assignment

Child Labour in West Africa: Different Work – Different

Vulnerabilities

Morten Bøås and Anne Hatløy*

ABSTRACT

Based on data from four different surveys – street children in Accra, Ghana; street children in Bamako, Mali; children and youth in alluvial-diamond pro- duction in Kono district, Sierra Leone; and war-affected children in Voinja- ma district, Liberia – this article analyzes how children and youth seek to use different economic strategies to shape their lives. In each of these cases, child labour is a consequence of poverty, steep school fees and the family need for the income that the children can earn. The results show school attendance among the children is low, and lowest among the street children and highest among the children in Voinjama who have recently returned after the war. All the children in this article live under difficult circumstances, but those working in the mines, or living a life as street children are particularly prone to respectively physical and mental stress. The type of labour performed in the alluvial diamond mines is extremely hard and repetitive. The life of a street child in West Africa is also very hard. It is a life that only the boldest and bravest will endure. The most fortunate ones are the returnee children in Voinjama. They have survived the Liberian civil war with their family or family-related networks intact. The children in the study are not just passive victims of structures and actions they do not comprehend, but also people who try to adapt to a situation where education is less an option than it used to be. Faced with these constraints the children, either as miners or as street children, try to assume responsibility for their lives by the choice of the eco- nomic strategy that they are currently using. The study also indicates that efforts to support these groups should pay more attention to their lived reali- ties of work and migration.

* Fafo – Institute for Applied International Studies, Oslo, Norway.

� 2008 The Authors Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd., Journal Compilation � 2008 IOM 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK, International Migration Vol. 46 (3) 2008 and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. ISSN 0020-7985

INTRODUCTION

Since the dawn of the modern state in West Africa, the children and youth in this part of the world have either tried to secure their future through the educational system, or by combining some basic education with family employment, mainly in the agricultural sector. However, as most of these states came to experience a combination of an economic and a social crisis (Richards, 1996; Chabal and Daloz, 1999; Ellis, 1999; Mbembe, 2001; Boone, 2003; Keen, 2005), these two strategies suddenly became less rele- vant for a large number of children and youth all over West Africa.

We believe that the fact that Africa has the highest rate of economically active children in the world is related to the crisis of the African state. Child labour is therefore undoubtedly an important issue in West Africa. However, apart from the attention this subject has received from a few Africanist scholars (Bass, 2004; Grier, 2004; Grier, 2005; Kielland and Tovo, 2006), it has been dominated by reports from international and non-governmental organizations, which tend to see working chil- dren as passive victims of exploitation and the victims of objectification by those in power and authority.

This article, which is embedded within a broader debate about children and youth in Africa (de Honwana and Boeck, 2005; Abbink and Van Kes- sel, 2005; Bøås, 2004; Utas, 2003; Abdullah, 1998; Richards, 1996), ana- lyzes how children and youth seek to use different economic strategies to shape their lives. In this article we use empirical data from four different surveys – street children in Accra, Ghana; street children in Bamako, Mali; children and youths in alluvial-diamond production in Kono dis- trict, Sierra Leone; and war-affected children in Voinjama district in Libe- ria – to analyze how children try to find alternative coping strategies in the economic sector (see Hatløy and Huser, 2005; Bøås and Hatløy, 2006a; and Bøås and Hatløy, 2006b). The children in our studies represent differ- ent types of adaptation to alternative coping strategies, which enable these children, and youths to negotiate a situation in which education no longer can be taken for granted. These children are not necessarily drawn into economic activities because they are being exploited, but because it is seen as a better survival strategy than the other alternatives available.

This article will therefore analyze the living conditions of these four dif- ferent groups of children, what choices they have made, and how these deliberations are influenced by the constraints that they are facing. The

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article focuses on their level of education, family background, current occupation, and aspirations for the future.

METHODS

The four case studies were conducted with different sampling methods, based on the different character of the studied subjects. In Bamako, a city with relatively few street children, the main results are based on data collected through the sampling technique Capture-Recapture (CR), and additional information was also collected through Respondent Dri- ven Sampling (RDS). Both methods are designed to capture hidden, rare or elusive populations. In Accra and Kono, RDS was chosen as the sampling method because the subjects were characterized as hidden population groups. CR was not found to be an effective method in these cases, due to the huge number of children working in diamond-related activities in Kono, or living as street children in Accra. In Voinjama the study focused on the economic activities of children ten to 18 years of age, and a household sampling procedure was chosen to select the chil- dren. The reasons why these particular methods were chosen for each particular case are explained below.

