Childhood and the Politics of Representation

Interacting with kids between the ages of 2 and 16 is probably my only daily guarantee during fieldwork.   Kids make me laugh.  I make them laugh.  I’m getting to know them and they’re getting to know me.   I don’t want to deny the relevance of children to my fieldwork experience, nor negate what I learn about their lives here.  However, neither do I want to contribute to a narrative of an outsider talking about the needy, but happy and resilient African child.  It's complicated to be an outsider in Ghana or any other country where the collective “developed” world’s imagination thinks of inhabitants as poor, in-need, or un-developed.  How I position myself as an anthropologist who is witness to life (including childhood) in Ghana in 2014 is challenging.

There is an entire Tumblr devoted to mocking women who, in their adventures traveling or volunteering abroad, take and publicly post pictures of themselves with children. This site draws attention to how a conglomeration of such publicly posted images, without any kind of context, reinforces a classic narrative of the good-willed white person bringing joy and good deed to the non-white person who needs their joy and good-deed. As Rafia Zakaria wrote about voluntourism in an online debate:

“The photo ops, the hugs with the kids and the meals with the native are part of the package; the helpers can see and touch those they are saving and take evidence of their new mobility home with them.”

The Onion is less harsh but no less biting in nailing why such a trend is problematic:

So I while I will be taking pictures of myself with children who, by the end of 12 months spent getting to know them, will be nothing other than friends, I will likely not publicly post such pictures.  But I will talk about what I observe about childhood here because it’s really not different from childhood anywhere. 

I watch kids get lost in their own fictional and fantastical worlds of play, where all that is needed is a large tree branch to serve as some motorized vehicle and some vocal cords to make engine sounds. I watch kids make their own toys. I watch this and relay this with the very careful and important acknowledgement that such scenes are not to be filed under the “They are so poor but so happy” category.  They’re simply creative like kids tend to be when left to their own devices. 

playing with natural resources-making a clay TV

don't worry-she also made a remote control

at work on a car made from recycled goods

car in progress

car in its final stages--the wheels are old flip flops

I also watch kids learn the roles of adulthood.  I’ve seen a 15 year old kill and clean a duck.  I’ve seen a 13 year old cook enough rice for 15 people in the rain. I’ve seen 7 year olds build bricks. I’ve seen 3 year olds carry tiny bowls of water on their heads as they follow their mothers from the borehole with their much larger basins.  I watch these scenes and relay these scenes with the very careful and important acknowledgement that such scenes are not to portray childhood as a drudgerous and laborious life phase in Ghana. Children bear large responsibilities here, but they still go to school, still get time for play and are still loved by their mothers and fathers.

These are universal aspects of childhood with contextual variations. Childhood is about learning in play and learning in work. Childhood, whether composed of homemade tin cars or an i-pad, is still childhood.  And yes, I think we should all work to ensure that all children are equipped with environments that lead to enlightening, nurturing and healthy childhoods.  But we don’t need to patronize vulnerable children to accomplish that.