two different faces of culture that govern the lives of Africans in the Diaspora, such as me.
Two things happened this past Saturday, June 5, to warrant that I reflect on how our children are growing up, away from our culture, the Igbo culture. Please, note that I, deliberately, did not make reference to Africa’s culture, for Africa, even Nigeria, is a multicultural society. First, Uche, my five-year-old son, looked for every excuses to avoid wearing the traditional Igbo “jumper” shirt, as we prepared to attend a traditional marriage ceremony of a family friend’s daughter, in Bellmawr New Jersey. Penultimate Saturday, when we attended the church wedding in Philadelphia, PA of what is now Mr. & Mrs. Okechukwu Onyeizu, Uche and I wore ‘jumper” shirts. At that time, Uche did not complain and seemed to like it. Ordinarily, traditional Igbo attire would not be the most appropriate dressing for a church wedding but neither Uche nor I had any official role in the wedding. So, we chose to appear Igbo.
Yesterday, however, the event at hand is a traditional Igbo marriage, something rare to find on the shores of the United States. So, I put my feet down that Uche must put on Igbo attire, just like me. We did not only have to appear in traditional Igbo attire, it has to be Isi Agu, one that has the tiger’s head inscribed on it. I was to add a black cap to match. Interestingly, Uche liked my cap and pestered me to let him put it on. At some point I let him, temporarily. If I was a title holder in Igbo land, I’d be wearing a red cap on my Isi Agu outfit.
At a time that I had felt relieved that Uche was comfortable in his traditional Igbo attire, Nnenna, my seven-year-old daughter, made a statement that got me back worrying if I had Igbo kids with me or just typical American children. She called a monster what every seven-year-old traditional Igbo girl would readily tell you is a masquerade. Whether it is here or in the motherland, hardly is any Igbo ceremony concluded without a traditional Igbo dance. Yesterday’s traditional marriage ceremony for Chizorom Eke-Okoro and Uzoma Ebisike was not different. The organizers hired the Universal African Dance & Drum Ensemble, which provided a spectacular entertainment extravaganza at the occasion; something that sent me back to Igbo land, emotionally. In many cases, an Igbo dance ensemble, just as the one in reference, would have a masked dancer, often referred to as a masquerade. In Igbo land, masquerades have their own myths associated with them. That, of course, is outside the scope of this article. But to call a masquerade a monster is almost a sacrilege. So, when Nnenna called the masquerade a monster, it presented a teachable moment for me and I went to work, right away. I can tell you, though, that it wasn’t that easy to get her out of her perception of what, in some Igbo communities, is considered sacred and revered. But isn’t she growing up in a different culture, away from ours? The whole thing reminded me of the attitude and perception of early European colonialists to whatever was African, something they didn’t even understand in the first place.
It is interesting that there is a lot about the two marital unions being discussed here that leaves some hope that Igbo culture is not about to go into extinction, even in America. The parties involved, like many other Igbo in America, heeded the Biblical injunction that people should marry from their culture, not out of ethnocentrism or any racial prejudice but to preserve what is left of their culture. All four people were born in Igbo land and three out of the four grew up in America. Eleven years ago when I met and became friends with Rev. (Dr.) Sunday Eke-Okoro and his family, Chizorom (the bride in yesterday’s traditional marriage) was just an 11-year-old girl. I believe that it is in the interest of Igbo culture that she chose to marry an Igbo man (Uzoma Ebisike) and that the family decided to give us a wonderful Igbo traditional marriage ceremony, with all the rites observed. No Igbo marriage is ever complete and legitimate without a traditional marriage ceremony. So, court or church marriage is not enough for the Igbo. The traditional ceremony is the one that gives the community a chance to have a say in and offer their blessing to the marriage. In fact, there are people who will argue that any Igbo traditional marriage done in the United States or anywhere outside Igbo land may still suffer a crisis of legitimacy.

Our Children are growing --- away from our culture

From left to right, the "monster", newly married couple leave, the "marriage train," Dr. Eke-Okoro watches daughter share wine with suitor, Dr. Eke-Okoro blesses the marriage and effectively hands daughter over to suitor, the masquade ('Monster'), the bride and maids dance, Uche and I, and finally, Mr. & Mrs. Okechukwu Onyeizu, as the priest joined them.

Please, see the following posting for the accompanying article to this set of photos.

- Azubike Aliche