The aim of CR is to estimate the size of a population for which there exists no sample frame, and to produce data that are represen- tative for this population (Jensen and Pearson, 2002). This sampling technique is based on studies conducted in wildlife sciences, dating back to 1889 when C.G.J. Peterson introduced the method for esti- mating mortality rates in fish in Limfjorden in Denmark. The first study that used this method for counting a population was conducted by Dahl, who counted trout in Norway in 1917 (LeCren, 1965). The researcher captures a number of fish, for example, 100 from a fish- pond, paints their tails blue, and puts them back into the fishpond again. The following day or week, the researcher recaptures a number of fish again, for example, 110, from the same pond and counts the fish with blue tails. If 15 of the recaptured fish have blue tails, the estimated number of fish in the pond is: 100*110 ⁄ 15 = 733 fish. To get a more robust estimate, the recapture may be conducted several times. The method has been brought from the wildlife sciences to human sciences, and has been used for counting many types of hid- den populations ranging from street children in Brazil (Gurgel et al., 2004), to homeless in Westminster (Fisher et al., 1994), alcohol and drug users (Gemmel et al., 2004, Corrao et al., 2000), AIDS cases in

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France (Bernillon et al., 2000), prostitutes in Norway (Brunovskis and Tyldum, 2004), lesbians in the United States (Aaron et al., 2003), and traffic-related injuries in Scotland (Morrison and Stone, 2000). The CR method was here used for the study of street children in Bamako in July 2004 (see Hatløy and Huser, 2005).

RDS is based on a dual incentive structure, in which respondents are rewarded for being interviewed and for recruiting new respondents. RDS is a chain referral sampling technique used when the targeted pop- ulation can be defined as a ‘‘hidden population’’: This means that no sample frame exists and ⁄ or a frame would be impossible to establish, as the size and boundaries of the population are unknown. The sampling begins with a set of initial participants from the target group who serve as ‘‘seeds’’ and the sampling expands in waves. Each of the recruitments is therefore a link in a recruitment chain. However, to reduce the prob- lem of masking, when respondents protect their peers by not referring them, the new recruits are asked to recruit new respondents into the study themselves. This is different from other chain-referral sampling where the respondents are asked to identify new respondents. The sam- ple collection converges to equilibrium within a limited number of waves, independent of the initial recruits. Salganik and Heckathorn (2004) argue that it is real people connected to a network of relation- ships who make up hidden populations. The main idea behind the esti- mation is that the estimates do not come from the sample proportions. The sample is used to make estimates about the network connecting the population (Heckthorn, 1997; Heckathorn and Jeffri, 2001; Heckathorn et al., 2001; Heckthorn, 2002; Heckathorn and Rosenstein, 2002; Heck- thorn, 2005; Wang et al., 2005). RDS was employed for the study of street children in Accra in October 2004, and the children working with diamonds and diamond-related activities in Kono in April 2005. It was partly implemented in the work among street children in Bamako. In the latter case this method was used in combination with CR (see Bøås and Hatløy, 2006a, Hatløy and Huser, 2005).

In Liberia the study was carried out in Electoral District 3, Voinjama District in Lofa County, in November 2005. Random numbers of house- holds were selected in each village. In each of the selected households a household member, primarily the head of the household, was inter- viewed about the various members of the household. This part of the survey was concerned with gathering information on age, sex, and the relation to the head of the household. In households that included mem- bers between ten and 18 years of age, one of the children was chosen

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for a more extensive interview. This interview was conducted with the use of a questionnaire that was concerned with the child’s background, education, skills levels, wartime experiences and current activities. A Kish table was used to randomly select the child for an interview. All villages within the selection area were visited, and the number of inter- views in each village was determined as a proportion of population size, and the actual households to be interviewed were selected based on a pre-determined pattern of random walking. In all four of the cases stud- ied, a specially designed questionnaire was used. Local fieldworkers, trained by the research team, conducted the interviews in the local language. The average interview time was between ten and 15 minutes.

The children in all of the four case studies directly answered the question- naires. One may question the validity of the answers obtained from research with extremely exposed groups like the street children. However, this seemed to work well for the study population in these studies. In Bamako, both CR and RDS were used, and many of the questions were similar in the two questionnaires. Similar results were revealed in both methods. Control questions were conducted in all questionnaires; fake answers could easily be detected. In Liberia and Sierra Leone, in-depth interviews were conducted with a sub-sample of the children, and quanti- tative and qualitative information complemented each other. On this basis, we believe that the responses given by the children are fairly reliable.

WHO ARE THE CHILDREN?

