CHILD NEGLIGENCE AND STREETISM IN AMMA DARKO’S FACELESS

TABLE OF CONTENT
Contents Pages
Title Page — — — — — — — — — — –i
Declaration — — — — — — — — — — –ii
Approval Page — — — — — — — — — –iii
Dedication — — — — — — — — — — –iv
Acknowledgement — — — — — — — — –v
Table of Content — — — — — — — — — –vii
Abstract — — — — — — — — — — –viii

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study — — — — — — –1
1.2 Theoretical Framework — — — — — — –3
1.3 Statement of the Problem — — — — — — –3
1.4 Purpose of the Study — — — — — — — –4
1.5 Significance of the Study — — — — — — –5
1.6 Methodology — — — — — — — — –5
1.7 Scope and Limitation — — — — — — — –6
1.8 Operational Definition of Terms — — — — — –6
1.9 Bio-data of Amma Darko — — — — — — –6

CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Streetism and Negligence in Africa — — — — — — –11
The Child and African Childhood — — — — — — –13
Children and the African Street — — — — — — –18
African Street Children Literatures — — — — — — –19

CHAPTER THREE
Textual Presentation — — — — — — — — –24-33

 

CHAPTER FOUR
TEXTUAL ANALYSIS
4.1 Challenges of Children on the Street — — — — –37
4.2 Factors Responsible for Child Negligence — — — — –40
4.2.1 Poor Economic Situation — — — — — — –40
4.2.2 Family Relations — — — — — — — –41
4.2.3 Low Educational Level of Parents — — — — — –41
4.2.4 Large Family Size — — — — — — — –41
4.2.5 School Dropout — — — — — — — — –42
4.3 Effects of Streetism — — — — — — — –42
4.4 Major Themes in the Novel — — — — — — –44
4.4.1 Sexual Exploitation — — — — — — — –45
4.4.2 Feminism — — — — — — — — — –46
4.4.3 Traditional Religion — — — — — — — –46
4.4.4 Hope — — — — — — — — — –48

CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
Summary — — — — — — — — — — –50
Conclusion — — — — — — — — — — –51
References — — — — — — — — — — –53

 

 

 

ABSTRACT
Understanding the lives of children who live and work on the street entails finding out about the lives and roles of children in any culture. This work sets out to address the issue of negligence and streetism within the African contextual society. The researcher uses Amma Darko’s Faceless. The Marxism theoretical frame work which deals with social class stratification is used to analyse the text. The researcher finds out how those children who are on the street find life very difficult and are exposed to so many social violence which includes; sexual violence, poverty, drugs and alcoholism among other vices. The researcher also points out that among the causes of child negligence are domestic violence, low economic standard and illiteracy. These are issues modern society must fight to eradicate.

