June 20th, 2016 by Rachel | Tags: Peace Corps | No Comments »
In most parts of the US, people often criticize parents for not looking after their own children. Children are often prohibited from walking alone from their home to the town, park, or to school because parents fear that children will get hurt or be kidnapped or parents will be criticized for allowing their children to be independent. If a child crosses the street on his or her own, the child is punished severely. Last year, a couple was accused of being neglectful parents for allowing their children to walk home alone from a park. The children were taken in custody by police officers. Recently, many people have been accusing the parents of a boy who was killed by an alligator who snatched him and drowned him under water for not watching him and also the parents of the boy who walked through a fence at a zoo and got caught with a gorilla for not watching him too.
A Cameroonian friend told me that there is a saying in Cameroon, “The child is only yours when you are pregnant with the child.” In Cameroon, children roam freely everywhere in the city and village. They walk to school on their own or take a taxi or moto bike without any supervision. Parents often ask their children to go to the market on their own to buy food or basic necessity. When parents work at the market and bring their little kids, they allow their kids to run and play. Other store vendors will look after them by picking them up and holding them or playing with them. One time, when I was buying food from a vendor, she handed me her baby and asked me to hold her so that she could assist me. There is a strong level of trust between strangers to look after the children. When children want to visit friends, they freely leave the home without permission from the parents and walk on their own to other homes. When other children visit other homes, whichever adults are present take on the responsibility to look after the children without any hesitation. Moreover, children of all ages look after each other and their own safety. I’ve seen children holding each other’s hands and older children carrying little children.
Babysitters are rare and often limited to upper middle class and wealthy families where one spouse is working and the other is in school and if there is a time when both are not available, they will hire a babysitter. However, for everyone else, neighbors look after the children. For example, a little boy who may have a mother who works at the market will be looked after by everyone at the market while he roams around.
Cameroon truly has a communal culture where everyone takes a responsibility to help each other by looking after each other without any questions, especially children. It is very rare to hear one criticizing another for not being responsible for their own children. All in all, when a child is seen walking alone to a store, instead of accusing the parents for being neglectful, the people who see the child alone take on the duty without questions to watch the child.
