AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY AND THE HERMENEUTIC INTERROGATION INTO CHILD LABOUR VIS-A-VIZ CHILD RIGHT ACT

Abstract

This paper explores the complex relationships between African philosophy, the Child Rights Act, and the phenomenon of child labour. While the Child Rights Act aims to protect children from exploitation and ensure their access to education, African philosophy emphasizes community, interdependence, and collective well-being. This tension raises critical questions about the cultural and hermeneutical context of child labour, economic realities, and the balance between individual child rights and collective well-being. The bone of the African economy prior to colonial invasion is characterized by skilled development. As such, skills in farming, carpentry, art works etc. are acquired from childhood as children learn skills of their parents and grow into adulthood. In learning such skills, the child is developing economically with the intention of independent sustainability and sustenance. The paper argues that the Child Rights Act has dangerously hampered on the skills learned in the process of the development of the African child. Hence, an average African child is left with an unskilled growth for economic empowerment. The paper contends that a blanket application of the Child Rights Act may not be effective in addressing child labour; as it fails to account for the complex cultural and economic contexts in which it occurs. This research adopts a qualitative approach in addressing these complexities so as to contribute to a deeper understanding of the intersections between African philosophy, child labour, and the Child Right Acts, and to inform more effective strategies for protecting children's rights while respecting cultural heritage and addressing economic realities.