CHAPTER ONE
INRTODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Long after independence, African nations have continued to struggle with the question of development, poverty, crime and other social vices. These phenomenon can be traced back to African leaders who took over leadership from the colonial masters. Black leaders crave for material wealth; they want to live like the colonial masters to the detriment of their fellow Africans. Many writers today, portray the effects of this greed by African leaders. In a continent like Africa which suffers a lot as a result of poverty, the growing rate of child negligence by parents is on the increase. Over the years, the African continent has witnessed a rapid and alarming growth in social vices necessitating the changing faces of the society today. The question that first comes to mind is what is the motivation behind these crimes and social vices that keep threatening the moral, social and economic development of the African continent?
Child negligence is a form of child abuse and it is a deficit in meeting a child’s basic needs including the failure to provide adequate healthcare, supervision, clothing, nutrition, housing as well as their physical, emotional, social and mental needs. Causes of negligence may stem from several parenting problems including mental disorders, substance abuse, domestic violence, unemployment, unplanned pregnancy, single parenting, poverty, immorality and nonchalant attitudes of certain parents (www.wiki.com).
Streetism is a broad term used to encompass the desperate situation of children who are forced to spend most of their time outside their homes, engaging in menial income generating activities in order to survive, and often having to sleep roughly on the streets. The United Nations defines street children as: any boy or girl for whom the street in the widest sense of the world has become his or her habitual abode and or source of livelihood, and who is inadequately protected, supervised, or directed by responsible adults (cited in Thomas de Benitez, 2011, p.7).
According to Schurink, (1993) a street child is any girl or boy who is under the age of eighteen and who has left his or her home environment part time or permanently because of problems at home and or in school, or try to alleviate those problems and who spends most of his or her time unsupervised on the street as part of a subculture of children who live an unprotected communal life and who depend on themselves and each other, and or not an adult, for the provision of physical and emotional needs, such as food, clothing, nurturance, direction and socialization (cited in Grundling & Grundling, 2005,p 175). Street children are therefore peculiar based on the time they spend on the street, the street as a source of livelihood, the lack of protection and care from adults and the state of their social relations while on the street.
Writers like Amma Darko have written on the negligence of children by parents in a changing world of the African society. Faceless (2003), explores the diverse causes of streetism of which child negligence is one of them. This project shall therefore explore the negligence of children as the major cause of streetism.
1.2 Theoretical Framework
The theoretical framework for this research is Marxism. As a social and political theory, Marxism seeks to explain the course of human history and structure of past, present and future societies; it emphasis social equality of all ages and sexes. It provides a unifying and an integrating set of values for the prescription of the future. For this reason, there is a vital link between literature and history.
1.3 Statement of the Problem
Crime, prostitution, child trafficking and other social vices are on the increase in contemporary society. It is clear that a child become what he sees people around him doing while growing up. Children are precious gifts from God to the parents; however, parents tend to abuse these children in many ways which makes the development of the child turbulent. Children are today seen roaming the streets, looking for ways to survive as a result of lack of care and guidance from the parents.
Some parents today have neglected their children in different ways like provision of their needs, parental guidance, moral training and so on. The negligence of these children is for different reasons. Sometimes it could be pressure from work, poverty or lack of finances, which puts the child in danger of being exploited when trying to look for his or her daily bread. This needs to stop, as these neglected children turn out to be nuisance to the society they live in. This can be seen clearly when one visits the prison yard, most of the people found there are youths who never got guidance from parents or who were neglected as children. This is why this project becomes necessary at this time of modernism.
1.4 Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this research is to:
i. Find out why children are being neglected.
ii. Highlight the effects or consequences of child negligence to the society at large.
iii. Evaluate the writer’s achievement in portraying streetism as a major theme in the text and challenge indolent parents to do the right thing.
1.5 Significance of the Study
This particular research is important especially at this time when most parents bring children into the world without visible means of providing for them physically, financially, psychologically and emotionally. This is also important now that the whole world is looking for way of empowering the child through education to make a better society tomorrow.
This is especially important now as education and eradication of poverty are used as some of the major indices for measuring a nation’s developmental level. Students will also benefit from this research in a way that will shape their sense of reasoning towards children and the role parents play in drilling children towards morality. It will also help to make the society better for everyone especially children.
1.6 Methodology
The methodology used for collection and analysis of data is textual analysis of the primary text. Other materials that are also relevant to this research work are also used like the college library for journals, magazines and other related materials as source materials. This will also involve the internet for relevant materials.

1.7 Scope and Limitation
The research work is based on child negligence and streetism in Amma Darko’s Faceless. Due to time and financial constraint, the research work will be limited to this topic and the text in question. However, even though analysis is restricted to Amma Darko’s text, it will include careful references to other critical and artistic endeavors that are relevant to the study.
1.8 Operational Definition of Terms
CHILD: A young human who is not yet an adult.
NEGLIGENCE: The failure to give children enough care or attention.
STREET CHILDREN: Children who live or spend most of their life on the street.
CHILD NEGLIGENCE: It is the failure to provide basic needs of a child such as physical, emotional, and psychological parental guidance.
1.9 Biography and Works of the Writer
Amma Darko was born in Tamale in 1956 from Northern Ghana, she moved years later to the Ashanti Region. She studied at the University of Kumasi, where she received her diploma in 1980. Afterwards she worked for the technology consultancy centre. Then, in 1981, she travelled to Germany, now she is living in Accra, the capital city of Ghana. She is working as a tax inspector; this work gives her a lot of inspiration because she deals with interesting cases and people. She is married and has three children, so all together there is not as much time for writing as she would like to do.
On her writing, Darko had always loved books, but books were hard to find when she was growing up. She especially missed books about the experience of ordinary people living in contemporary Ghana. She chose a radical solution to her problem to write those books. Her first novel was published in Germany under the little Der Verkaufte Traum (SchmetterlingVerlag, 1991) and consequently in English as Beyond the Horizon (Heinemann, 1995). It is the story of a Ghanaian woman who finds herself in a German brothel through a marriage fraud. The book was ranked among the top twelve of the 1995 Feminist Book Festival in Britain. Her second novel, The House Maid (Heinemann, 1998), explores the complex relationship in contemporary rural Ghana where modernity, delivered through the media, increasingly penetrates tradition, but finds little nurturing soil for lack of education. Her third novel, Faceless (Sub-Saharan Publisher, 2003) tells the story of street children in contemporary Accra. With a sense for naturalistic detail and humor, Darko explores the vicious cycle created by the worst injustice while placing the story into a larger socio-political context.