Monday, April 19, 2010
Girl with a Broom in Accra
When the round, clean-edged, yellow sun was just sprouting up with no blinding rays, I drove by a 4-or-5 year old sweeping the ground in front of a shanty shack. It looked like her home; she, like she was sleepwalking. It is not true to say she was sweeping – from the way the broom dominated her in height and size. It was barely 6 a.m. She should have been asleep or rousing for school.
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So sad...
ReplyDelete... very sad indeed! Heart-breaking...
ReplyDeleteActually, no it's not. I used to get woken up at dawn to sweep in front of our little shanty too, and that when i was in my final year of kindergarten (so I'm thinking it was about her age), and I'm none the worse for it. Chances are everyone in the family is also up and doing something to get the house in order before the day starts and everyone leaves for school or whatever duties they have. The only circumstance under which this would be sad is if she was a househelp (because that's just way too young to be made to do that type of work) or if the adults were gaily sleeping while the youngin was left to do the work.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Lady Jaye, I had chores from quite young and I still went to school.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Lady Jaye & Myne. From the time I was in nursery, my mother also used to wake me up at 5am to sweep outside our house and help her make breakfast for the whole house before I could shower and get dressed for school. All this while my brothers slept soundly...
ReplyDeleteWell, I see a subtle message Nana Yaw was trying to put across. Here it is:
ReplyDeleteIf a child is sweeping and will go to school afterwards, you can usually tell. But if the child is sweeping to stay at home or go to 'work' after, you can also tell.
I think the child Nana Yaw describes here will not go anywhere near a school. That is what is sad, not that she is merely sweeping...or Nana, am I wrong?
For my part, my elementary understanding cannot appreciate how in one breath an activity is characterized as good or bad merely depending on circumstances of whether she is in bonds or free. How does the activity only become bad if the girl were a worker but good if she were being home-trained for life. I would have thought that if the activity is good or bad, it is so and it does not matter whether it is carried out in the circumstances of a vocation or upbringing.
ReplyDelete@ Anon: yeah..that would hurt. But THIS one time, my parents were fair. My brother would be up doing the dishes, or ironing our clothes, hehe!
ReplyDelete@Kissi -
ReplyDeleteok. Fine. Let me rephrase. A small girl sweeping at dawn is not really sad. From my experience, a lot of children are woken up around dawn to do chores to help put the house in order before we all depart for the day. I did it, and so did a lot of people I know. The reason I say it's not sad is because it wasn't traumatizing, it was unfair, it wasn't even bad. In fact, it sorta helped with building a work ethic and responsibility, so I don't find anything wrong with a young girl sweeping in front of her shanty house at dawn.
Yeah agree with the comment about these chores creating a sense of responsibility and work ethic. It is really important that a child learns this early and it becomes a part of their make up.
ReplyDeleteIf you look at much of the children in the UK, they are underachieving because they have a lazy spirit. They have not been taught work ethics but rather how to play on the Playstation/Xbox all day without raising a finger to help out. How do people then expect them to be prepared for dedication to hard work once they have left school.
In the west most white people have a perception of Africans being lazy, this stereotype is used to justify why Afica is in such a crippled state, rather than point their finger at their own greed. When I go to Mokola and see the way the people work and see the long hours people put in to sell in the traffic, I do not see laziness but hard working people.
@ Lydia: Cool.
ReplyDeleteWill it help if i mentioned that most schools are on holiday at the mo?
ReplyDeleteGreat training which ever way... makes her tough in the head.
ReplyDeleteThing is if there is good school for her to attend after waking up so early to do the chores then she has a chance in life. The chores will stand her in good stead in future. But if, as i sense from the posting, there is no good school or prospects, then one should feel sorry and sad. It'll take a really gargantuan effort for the little innocent girl to make it in life. Already she's in a too big a hole...and she might not even be aware of it.
ReplyDeleteI would NEVER wake up my 5year old, or any child under 12 for that matter at 5am to do any kind of chore- unless its punishment of course ;) Complete BS. I mean how well is that chore going to be done anyway if they are half asleep? The parent will most likely end up doing it over again anyway. SMDH
ReplyDelete@Raine - BS to you, but not BS to a lot of other people obviously. And since our parents didn't have to redo our jobs, they must have been done well, no? SMDh at you!KMT in addition too!
ReplyDeleteOk ANONYMOUS- lets get REAL here, if you think a 5 YEAR old child can PERFECTLY sweep at 5am while HALF ASLEEP, then you must be out of your MIND! Not just BS, but COMPLETE BS!
ReplyDelete