The drumbeats, poems, songs, drama, sporting activities, musical festivities that characterised the somewhat carnival atmosphere masked the deep underlying structural challenges that innocent African children face in their daily lives. Without any doubt the African continent is arguably the richest continent on earth. The beautiful continent is endowed with a vast array of natural resources like gold, diamonds, platinum, copper, beautiful wild animals, tropical rain forests, scenic deltas and lakes, perennial rivers, deserts and to a large extent beautiful blue skies and a diverse culture. Yet it is in this rich and beautiful continent where children have become the endangered species who instead of being looked at as the future they are now dithering on the brink of being the disposables. It is with a tinge of sadness to realise that the rich African continent is the only one that tops the ranks in high infant mortality rates. A disturbing high number of Africa’s children have less access to health care which in many cases have resulted in many children succumbing to easily treatable diseases in other continents like Europe.
Africa’s children are more than likely to be born with HIV/AIDS related diseases and have for many years succumbed to diseases of poverty like kwashiorkor, marasmus and rickets. Despite some African countries like Nigeria being the richest in the continent, it has the highest number of children who survive on less than a dollar a day. It is a common occurrence for African children in many countries not to afford a decent meal unlike their counterparts in Europe and other continents. The continent also boasts the highest number of children with less or no access to sound educational infrastructure and information technology both at school and in the home. The situation is so depressing that trees have been turned into classrooms with poorly resourced teachers. Wars, famine and disease has turned the continent to host the highest number of internally and externally displaced children in places like Somalia, Darfur, Libya and South Sudan. When their counterparts in other continents celebrate Father’s day and mother’s days, hundreds and thousands of Africa’s children are often motherless and fatherless to celebrate these events. It is either that or their parents have been swallowed up by war, poverty and disease. Both interstate and intrastate conflicts have drawn many of Africa’s children into the arms of savage militia men who manipulated their innocence and callously turned them into vicious child soldiers. To sadly sum this up it can truly be said that indeed Africa’s children despite inhabiting a very rich continent endowed with an array of natural resources have been subjected to a life of dehumanising poverty and a culture of rightlessness.
