Monrovia – Fourteen-year-old Erica Hage has told adults on the continent that they, too, as African children living on the continent, ‘can’t breathe.’
Ms. Hage culled her “can’t breathe” from the late US man, George Floyd, who when he was giving up the ghost, was helplessly crying and telling the policeman kneeling on his neck, “I can’t breathe.”
Delivering the keynote address for a virtual zoom meeting organized by the Liberia Poet Society (LPS) in commemoration of the Day of the African Child on June 16, 2020, the teenager said, “My elders, we too cannot breathe. We cannot breathe because we barely have food to eat and the atmosphere around us has no peace. We cannot breathe because the air in Somalia, Nigeria, Libya, are filled with wars and tortures. We are suffocating academically because free and compulsory education has no definition for our future and millions of us are born into sicknesses and diseases. Our rights are taken away and we are now synchronizing drills marching left; we cannot breathe emotionally because we have been raped and enslaved.”
The African Child Day was celebrated on the continental theme, “Access to Child-friendly Justice in Africa”; however, the 14-year-old added, “I have come to mourn this day under the theme ‘No Access to Child-Friendly Justice in Africa.’”
“I have come to mourn this day because according to the United Nations, Africa remains the continent with the highest prevalence of undernourishment, affecting one fifth of its population (more than 256 million people). I have come to mourn this day because quarter of the global illiterate population lives in sub-Saharan Africa alone while sub-Saharan Africa faces the biggest challenges: at the primary and lower secondary levels, less than half of schools have access to electricity, the Internet, computers and basic drinking water, says the United Nations,” she stated.
Ms. Hage again asked her virtual audience, who were participating in from Liberia, Sierra Leone, Zambia, South African, other parts of the continent and the US, “Why then, should I celebrate when the highest rates of child mortality are still in sub-Saharan Africa, where one in nine children dies before age five, more than 16 times the average for developed regions according to the African Leadership for Child Survivals. With all these couple with armed conflict and rising increment in the number of child soldiers in Somalia, Libya, Nigeria and Sudan, I have nothing for which to celebrate. With millions of children dying from wars, starvation, and injustice, why do I celebrate?”
She mourned the loss of several children from around Africa including Angel Tokpa and Omaru Kamara of Liberia, and hundreds of children captured by Boko Haram in Nigeria. She highlighted issues such as the poor quality of education, child labor, child mortality, child soldiers, poverty and illiteracy as the most pressing issues that children in Africa are faced with.
She also used the opportunity to encourage African leaders not to forget about street children, orphans, child soldiers, and homeless children on the continent as they fight for justice.
Due to the Covid-19, LPS could not host an indoor event to commemorate the International Day of the African Child. Notwithstanding, the organization decided to host a virtual event via zoom and Facebook. The event featured children from across Africa, who read poems, and presented on the rights of the child.
Other children, who participated in the event included 17-year-old Hannah Joy Candy from Liberia who read a poem titled, “I Am a Child’; 12-year-old Ndinawe Siame from Zambia, who read a poem titled, “Leave No Child Behind For Africa’s Development’; and 8-year-old Antoinette P. Brooks from Liberia, who read the ‘Rights of the Child’. Other participants were Prince Y Saydee, National Speaker of the Liberian Children’s Parliament. Prince read the history surrounding the Day of the African Child and Ms. Lawenda George from Sierra Leone, sang ‘We Are the World’.
Mrs Kakonko Deborah Chansongo from Zambia and Emmanuel Easco Harris from Liberia served as moderators for the event.
Brief History on Day of the African Child
The history behind the International Day of the African Child goes back to Soweto, South Africa, when thousands of black schoolchildren marched against the poor quality of education, injustice and their right to be taught in their own language.
Due to how catastrophic the march ended, few years ago, the African Union (AU) adopted June 16 every year, since 1991, as International Day of the African Child (DAC) to draw attention to the plight, of children on the continent.
The day is also an opportunity NGOs, governments, and other organizations to host events that raise awareness for the ongoing need to improve the living conditions of children living across Africa, which is a need that still very much exists today. Of the 57 million primary school-aged children currently out of school around the world, over half are from sub-Saharan Africa.
About the LPS
The Liberian Poet Society (LPS) was founded 2017 December by Mr. William P. Anderson, who sounded a national call for all Liberians who have love for poetry as well as those who have been involved with the art of spoken word.
LPS is a society of Liberian writers dedicated to the promotion, publication and showcasing of authentic literary works. Within the broad range of Poets & Writers, an important group stands out: it writes prose and poetry as well as performs spoken words.
The organization has implemented several programs in Liberia – both independently and in collaboration with other organization. Since 2019, the organization has partnered with the Embassy of Sweden in Monrovia to host the International Women’s Day.