The study populations in the various studies were street children in Bamako, the capital of Mali; Accra, the capital of Ghana; children working in the diamond sector in Kono district in Sierra Leone; and newly-returned internally displaced persons (IDP) and refugee children in Voinjama district in Liberia. In all of the cases the children were below 18 years of age. For the street children and in Kono, there was no lower age limit, while in Voinjama, only children from ten to 18 years of age were included for analysis.

The definition for ‘‘street children’’ in this article, are the ‘‘children of the street’’ – children with no real home to go to (UNICEF, 1984). Not included in this definition are children belonging to ‘‘street families’’, as when children sleep in the streets together with their parents or other guards. These children live under some form of adult protection and are therefore not living on their own. The definition of street children that

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we employ also does not include beggars under the age of 18 who spend most of the daytime in the streets, but are attached to a marabout (Kor- anic teacher) or their parents ⁄ tutors. A third borderline group that is not included in the definition are the children who slept in a reception centre the previous night (Hatløy and Huser, 2005).

Kono district has a long history of diamond mining, starting in the 1930s. It was hard hit by the 1991–2002 civil war, because whoever con- trolled the area also controlled the diamonds. Young men are involved in mining activities, generally from age 14 and above. Few women and young girls work directly as miners; however, women and young girls and boys are involved in the support sectors surrounding the diamond site. This involves petty traders, water carriers and food providers (Bøås and Hatløy, 2006a; Kielland and Tovo, 2006).

In post-war Liberia, Lofa County is one of main return areas for refu- gees and IDP’s. Nearly the whole population in Lofa County was forced

Street children

Diamond sector

Newly returned IDPs

FIGURE 1

MAP OF WEST AFRICA WITH INDICATIONS OF THE CASE STUDIES’ LOCATIONS

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to flee during the war, either to Guinea, or to other areas in Liberia, mainly to camps around Monrovia and in Bong County (Bøås and Hatløy, 2006b). These people are now returning home. In Lofa the pop- ulation size increased by 46 per cent from July to the end of October 2004. In Voinjama District, the population increased from about 20,000 to 30,000 during these five months. From June 2004 to October the same year, the number of households increased from 3,300 to 7,200 (Golightly, 2004a; Golightly, 2004b). The returnees include both Man- dingo refugees returning from Guinea and IDPs, mainly Loma and Mandingo, returning from Monrovia.

Common for these four case studies is that they involve a lot of children who have been through a migration process: the street children have moved away from their families and out into the street; many of the children working with diamonds have left their families to come and search for an income; all of the post-war children in Voinjama have migrated, either alone or together with their families due to the war.

As Table 1 shows, the gender distribution varies a lot in the four cases: In Bamako, nearly all the street children were boys (96%), while in Accra three out of four street children were girls. The children on the streets of Bamako were younger than the ones in Accra. Nevertheless, in

TABLE 1

AGE DISTRIBUTION IN PERCENT BY GENDER AND SITE

Bamako Accra Kono Voinjama

Gender Male 96 26 73 56 Female 4 74 27 44

Age boys 9-May 2 2 13 b

13-Oct 35 18 40 56 14–17 63 80 46 45

Age girls 9-May a

2 18 b

13-Oct a

24 55 53 14–17

a 74 26 47

Status parents Both alive 73 88 65 81 Father dead 13 6 12 14 Mother dead 5 4 7 2 Both dead 9 2 16 3

Contact with parents Living together 0 0 48 76 Regular contact 60 73 16 14 No ⁄ rare contact 40 27 35 11

N = 217 1321 618 479

a Too few cases to calculate percentage. b Not included in the sample.

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both places a smaller group of children were under 10 years of age (two percent). In Bamako 35 per cent of the boys were in the age group 10– 13, while this was the case for 18 per cent of the boys and 24 per cent of the girls in Accra. Among the children working with diamonds in Kono, three out of four were boys, as in Table 1.

However, the girls who work with diamonds were younger than the boys, as many as 18 per cent of the girls were under ten years of age, while 13 per cent of the boys were so young. One of the reasons for this is the division of tasks – the diamond digging itself is hard and repetitive physical labour, and one therefore needs the strength that comes with a certain age to do a useful job in the diamond pits. This means that in order to get employment in the diamond pits you need to be at least 14 years old, and you must be a boy. This is simply not the kind of labour that a small child can conduct in an efficient manner, and in Sierra Leone this work is not considered a job for girls. The girls and the younger boys working in the diamond-mining areas are therefore mainly doing work related to support functions, such as cooking food, bringing water, and doing petty trade (Bøås and Hatløy, 2006a).

