Reclaiming the voice of Africa’s children: From props to partners

On June 16, 1976, thousands of black students in Soweto took to the streets, demanding quality education and rejecting the apartheid regime’s language impositions. Many never returned home. Unarmed, they died staring at the brutal gun barrel of apartheid. Official figures say 176, but some estimates say as many as 700 children were killed on that day.

The tragedy of Soweto sparked a profound transformation in how Africa and the world now view children, justice, and dignity. Soweto demonstrated that children are not passive victims, but active participants in the fight for justice. Even while young, children understand oppression, feel injustice, and are capable of taking bold risks to challenge it. Their sacrificial death birthed what we now commemorate as the Day of the African Child.
Yet today, this sacred commemoration has been corrupted.

Across most of Africa, June 16 has become a stage for political theatre rather than genuine tribute. Children are paraded as props, pulled from classrooms for photo opportunities, and used to legitimise the same systems of oppression their predecessors challenged. Instead of honouring children as the courageous agents of change the Soweto students proved themselves to be, we perpetuate their objectification, turning memorial into mockery.

Beyond exposing African children’s deep vulnerability to state violence and neglect, June 16, 1976, sparked long-term thinking about what systems and societies are needed for child protection and the realisation of their full potential. This led to the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child in 1990 and more child-focused policy frameworks across the continent.

Paradoxically, rather than reinforcing this enlightened perception of children as voices to be heard, most events commemorating June 16 have eroded the positive shift in how African society views children. Unfortunately, it has also shaped how children often view themselves — negatively — as helpless and lacking agency.

Recent events across the continent demand critical examination of the realities facing African children, especially concerning their dignity and access to justice.

In Nigeria, the recent street parading of schoolchildren by a state government under poor weather conditions — just days after their communities were besieged by violent attacks leaving scores dead — to greet the President’s arrival presents a troubling illustration of how children are constantly used as symbols in political performance, often at the expense of their dignity, safety, and emotional wellbeing.

Similarly, in Uganda, children have been mobilised as tools for political legitimacy rather than as rights-holding individuals. During multiple election cycles under President Yoweri Museveni, schoolchildren have been pulled from classes to attend campaign rallies and made to line up along roads, waving flags and singing for visiting political figures, exposing them to heat exhaustion and potential campaign violence.

In Ethiopia, after violent conflict in Tigray and other regions, schoolchildren were mobilised to “celebrate peace” even while their schools, homes, and communities bore fresh scars of violence. Some school-based peace parades in 2023 were held under such heavy state security presence that they sparked concerns about psychological manipulation and unresolved trauma.

These state-led exploitation and intimidation practices contradict June’s objectives — which include continent-wide reflection and advocacy for children’s rights, access to quality education, and protection from violence, poverty, and exploitation. They desecrate the sacrifice African children have made.

Reclaiming the vision of June 16 requires a multi-layered, values-driven approach grounded in rights, dignity, and agency.
First, we must reframe the narrative of African children as rights-holders, not tools. This means stopping the use of children as symbols, props, or parade objects, shifting from tokenism to genuine voice and participation.

Nigeria’s broadcasting policy mandates media to “uphold the sanctity of childhood” and “promote human dignity.” The National Broadcasting Code obliges media stations to create educational, empowering content for children, presenting them as agents of change rather than merely vulnerable or passive. This requires state actors to move from showcasing children to actually listening to them.

Nigeria’s revised National Policy on Education (2014) envisions education to “inculcate national consciousness, values, and self-reliance” and promote “full integration of the individual into society.” Practical civic education, facilitating early participation in formal decision-making processes, and promoting agency in children, directly expresses this policy’s vision.

Concrete efforts to revive active school and national youth parliaments and integrate youth observatory mechanisms within national commissions — human rights, security, and taxation — will ensure young people’s insights are captured in national policies, their democratic competencies developed, and their civic dispositions shaped. Child participation must be supported, safe, and sustained, not ceremonial.

Finally, to restore June 16’s spirit as a period for reflection and restitution rather than mere programming, Nigeria and other African states must uphold their accountability to child protection standards under the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.

This means that whenever children are harmed, exploited, or — whether through political events, conflict, or neglect — these injustices must be clearly named, thoroughly investigated, and publicly acknowledged. True reckoning requires honouring those who suffered, providing meaningful support for survivors, and renewing our collective commitment to justice, equality, and hope.

The children of Soweto and, indeed, all the children of Africa deserve better than empty pageantry. They deserve a continent that listens.