Streets versus Elites: Tensions, Trade-offs, and Treaties with Street Children in Accra, Ghana

Abstract

Children, Youth and Environments Vol 13, No.1 (Spring 2003) ISSN 1546-2250 Streets versus Elites: Tensions, Trade-offs, and Treaties with Street Children in Accra, Ghana Fr Patrick Shanahan Centre of African Studies University of Edinburgh Citation: Shanahan, Patrick. “Streets versus Elites: Tensions, Trade-offs, Treaties- Street Children in Accra, Ghana.” Children, Youth and Environments 13(1), Spring 2003. Retrieved [date] from http://colorado.edu/journals/cye. Keywords: street children; Ghana; Africa The methodology in my paper is very simple. I propose to follow each of the main words as I present the situation of street children in Accra, Ghana, today. I do not apologize for any of the words and I am fully aware that they give a picture of the possibility at least of some sort of conflict as opposed to the consensual world that many of us prefer to live in. I have to say from the beginning that I am not an academic. I am a practitioner, a social planner. I have spent all my working life in Africa, and the last fifteen years in the downtown areas of Accra and other capital cities in Africa. I am delighted to be able to share platforms with academics. At least the academic world is beginning to admit it needs the practitioner’s world- the operational world- for support of its theories. In turn, as practitioners, we are very happy to be shown new ways, new ideas, new methods of thinking by the academic world. What we find hardest of all is to be by-passed by policy makers who speak to academics, create a cozy huddle, and set principles of action in stone and tell us to get on with things. I think we must make certain things very clear from the beginning. My thinking about street children, and the thinking of many colleagues on the streets of Africa’s cities, has its roots in two principles. First, I say that a street child has the right to be a street child. I say that we must validate the position of the street child. Secondly, I challenge our partners- and anyone else who works with street children in Africa- to be bold enough to recognize that street children are becoming a critical mass. I challenge people and 361 organizations not to hide behind the occasional intervention or charitable gesture but to say, in any town in Africa: “We want to be the friends of every street child in this place.” Streets This first section is the sine qua non of my own practice as a social planner trying to relate to street children. It is from this section that my conclusion will have its true validation. There are some experienced commentators, like Fabio Dallape, who have, in my opinion, failed to take on board the fact that the street is a living entity in the life of a street child. He says: “The term ‘street children’ is inappropriate, offensive and gives a distorted message” (Dallape 1996). I have great respect for Dallape. We were both taught our practice with street children by one of the pioneers in work with street children in Africa, Fr Arnold Grohl. I wonder, though, if Dallape is not falling into the trap of seeing everything to do with the street as bad. Let’s return to reality. Let me tell you about the worst insult in Accra for male street children. It is not to be called “street children.” The word in Ga, the language of the ruling people of Accra, for “carrier” is kaya. In colonial times, rubbish, waste- human and animal- and all other detritus was collected by the poorest worker and taken to an incinerator. Pidgin English picked up the word “boiler” as an alternative to “incinerator.” The poor laborers who carried the waste and the rubbish became known as “kaya boila.” This insulting term meant that you were one step up from the waste you were carrying, that all you could do was a job carrying rubbish. Today in Accra, if you want to insult a young street boy or a young street teenager who is a kaya boila, taunt him by saying: “You, my friend, you...