The children in Voinjama are, as the table shows, more equally distrib- uted both according to age and gender, with a few more boys than girls (56% vs. 44%). These children are the children who have returned to Voinjama city or to the rural areas in Voinjama with parents or rela- tives. One could have expected that there would have been more girls than boys, as the boys more likely had been involved in the armed groups, but this was not the case in our study.

Regarding the contact with their biological parents, Table 1 shows that the majority of the children claimed to have their parents alive. In Accra, only 2 per cent of the street children were orphans, and in Bamako 9 per cent of the children said they have lost both parents. This may seem like a high number, but loss of parents cannot be the main factor for the children to go into the streets. In Bamako as many as 73 per cent of the children claimed to have both their parents alive, and in Accra this was the case for 88 per cent of the children. This means that most of the street children were not orphans.

Sierra Leone and Liberia are both post-war countries – and the popula- tion has suffered through years of civil wars. The number of orphans in Sierra Leone is far the highest in the four cases: 16 per cent have lost both parents and only 65 per cent have both parents alive. Twenty-eight

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per cent of the children in the diamond sector have lost the father, and twenty-three per cent have lost the mother. In Voinjama one could have expected the situation to be similar to the one in Sierra Leone – here the war is even closer in time, and it was not in any way less brutal than in Sierra Leone. However, as Table 1 shows, 81 per cent of the children in Voinjama have both parents alive, and ‘‘only’’ 3 per cent have lost both parents. By far the most important thing to keep in mind, is that the children interviewed in Voinjama are the ones who have newly returned either from Guinea or from elsewhere in Liberia. These children have caretakers who provided for their return, whereas the ones who are on their own might not yet have returned. There is simply not anything for them to return to. It is only children who are part of closely knitted groups, such as a family, who can carve out a living in the immediate post-war situation in a rural area such as Voinjama. The children who have returned are therefore the ones living together with their parents (76%), or who have regular contact with their parents. For the diamond children in Kono, the situation is different; 51 per cent of these children are not living with their parents, and more than half of them were not born in Kono district (see Bøås and Hatløy, 2006a).

What all the four groups of children have in common is that they belong to, what some would call, vulnerable groups of children. They are either living in the streets; living outside their ordinary family net- work, often under harsh conditions; or they are newly returned to their home communities.

WHAT ARE THEY DOING?

The most common economic activity in West Africa is agriculture. How- ever, the majority of children in our four case studies have to a large extent made other choices for work.

The street children have left the countryside and travelled to urban areas to search for opportunities – in Bamako less than 20 per cent of the street children originated from Bamako, in Accra only 3 per cent origi- nated from Accra. These children have, voluntarily or by force, left their homes in search of new activities. This move is often economically moti- vated. Girls in Accra said that they needed money to prepare their trousseau (i.e. bridal-chest), others said they needed money to help their families. Other reasons were that some children had left in order to escape an unwanted situation, either due to being badly treated in their

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homes, or in order to run away from a Koran school, or that they sometimes simply went for the adventure. To survive as a street child, one needs to be strong and brave; the children who live in the streets of Bamako and Accra are such children. The street children in Bamako are mainly begging and many of them have a background as Koran school- boys. They easily blend in the street picture, which has many young boys begging as part of their Koran school education. In Accra, the main activity for the street children is to carry goods. They are called the Kaya bola. These are seen all over Accra, in particular girls with washbasins on their heads. They are willing to carry whatever is demanded of them for a few cedis. However, in addition to these two main activities, the street children do whatever small income-generating activities that may turn up, such as shoe shining, car-window washing, truck pushing, selling small items, collecting garbage etc. Very few report that they are involved in criminal activities such as theft or rob- beries or are selling sex (Hatløy and Huser, 2005). The children are rather effective in their income-generating activities; as Table 2 shows, 93 per cent of the street children in Bamako and 96 per cent in Accra, have reported an income. The median daily income was around a dollar. In Ghana the average household expenditure is between US$ 11 and US$ 56 per month; in Mali 73 per cent of the population live on less than a dollar a day (UNICEF, 2004; Ghana Statistical Service, 2003).

The children connected to the diamond activities in Kono are divided into three different categories:

• Direct workers, meaning the ones directly digging and washing for the diamonds;

TABLE 2

PERCENTAGE OF CHILDREN WITHOUT INCOME, AND MEDIAN INCOME FOR

CHILDREN WITH INCOME

Bamako Accra Kono Voinjama

No economic activities (percent) a a a 37 No income (percent) 7 4 40 17 Median daily income (USD) for children with an income

0.9 1.2 1 1.5

N= 217 1321 618 479

a The inclusion criteria for the children in Bamako, Accra and Kono to the survey, was that they had economic activities.

