Conference Session Summaries

Media & the African Child Workshop
Chairs: Firdoze Bulbulia, Director of Moments Entertainment, Chairperson of the Children and Broadcasting Foundation for Africa, Sec. General of The International Centre of Film for Children and Young People (CIFEJ) and Board Member of SITHENG; Faith Isiakpere, Director of Moments Entertainment, Board Member of the Children and Broadcasting Foundation for Africa and Chairperson of SITHENGI

This interactive workshop highlighted 15 years of training, production and advocacy in African children's media. The Q & A sessions explored training and production methodologies that work in formal and informal settings -- especially within rural communities. The workshop shared the diversity of edutainment media products, offering participants an opportunity to prepare media content for their own projects.

Sport & the African Child Workshop
Chair: Gerard Akindes, Ohio University

The importance of making children and youth development the core of youth sport programs in Africa was the central theme of the presentations and discussions. All presenters shared with the audience their original pedagogy of sport for children and youth development.
YES Africa – Senegal: An organization led by Dr. Jemadari Kamara from University of Massachusetts, Boston presented their projects with youth 7 – 17 years old in several communities in Senegal. Their grassroots programs include basket camps, artistic and cultural activities, computer skills development, and community environment services.
Play Soccer - Judy McPherson the Founder/CEO of Play Soccer, a nonprofit organization currently operating in Senegal, Ghana, Malawi, Zambia and Cameroon, introduced the audience to the holistic curriculum of Play Soccer. With soccer training, the 5 – 18 years old youth involve in the program learn about health and social development skills.
Martha Saavedra, Associate director of African Studies at UC Berkeley shared her current research on how locally or internationally renowned African female athletes are perceived as role models by young girls involved in sport activities.
David Carr, the coordinator of the coaching education program at Ohio University outlined the importance of training youth sport coaches with a philosophy focusing on child development.

Communication/Technology & the African Child
Chair: Ismail Elmahdi, Ohio University

There are three participants presented in the  Comm/Technology & The African Child Session. Two of the three presenters (Dr. Yegan Pillay, a professor in the college of Education at Ohio University and Mr. Titus Gwemende, a graduate student in Communication and Development Studies,) focused on the effectiveness of new communication technologies on HIV/AIDS prevention among teens in Sothern Africa. While Pillay's paper attempts to examine the usefulness of cell phones in supplementing the efforts to reduce the prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS among youth in South Africa, Gwemende's paper explores ways of harnessing the potential of using cell phones to educate teens about HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe. The third paper was presented by Mr. George Gathigi, a doctoral candidate in the School of Media and Studies at Ohio University. Gathigi's paper addresses the role of the printed media in covering and presenting the 2008 crisis in Kenyan secondary schools which started as a peaceful strike to become a violent movement that led to destruction of property and death of fellow students. He used content analysis of two leading newspapers in Kenya (The Daily Nation and The Standard) to conduct his research. 

Health & the African Child (1)
Chair: Mandi Chikombero, Ohio University

The session focused on health issues in Africa. Using a large sample of demographic health survey data, the first presentation highlighted the challenges of HIV in Eritrea as well as the challenges of researching the issues due to inappropraite or inadequate data. The second presentation took
on a more critical tone with regards to the shortcomings of demobilization and
rehabilitation of former child soldiers in Liberia.

Agency & the African Child
Chair: David Lancy, Utah State University
Discussant: Andria Sherrow, Ohio University

This session featured talks about child agency from an anthropological perspective by Dr. David Lancy, Dr. Marida Hollos and Dr. Aaron Denham. The issue of agency and childhood is paramount to the study of children and global development.  Unfortunately, not every group involved with children defines agency in a clear or effective manner.  Researchers, policy makers and development practitioners are defining children in Africa within the “new paradigm”, specifically in relationship to their ability to exercise agency.  What is happening within the new paradigm discourse is that children are being treated independently from their families and communities, as if they are autonomous actors with the abilities and rights of adults.  The results have typically been programs that are neither culturally relevant nor effective.  The session summarized that if scholars and practitioners are going to talk about agency, we need to understand that agency shifts throughout the life stages of children. As children mature and move through the developmental process, they need different things from their parents and other adults.  We also need to understand that parents and other adults invest differentially in children, based on children’s developmental stages and what they need.  As children mature, adults expect more of them and invest less of their direct energy in them, allowing them to express their interests and acquire what we have labeled ‘agency’.   By incorporating a culturally relevant perspective in our work on agency with a greater understanding of child development and the processes that have shaped children’s development, we can produce more effective research and programs that will further enhance our understanding of children and increase our ability to effect change on the ground.

The African Girl Child & African Social Change
Chair: Karen Yawa Agbemabiese-Grooms, Ohio University

There were five presenters for the session on the Girl Child and African Social Change. Three of the presenters addressed specific issues of the girl child and education. The first paper presented by Karen Agbemabiese-Grooms, a doctoral student at Ohio University, explores the voice of the African girl child through democratic dialogue, and examined factors responsible for inequality and discrimination on the basis of gender.  Catherine Cutcher, a doctoral student at Ohio University, presented her paper on her research that provides an understanding to the popular educational practices and leadership development strategies used by the Kenyan women’s movement. The third paper was presented by Dr. Godwyll, a professor of education at Ohio University. Dr. Francis Godwyll’s paper provides the outcomes of a quantitative study conducted in Ghana that revealed findings of how girls are systematically discriminated in math classes. Findings of this paper showed girls performed better in math at single-sexed schools. Two presenters focused on the lived experiences of street children in Accra, Ghana. Danso, a master student at Ohio University, presented her paper with a focus on the Kayayei experience of young Ghanaian girls and the challenges they encounter as street workers in Accra, Ghana. The fifth paper presented by Dr. Muriel Yeboah, professor at the University of Memphis, investigates the lives of young female porters in Accra, Ghana. Yeboah’s findings indicate how socio-economic and political processes influence the migration of young girls to the capital city of Accra, and discusses their adaptive strategies.

Child Development & the African Child
Chair: Hogan Sherrow, Ohio University

In the Child Development and the African Child session, three papers dealt with the topic of development and children in Africa.  Dr. Jill Brown from Creighton University began the session with an in depth analysis of child fosterage and development in Namibia.  She looked at a complex cultural issue of fosterage among largely rural populations in Namibia through an evolutionary lens that allowed her to illuminate the impact of factors like gender and kinship on education.  Her findings indicate that fostered children in Namibia are less educated than non-fostered children and that girls attained more education than boys.  The second finding was surprising until she discussed that boys are usually sent out to herd cattle and that there have been numerous social programs focused on girls education in this area.  After Dr. Brown’s stimulating presentation, Mussa Idris from the University of Florida presented a paper on the social gaps that exist between relatively recent African immigrants and their children.  He discussed how many families face challenges to the maintenance of their culture, living in the US.  By chronicling several families and the approaches they take in their respective communities, Mussa demonstrated that cultural maintenance is a problem faced by members of the “New” African Diaspora in the US.  Desiree Kosciulek of Firelight Foundation concluded the session on behalf of herself  and her co-author Jennifer Lentfer.  Their presentation focused on the activities of Firelight Foundation on behalf of children and community development in various areas throughout Africa.  Overall the session was thought-provoking and engaging.  The presenters were all poised and professional, providing those in attendance with new perspectives on development in African Children.

Media & the African Child (2)
Chair: Steve Howard, Ohio University

Education & the African Child (2)
Chair: Francis Godwyll

Human Rights & the African Child
Chair: Dauda Abubakar, Ohio University

Health & the African Child (2)
Chair: Matthew Adeyanju, Ohio University