INTERPLAY OF THEORIES AND PRINCIPLES OF CHILD CARE IN AFRICA: A YORUBA CUSTOMARY LAW ANALYSIS

Abstract

The drive towards a universal child’s rights regime has necessitated the assimilation of foreign ideals by indigenous ethnic groups. As members of cultures navigate the impact of multiple laws, a major concern is that in order to survive, persons have had to abdicate historical identities that have sustained their peculiarities. Instead of development, forceful introduction of foreign child care ideals into previously incompatible environments, have run the risks of sustaining ‘cultural lags’ which continue to erode existing values without providing enduring alternatives. The resulting anomalies are of course against the essence of treaties that enable the rights of persons to relive their own socio-cultural heritage. This research relies on the qualitative content analysis of laws, to examine prominent theories that have shaped child care practices in Africa. This paper posits that incidents of child care are universal to all races, and they entail all that caretakers should do for children, sometimes beyond regiments of child’s rights laws. The paper represents the existing theoretical discordances on the universality of children’s right. Through an ethnographic study of Yoruba People of South Western Nigeria, this author accesses how Nigerian indigenous jurisdictions have catered for children, within their own informal but structured orientations. This study relates to wider constituencies of child care that justifies omnibus verses in Child’s Right Treaties. The conclusion is that popular child’s rights conceptions are not all servicing and without limitations. It is desirable that global stakeholders also understand underlying values that have sustained indigenous cultures. A multicultural attitude to valid laws should enable smooth applications of compatible child protection methods, without eroding fair indigenous principles that have sustained enviable family cultures, preglobalization.