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• Support functions, the ones who prepare food, provide water, run errands, and carry out smaller tasks that are available; and

• Petty trade, the ones who work at the mining sites selling basic com- modities like biscuits, cigarettes, soft drinks etc., often for an older family member or on commission for a more established trader.

Alluvial diamond mining is almost entirely non-industrial. The nature of the work and the tools used are similar to non-industrial agricultural work. What separates this work from agricultural and other economic activities in Sierra Leone is the iterated repetition of heavy work tasks. In other words, it is not the tools themselves that are dangerous, but the very nature of the work. If carried out every single day, month after month, year after year, this kind of work quickly breaks the body down. People do not appear to grow ‘‘old’’ in this kind of work; indeed, it is extremely rare to see elderly people mining, as people above 30 years of age generally cannot cope for long with the bucket and shovel work of alluvial diamond mining. Many of the miners complain about pain in the back and chest.

The direct workers in the mining sector are typically boys who have reached at least 14 years of age. They carry out heavy manual labour that is highly specialized and extremely repetitive. This explains the high frequency of back and chest pain in this group, as well as the high frequency of reported injuries. The support workers are younger than the miners, and often involved in helping their mothers (or other female relatives) to supply the miners with food and beverage. In addition, this group carries out errands and minor tasks related to mining. Because they are by and large confined to the same area every day, there is a sense that the boys are ‘‘miners in the making’’, learning to become miners through constant proximity and observa- tion. The petty traders, mainly girls, work over a larger geographical area to sell the small goods that people need. Most of them work on commission for a more established trader, or for their close relatives. Fewer injuries and illnesses are reported among the support workers and petty traders than among the miners. Table 2 illustrates that 40 per cent of the children involved in the diamond-related activities do not earn regular money on their activity. These are mainly the chil- dren working with support functions and the direct workers on an irregular salary. However, the ones who report an income earn in median one US dollar per day, equal to the street children in Accra and Bamako. This is a quite an acceptable income compared to the local level of salaries.

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In Voinjama, the children who have returned from life as refugees or IDP’s are very much involved in daily household tasks, and for the chil- dren ten to 18 years of age nearly all take part in the domestic work. Nearly all the children are fetching water, sweeping, and washing dishes. Both boys and girls, younger and older are doing this. Fetching fire- wood is an activity that is done more by boys than girls, whereas the girls cook and care for children more frequently than boys do. Launder- ing and cleaning are more frequently carried out by the older girls, and the girls start their work at a younger age than boys. In total the chil- dren use about 3.5 hours a day on domestic tasks; however, the girls spend significantly more time, both the younger and the older ones, than the boys. While the girls’ burden of domestic tasks increases with age, the domestic workload of the boys is quite stable.

In addition to the domestic tasks, 63 per cent are involved in other eco- nomic activities. Farming is the most important activity, with 42 per cent of the children currently involved. Less than 40 per cent of the girls and younger boys are farming – while as many as 68 per cent of the older boys are occupied with this. The older girls (37%) are more involved in petty trading.

While the children in three of the case studies were selected because of their economic activities, the Voinjama children were selected regardless of their activities. However as Table 2 shows, 46 per cent of them were receiving an income, with the median income of US$ 1.50 per day

The children were chosen for participation in the various studies because of their involvement in economic activities. It was not expected to find many who were enrolled in school at the time of the survey. For the children in Voinjama, who have recently returned to their current place of residence, the researchers did not expect to find many children cur- rently enrolled at the time of the survey. Table 3 confirms that very few of the street children were currently enrolled. However, one-third of the children were formerly enrolled in school. The level of currently enrolled children is higher in Kono (40%) and Voinjama (63%) than among the street children. However, as shown in Figure 2, the level of education in all the four cases is lower among the respondents in the case studies than the reported country average (see World Bank, 2004a, 2004b, 2004c, 2004d). School attendance is one thing; the effectiveness of the education received is a different matter. One indication of the effective- ness of the education received is the level of literacy. In Figure 2, both those who have answered that they read easily and those saying that

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they read with difficulty have been classified as literate – however, in all the cases, except the case of Kono, the literacy level is far below the level in the country in question (see World Bank, 2004a, 2004b, 2004c, 2004d). Many of the children who are in school, or have been in school, reported that they are not able to read at all. One question that needs to be raised is therefore the effectiveness of the educational system that exists for these children.

