Bolivia has just sanctioned child labour, with 10-year-olds now allowed to work full-time. This comes months after the Spanish Parliament approved a draft law that requires children to help out with housework, regardless of age and gender. If you’re an African child, it’s hard not to laugh at this because we have done housework for centuries. Growing up, my Mum never tired of reminding me of how hard they worked as children. She and her siblings had to be up by 5.00am each morning, go down to the garden and weed, plant, harvest or do whatever needed to be done. Like many families at the time, they grew their own food; so laziness was not tolerated. There was no running water so they had to walk miles to fetch it. The boys were required to collect firewood while the girls prepared the meals and cleaned the pans There were also clothes to wash and press. And since there was no electricity, they used charcoal iron boxes. God help you if in the process, you burnt your school uniform as you would not only be caned but had to wear it the entire term, scorch marks and all because there was simply no money to waste. Speaking of school, my grandfather was the headmaster of the primary school my Mum and her siblings attended and while he rode his bicycle to ‘office’, his children walked and were not expected to be late as that would tarnish the headmaster’s image. I did my fair share of housework, mostly mopping, sweeping the compound and cleaning dishes. Luckily for me, I’m a terrible cook and insead of eating half-cooked or burnt food all the time, I was relieved of all cooking duties. It was a different story at school though. I attended a Catholic boarding school for primary and anyone who has lived with nuns knows their work ethics. Like my mother, we too had to dig. The difference was that we only did so on Saturdays and the school bus transported us to the farm. We also had to peel, mostly yams, cassava and sweet potatoes, a good share of which we ate raw only to suffer the consequences in the form of worms. While the school had running water, there were occasional cuts and we had to fetch some from a village well. A lot has changed since then, but many children still do these and tougher chores. I’ve seen kids as young as five at construction sites, passing on bricks, pushing wheelbarrows and doing some heavy lifting. Mostly though, I’ve seen young girls abandon their own dreams to become housemaids. Every other day, you hear a friend or colleague looking for a ‘good’ maid who is then expected to cook, clean, look after the children and any other duties assigned by the lady of the house. Rather than legalise child labour, I think we need to protect children. I’ve never understood why adults send children to the shops, especially other people’s children. I’m proud to say I’ve never taken advantage of anyone’s child by asking them to do chores I can and should do myself.
