On a trip to northern Namibia’s recently, I was reminded how in rural areas children take on responsibility much earlier in life than those in the towns. And it made me think.
We had come across a donkey-cart stopped on the side of the road. In front was a four-year-old boy with a radio on his shoulder listening to Owambo music and preventing the donkeys from moving forward. His fourteen-year-old brother was loading clay onto the cart that was already loaded with several 20-litre water containers and two bags of maizemeal. He told us that they were on their way to the village with supplies.
It took me back to my youth when I was sixteen-years-old and my brother entrusted me with his truck and the important job of transporting cattle to the abattoir. It was a big deal and I was so proud to have been given the responsibility.
My friend, John Mendelsohn, recounted the story of an incident that took place on a trip to Angola. He was returning from a visit to the Cubango Game Reserve. He arrived at the Cubango/Okavango River on a Sunday and the two ferrymen were not there. He waited, thinking that being a Sunday they were still asleep and would soon arrive. Three children played and washed on the river bank next to the barge. After a while, one of the children went up the hill to a hut and returned carrying a heavy tank of fuel. She connected the fuel line to the engine and then connected the battery. John assumed that she had woken her father who would soon take charge. But, the ten-year-old girl started the engine, reversed the barge and took him and the other two occupants across the river. As they approached the bank, she neatly changed direction, parked the barge and lowered the gang planks for them to be on their way.
Away from the towns and modern technology, it’s a different way of life. Rather than being seen as child labour as it may be seen in Europe, it’s natural for children to take on jobs usually reserved for adults in the western world. And we have to remember not to place our value system on others. It’s simply another way of living. The elders put a lot of trust in the children and give them responsible jobs. I wondered if I would give my grandchildren the same kind of trust, the responsibility and freedom to prove themselves and to grow up with less fear. Perhaps it’s no longer possible for us, perhaps we have moved too far into a modern way of living, but in areas like southern Angola and northern Namibia it still exists. The old way of life.
Here, time moves at a slower pace and children, without the trappings of the digital world, play their part where needed to keep the wheels of the family turning, in more ways than one.