WHAT ARE THEIR EXPECTATIONS?

The children in Voinjama believe that their life is better now than it was one year ago. The simple fact that the war has ended and they have

0

25

50

75

100

Sierra Leone

GhanaMali Liberia Sierra Leone

GhanaMali Liberia

P e rc

e n t

P e rc

e n t

Enrolment

Country Cases

0

25

50

75

100 Literacy

Country Cases

FIGURE 2

ENROLMENT AND LITERACY IN THE FOUR CASE STUDIES COMPARED TO THE

COUNTRY LEVELS (DATA ON COUNTRY LEVEL FROM WORLD BANK 2004A, 2004B,

2004C, 2004D)

TABLE 3

EDUCATION AND LITERACY IN PERCENT BY CASE

Bamako Accra Kono Voinjama

Enrolment Never attended a

64 62 47 26 Former enrolled 32 37 13 11 Currently enrolled 4 1 40 63

Literacy Cannot read 89 87 71 71 Read with difficulty 8 9 20 26 Read easily 4 4 8 3

N= 133 1321 618 479

a in Accra 8 percent have been ⁄ are in Koran schools.

a in Bamako 50 percent have been or are in Koran schools.

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been able to return to their homes clearly contributes to this perception of improvement (see Figure 3 and Table 4). The opposite is the case for the street children in Accra and in Bamako. Only one out of four thinks that their current life is better than the life they lived when they were at home. The children in Kono, on the other hand, tend to occupy a posi- tion in between the two extremes of the returnee children and the street children: half of them think that life is the same now as one year ago, but only twelve percent think it is worse. The post-war time has been

0

25

50

P e

rc e

n t

75

100

Voinjama

Life now compared to at home/one year ago

...better ..same ...worse Bamako Accra Kono

P e

rc e

n t

0

25

50

75

100

Expectation for the future

Get a better job Go hom e Go to school Other

VoinjamaBamako Accra Kono

FIGURE 3

LIFE NOW COMPARED TO ONE YEAR AGO, AND EXPECTATION FOR THE FUTURE

IN PERCENT BY CASE

TABLE 4

LIFE NOW COMPARED TO ONE YEAR AGO, AND EXPECTATION FOR THE FUTURE

IN PERCENT BY CASE

Bamako Accra Kono Voinjama

Life now compared to …better 27 27 33 99 home ⁄ one year ago …same 14 9 55 1

…worse 59 64 12 1 Expectation for the future Get a better job 65 46 17 8

Go home 10 23 4 1 Go to school 11 18 43 84 Continue current activities

4 6 2 1

Get married 0 4 5 3 Go abroad 4 0 16 2 Other 5 3 12 2

N= 217 1321 618 479

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much longer in Sierra Leone than in Liberia, so although nearly every- body is happy that the war is over, most people realize that peace does not necessarily equal prosperity but rather continued poverty.

Children in all the four cases were asked about their expectations for the future, and almost none of them wanted to continue their current activity. Quite surprisingly, more street children wanted to continue with their cur- rent activities (4% in Bamako and 6% in Accra) than the children involved in diamond-mining related activities and the returnee children in Voinjama (respectively 2% in Kono and 1% in Voinjama). The street chil- dren’s dreams are both to get a better job, and also to return home. In Accra, one out of four dreams of returning home, whereas the street chil- dren in Bamako only reported such dreams in 10 per cent of the cases. The newly returned children in Voinjama, the ones who to a large extent already go to school – hope to continue their education. School participa- tion is the major dream among the children in Kono. However, the chil- dren in Kono have more diversified dreams as well; quite a substantial group wants to return home (17%) and an equally large group (16%) wants to go abroad. Some say they want to study abroad whereas for oth- ers this is more an idea about getting to the ‘‘promised land’’ of Europe or North America, where they believe they immediately will become rich. It is a dream about something else other than the present place, nothing more, and nothing less. In one way or another, they dream about drawing the ‘‘winning’’ number in the giant raffle of the Sierra Leonean alluvial diamond-mining enterprise. Earning some extra money in the diamond trade, whether as a miner, petty trader, or in one of the many support functions, can constitute the little extra income that their families need to send the children back to school, or, in the case of the older boys and girls, enable them to pay their school fees themselves.

