Disputing discipline: Child protection, punishment and piety in Zanzibar schools. By FranziskaFay, Rutgers University Press, 2021. US$ 38.95, US$ 150 (cloth). ISBN 9781978821736 (paperback); 9781978821743 (hardcover).

Abstract

Since 2015, eliminating corporal punishment across the world became a key commitment of development practitioners and social workers, as illustrated by the creation of a Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children. This reflects the Sustainable Development Goals' commitment to ending all forms of violence against children. In this context, Fay's book is a well-timed ethnography examining the challenges of globalising child protection through a case study of Zanzibar. Based on 18 months of fieldwork between 2014 and 2015, Disputing Discipline investigates children's and adults' ambiguous perceptions of physical chastisement in four primary and two Qu'ranic schools. Fay combined participant observation with focus groups, arts-based interviews with children between the ages of 9 and 17 years old, and the analysis of children's feedback notes to a Save the Children (an International non-governmental organisation) programme against corporal punishment. Despite the challenges of investigating such a sensitive topic, Fay manages to write a nuanced critique of child protection and discipline in Zanzibar. The book is organised into seven main chapters. The first chapter explores the local meanings of childhood through an analysis of intergenerational relationships and the social expectations regarding good child behaviour. Chapter two describes the perceptions and uses of corporal chastisement in Zanzibar, with particular attention to the cultural values that sanction corporal punishment as a legitimate form of socialisation. Chapter three focuses on the social norms that shape Zanzibari understandings of child protection in Islam, Swahili culture and the development sector. Chapter four examines the reception of a Save the Children anti-corporal punishment programme in schools, epitomised by the promotion of positive discipline (i.e. the substitution of cane hitting by penalties). Chapter five provides an analysis of how Islamic perceptions of gender influence the corporal punishment of boys and girls. It also challenges the association of gender-based violence with girls, by arguing that social norms also make boys more exposed to physical abuse in Zanzibari schools. Chapter six discusses the potentials of decolonising child protection through a reflection of Zanzibari's opposition between local and Western ideas of childcare. Finally, chapter 7 offers a brief collection of children's aspirations regarding governmental and parental care. Fay's book is enriched by her knowledge of Swahili language, which adds subtlety to her writing. This is epitomised by the near homonyms adabu (translated as manners) and adhabu (punishment). Fay uses the juxtaposition of these two words to discuss the social meanings of chastisement in Zanzibari socialisation. She also argues that local opposition to child protection does not stem from an appreciation of violence, but rather from the fact that protection norms are ‘too closely linked to a notion of the ‘West’ and insufficiently inclusive of (…) Zanzibari social personhood’ (p. 162). Her argument goes further to challenge the limited definition of violence in child protection in contexts of scarcity. Fay argues that positive discipline may avoid the direct physical abuse of students by their teachers but can also expose children to hazardous situations if they are forced to pay a penalty that they cannot afford. Her argument is sustained by several children's feedback to positive discipline. From a Childhood Studies perspective, the brilliancy of the book relies on methods that allowed children to utter opinions despite their deference to elders. The combination of ethnography and focus groups with arts-based methods equips Fay to write a ‘Zanzibari-Swahili cosmology of childhood’ (p. 20) that examines how sociocultural and political values impact the lives of children. While a high level of nuance permeates most of the analysis, it falls short when discussing children's aspirations. When the expression ‘children are the nation of tomorrow’ is pervasively used by students, I was left wondering if these utterances were produced in interactions with development officers and teachers, as argued by Spyrou (2018). Given how the conflation of child and national development is operationalised by different institutions (e.g. Burman, 2008; Cheney, 2004), further inquiry into what influences children's ideas of childhood would be an interesting venue for future research. Overall, Disputing Discipline adds to a fertile discussion on decolonisation in both Childhood and Development Studies. It is also an excellent example of the importance of foregrounding children in social research. The book showcases the shortcomings of global initiatives targeting children, and therefore warrants its relevancy for both researchers and practitioners. The combination of traditional and innovative methods in this ethnography makes the book equally relevant for Anthropologists aiming to integrate children in their research.