Child development in Africa
Child development in Africa addresses the variables and social changes that occur in African children from infancy through adolescence. Three complementary lines of scholarship have sought to generate knowledge about child development in Africa, specifically rooted in endogenous, African ways of knowing: analysis of traditional proverbs, theory-building, and documentation of parental ethno-theories. The first approach has examined the indigenous formulations of child development and socialisation values embedded in African languages and oral traditions. Several collections of proverbs have been published in different African languages, and their content has been analysed to show the recurrence of the themes of shared communal responsibility for children's moral guidance and the importance of providing it early in life. Nsamenang's view The African social ontogeny proposed by Nsamenang is phrased within an eco-cultural perspective, and draws from writings by African scholars in philosophy and the humanities. This theory explains a shared worldview among diverse ethnic groups, based on rigorous observational research and personal experiences of the rural Nso community’s socialisation practices, in Cameroon. The process of social development unfolds in seven phases, each characterised by specific developmental tasks. In the initial phase, known as the naming ceremony, the desired socialised identity for a neonate is projected. Its primary objective is to achieve successful social priming, attained through interactions such as cuddling and teasing, which elicit smiles from the infants in response to adult stimuli. Parents and caregivers provide food, playthings, and engage in verbal and nonverbal cues to encourage reciprocity, establishing a foundation for the "sharing and exchange norms" that bind the social system. Rabain and Mtonga describe similar infant teasing practices among the Wolof of Senegal and among the Chewa and Tumbuka of Zambia. Such interactions are believed to cultivate generosity. The second phase, referred to as "social apprenticing," roughly corresponds to childhood. Its primary task is the recognition and rehearsal of social roles across four hierarchical spheres: self, household, network, and public. Adults delegate responsibilities to preadolescent and adolescent children, including the care and socialisation of younger siblings. This practice serves as a catalyst for the development of social responsibility. The priming strategies embedded in indigenous African childcare practices have significant implications for designing culturally appropriate interventions that optimise developmental opportunities for children. In many African communities, far from a form of exploitation, caregiving responsibilities assigned to preadolescents and adolescents are part of ‘an indigenous educational strategy that keeps children in contact with existential realities and the activities of daily life [that] represents the participatory component of social integration’. A case study conducted in Zambia demonstrated the successful integration of this strategy into a service-learning program at a primary school, promoting social responsibility among both girls and boys and yielding improved academic performance. It is important to acknowledge that the generalisability of Nsamenang's "West African" theory across the diverse societies of sub-Saharan Africa is subject to debate. For example, the Gusii community in rural Kenya during the 1950s and 1970s displayed mother-infant interactions that sharply contrasted with Nsamenang's description of social priming through