The most striking result shown is that very few children, in fact almost none, would like to continue with their current activities. This indicates that these children and youths see their current lives as very difficult. However, we also need to keep in mind that the work conducted by these different groups of children is quite temporary. The street children will grow up to become something else, some of the girls will get mar- ried, some will return home, some will find other kinds of employment or embark on new survival strategies. Being a street child is not a life- long career; it is by definition a temporary existence. It is an occupation that some children are involved in before embarking on other attempts at making a living. Much of the same is true for the children who mine or are involved in economic activities related to mining. Mining is an

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activity carried on for a limited number of months or years in order to earn enough money to do something else: go to school, find a better job (using money made in the mines to surmount barriers to entry), or return to their home communities to start a new life. Even the returning children in Voinjama are likely to grow up to become something else. Most will become farmers, but some may also through education or other means embark on different economic strategies than their fathers. Being a child or being defined as a youth is after all still a relatively short period of time in this part of the world.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

Most of the children claim that they started with their current activity because they were encouraged, but some of them were also forced by their family or friends. This illustrates the poverty trap some people live in. Parents do not send their children to work because they do not care for them or because they are trying to exploit their labour capacity. Child labour is a consequence of the combined forces of poverty, steep school fees, and the fact that family income needs can be crucially sup- plemented by what children can earn. Moreover, the finding that some of the children are currently enrolled in school suggests that their income contributes to their own education.

All the children in this article live under difficult circumstances, but those working in the mines, or living a life as street children, are particu- larly prone to respectively physical and mental stress. The type of labour conducted in the alluvial diamond mines is extremely hard and repeti- tive, exposing the young miners much more to chest pains and back problems than those working with petty trade or in various support functions. The life of a street child in West Africa is also hard. This is a life that only the boldest and bravest will endure. The most fortunate ones in our study are the returnee children in Voinjama. They have sur- vived the Liberian civil war with their family or family-related networks intact, and subsequently are able to return to their home of origin together with their mother or father, or other close relatives. It is there- fore only natural that these are the ones with the highest expectations for the future and most satisfied with their current lives.

Education is an important goal in itself, and a crucial pillar in any strategy to eliminate child labour. The results from the cases show that school attendance among the children is low, not surprisingly, lowest among the

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street children and highest among the children in Voinjama in Liberia who have recently returned after the war. In Voinjama, the children who have been in refugee camps or IDP camps are the ones who have most fre- quently attended school, simply because they have been living in a place with easy access to the schools. School was the only occupation for the children who lived in a refugee or IDP camp. This shows that the avail- ability of schools is important, not only in forms of school buildings and teachers, but more important in the perceived availability for each student. Barriers for school attendance are often related to poverty. In some places the formal school fees are an obstacle for the children to go to school, but more commonly is the informal school fees, such as money to buy school uniforms, food, books and so on that keep the children away from school. In addition to the direct costs, it is hard for the poorest families to send important manpower away from the homes.

There are actions that can be taken to improve the school attendance. The most important in our view is to eliminate all the school fees, both the formal ones, but more importantly also the informal ones. This will erase barriers for many of the children for school participation.

Children are important manpower for the poorest families and this should be taken into consideration in the planning of the school year. The school holidays should be distributed to the most labour demanding periods, such as the brushing and the harvest period, so that children are able to follow the whole school year and still be able to help out the family in the peak periods. In West Africa the period for vacations should vary among a cocoa-bean growing area, a diamond area and a rice growing community, depending on the period of the year with the highest demand for manpower.

Poverty is the main obstacle for children to go to school. However, another aspect that also must be taken into consideration is the quality of the education. Even among the children who have gone to school for several years, very few of them are able to read easily. This means that parents pay money and children spend time on an education of a very low quality. Efforts must be made to ensure the quality of the schools, even on the lowest levels. All children who have been through four to five years of basic education should be, at a minimum, able to read.

Almost none of the children in our various cases would like to continue with their current activities. However, as much as they may dream about another life, another career, the children in our surveys are realistic. They

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know what kind of constraints they are up against. That is why a dia- mond-miner continues to mine, the street child stays on the street, and the returnee child continues to carry out his or her domestic tasks. Life can be hard, but for the children in these ‘‘professions’’ it can not only be endured, but also negotiated, as highlighted by other studies for vulnera- ble and disadvantaged child and youth groups (Honwana and Boeck, 2005; Abbink and van Kessel, 2005; Utas, 2003). Also children in our study are not just passive victims of structures and actions that they do not comprehend, but also people who try to adapt to a situation where education is much less an option than it used to be. Faced with these con- straints the children, either as miners or as street children, try to assume responsibility for their lives through the choice of the economic strategy that they are currently using. Their situation is difficult, but still they make use of their skills and small capacities in their attempt to negotiate their daily lives. Our survey indicates that efforts to support these groups should pay more attention to their lived realities of work and migration.

