The Sunday Mail
Amanda Siziba
Westridge High School, 2015 A young child with dreams Just like any other child A child that wants to have a bright future
| Just like any other child |
A child that desires a good education
Just like any other child
A child that sees a better Africa in the years to come
A child that sees a good job, a good house and a good family
But this is far from reality.
Reality crushes these dreams
Reality makes it impossible to realize their full potential
Reality just makes it hard to make it!
Reality is the indeed the plight of the African child.
Reality is poverty, wars, abuse, trafficking, and cultural oppression.
And oh I sigh, that is reality.
You see an African child dressed in a military suit ( as if that is something to be proud of)
Heavily burdened by this thing they call an AK47
Ready to fight
To fight over what?
To fight over something they know nothing of
But is entitled to do it because they have no choice.
This is the plight of an African Child.
Poverty in itself rules in the mind of an African child
Poverty keeps shouting in the mind , “you’re stuck!” You are going nowhere!
Poverty begins to resonate in the mind that it becomes a lifestyle
A child begins to think this is my portion
In the end endures , eventually enjoying the suffering.
That is the plight of an African child.
Abuse has stricken like a lightning bolt on the African child.
You hear of a young girl married to a an old man,
You hear of sexual abuse of young children
You hear of domestic violence in front of children
Day in, day out
Day in, day out
And you begin to ask , have adults lost their minds?
What is going on? Where are our morals?
Where is the self control?
Alas! There are no answers !
And oh I sigh , that is the plight of the African child.
Culture which was the pride of Africa
Has indeed become its downfall
A child is denied an education because of culture,
You hear yet again , you cannot go to school because you have to learn to take care of your husband !
That is nonsense!
But yet normal in the cultural sense.
A child dreaming to be an air hostess perhaps
But is denied!
Denied because you have to be a doctor so you achieve “real” success
A child who’s future is not entirely in their hands
All because they have to please family and culture.
It has been the culture that one has to be a “doctor” and nothing else,
It has been the culture not to speak your mind or express emotion to elders because
it Is disrespectful !!
Hence it has become the culture that the African child is trapped!
And this is their plight!
Education and human rights of an African child have been denied,
Dreams have been shattered,
Destinies have been taken away
Finally, a life has been thrown away.
These are the voiceless cries of an African child.
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