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LE TRAVAIL DES ENFANTS EN AFRIQUE DE L’OUEST: MÉTIERS DIFFÉRENTS – VULNÉRABILITÉS DIFFÉRENTES

Se basant sur des données recueillies dans quatre études – portant sur les enfants des rues à Accra, au Ghana, et à Bamako, au Mali, sur les enfants et les jeunes qui travaillent à la production alluviale de diamants dans la région de Kono, en Sierra Leone, et sur les enfants victimes de la guerre dans la région de Voinjama, au Libéria –, le présent article analyse les différentes stratégies économiques auxquelles recourent les enfants et les jeunes pour construire leur vie. Dans tous les cas, le travail des enfants est la conséquence de la pauvreté, du coût élevé des frais de scolarité et de l’attente des familles concernant les gains du travail des enfants. Les chiffres montrent que la présence des enfants à l’école est faible, qu’elle est au plus bas chez les enfants des rues et au plus haut chez les enfants de Voinjama qui sont récemment rentrés chez eux après la guerre. Tous les enfants sur lesquels porte le présent article vivent dans des conditions difficiles mais ceux qui travaillent dans des mines ou vivent dans la rue sont spécialement victimes de stress mental pour les premiers et de stress physique pour les seconds. Le type de travail qu’ex- ige l’extraction alluviale de diamants est extrêmement difficile et répétitif. La vie d’un enfant des rues en Afrique de l’Ouest est aussi très difficile. C’est une vie dont seuls les plus forts et les plus courageux peuvent s’ac- commoder. Les plus chanceux sont les enfants qui sont revenus de la guerre. Ils ont survécu à la guerre civile au Libéria et leur famille ou leur réseau familial sont intacts. Les enfants dont parle la présente étude ne sont pas simplement des victimes passives de structures et d’actions qu’ils ne comprennent pas, mais aussi des personnes qui essaient de s’adapter à une situation dans laquelle l’éducation est moins accessible qu’auparavant. Confrontés à ces contraintes, les enfants, qu’ils travail- lent dans l’extraction minière ou qu’ils vivent dans la rue, s’efforcent, par l’adoption d’une stratégie économique, de prendre les rênes de leur propre existence. L’étude indique aussi que les efforts déployés pour soutenir ces groupes devraient prêter une attention accrue au vécu des personnes en termes de travail et de migrations.

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MANO DE OBRA INFANTIL EN ÁFRICA OCCIDENTAL: A TRABAJO DIFERENTE VULNERABILIDADES DIFERENTES

Sobre la base de los datos recabados en distintas encuestas (niños de la calle en Accra, Ghana; niños de la calle en Bamako, Malı́; niños y jóvenes que trabajan en las minas de diamantes de aluvión en el distrito de Kono en Sierra Leone; y niños afectados por la guerra en el distrito Voinjama, Liberia), en este artı́culo se analiza cómo los niños y jóvenes intentan utilizar distintas estrategias económicas para dar forma a sus vidas. En cada caso, la mano de obra infantil es una consecuencia de la pobreza, de los elevados gastos de escolarización y de la necesidad que tiene la familia de recibir los ingresos que los niños pueden aportar. Los resultados demuestran una baja asistencia a las escuelas entre estos niños, principalmente entre los niños de la calle, siendo ésta mayor entre los niños que recientemente retornaron a Voinjama, tras la guerra. Todos los niños de que se trata en este artı́culo viven en circunstancias difı́ciles, pero aquéllos que trabajan en las minas o viven en las calles tienden mayormente a sufrir de estrés fı́sico y mental. El trabajo realiz- ado en las minas de diamantes de aluvión es sumamente difı́cil y repeti- tivo. Los niños de la calle en África Occidental también trabajan duramente. Este tipo de vida sólo lo aguantan los más fuertes y valien- tes. Los más afortunados son los hijos de quienes retornan en Voinjama puesto que han sobrevivido a la guerra civil en Liberia y mantenido intactas sus familias o redes familiares conexas. Los niños encuestados no son simples vı́ctimas pasivas de las estructuras y acciones que no comprenden, sino también personas que tienen que adaptarse a la situa- ción donde la educación no es una opción como solı́a serlo antes. Hab- ida cuenta de estas restricciones, los niños, ya se trate de mineros o de la calle, tratan de asumir la responsabilidad de sus vidas según la estrategia económica que utilizan actualmente. Este estudio también apunta a que los empeños para apoyar a estos grupos deberı́an conceder mayor atención a sus realidades de vida, trabajo y migración.

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