How valid is the assertion that child counselling in Africa is non-existent?

by unitymukanga775gmailcom (student)

How valid the assertion that child counselling in Africa is non-existant

The assertion that child counselling in Africa is non-existent is discredited and disqualified to a greater extent. This is because child counselling have been taking place in Africa since the pre-colonial era, as evidenced by guidance and counselling by the elderly people, guidance and counselling programmes at schools, the existence of gender based violence desk at schools, churches offers counselling, through folk tales, through indigenous knowledge systems (IKS), some non-governmental organisations offers counselling session and the existence of youth friendly corner at hospitals. However, child counselling seem to be absent and non-existent because of ever-increasing child’s bad behaviour and increase in child marriages.

Maunganidze and Chigwedere (2000) defined counselling as a process used to help people achieve greater levels of self-awareness and to actualize latent potential. It is also a process employed to relieve symptoms of emotional or behavioural dysfunction or distress. Counselling services have traditionally been provided albeit by non professionals. Traditional counsellors in Africa have always been elderly or mature close relations such as Uncles, Aunts and close family friends (Sahwira). The social standing of the preferred traditional counsellors varies from country to country.

Child counselling is one aspect of life that has been a component of societies since time immemorial. They are two modes of counselling which are traditional approach and modern approach. The indigenous approach to counselling tactfully captures the importance of the family and the community as a mode of communication for therapy and moral values. In traditional African societies, child counselling was given in various forms, the most common of which were giving advice and sharing wisdom. Traditionally to be a counsellor one was schooled through experience in most cases to handle delicate situations that demanded mental soothing and problem solving. In traditional counselling there were people who did the task of counselling and in many instances, the extended family was the main source of advice for children such as, tete/ubabakazi (aunt), sekuru/umalume(maternal uncle), sahwira( very Close Family Friend), grandparents and traditional healers. Religion also played a pivotal role as far as child counseling is concerned. The modern counseling approach is a result of modernization. Modern child counseling involves professional, commercialized counselors, school oriented counseling, churches, individuals, families, groups, or institutions, which approaches in a holistic way, social, cultural, economic and emotional issues. Even though they are two schools of thought as far as child counseling is being concerned some scholars such as Ndlovu and Hove are of the view that counseling is not a new practice but an old practice done differently like old wine in new wineskins.

To begin with, counseling is a process which helps children to help themselves, recognize their strengths and identify the resources available to help them overcome problems and make healthy decisions. Counseling was done by a group of elders, be the women or men in many tribes in Southern and Eastern Africa especially during the children’s transitions from childhood to woman hood. Chakuchichi and Zvaiva (2010) argued that children and youth ready for this practice would be taken out of the village to a temporary shelter where they are given adequate knowledge including growing up sex. Among the Shona speaking people, the counselor is known as chipangamazano (the one who gives advices, ideas and solutions. Chakuchichi and Zvaiva (2010) pointed out that it was then possible for people with problems to visit such counsellors and tell them their problems. This discredits the assertion that child counseling in African is non-existant.

In line with the above, counseling for the African child exist in the form of group counseling. Group counseling was done by a group of elders, be they women and men in many tribes in Southern and Eastern Africa especially during the performance of rites of passage as the children‟s transition from childhood or womanhood. Chakuchichi and Zvaiva (2010) argued that children and youths ready for this practice would be taken out of the village to a temporary shelter where they were given adequate knowledge including growing up and sex knowledge. This type of counselling was often undertaken as a ritual with certain acts such as circumcision for males to mark the transition into adulthood. Sommer and Sandtrock (2005) asserted that in the African cultures, rites of passage are the avenue by which any youth gain access to sacred adult practices, responsibilities, knowledge and sexuality. Given the above evidence one may argue that child counselling do exist in African.

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In addition primary counselling is still existing and being practiced everywhere in the world. According to Convention on the Rights of Children to (2010) they stress that counselling begins at home as we discuss daily with family members it is being conducted on daily basis. Parents always do counselling to their children in a way they should grow. For example adolescence is a difficult period. It is characterized by paradoxes. Adolescents strive for closeness, and yet fear intimacy and often avoid it. They rebel against control, and yet want direction and structure and are vulnerable to peer pressure. While they push and test the limits imposed on them, they see limits as a sign of caring. Parents play an important role in counselling their children about adolescence. They are the ones who first taught them about how to handle peer pressure and take good control about the changes that will be happening to their bodies. Also it can be sickness or diseases, home counselling is done and it is very important in this stage especially when children are sick. Another typical example is of those children who are living with HIV, they require close monitoring, parental guidance and counselling on how they should take their medication and to prevent the disease from spreading to others. In Malawi home counselling is crucial especially to those ill children therefore it can be noted that counselling is still existing mostly at home and it is being done on daily basis.

Moreover, child counselling is existent in African communities as it is evident in schools. Idowu (1990) views guidance and counselling as a process of planned intervention within a school system by which the total development of students are stimulated in areas relating to their personal, social, career, emotional and academic concerns. School guidance and counselling programmes have therefore been introduced to assist children in schools to overcome the number of challenges they experience at home and at school. The growing number of social and family problems has resulted in the increased number of School Guidance and Counselling services. Before independence in 1980, Zimbabwe had no structured SGC services for African children in the then Rhodesia, Urombo (1999). These services are now existent in primary and secondary schools in the present day as most schools have at least one teacher who focuses on the counselling of students.

Furthermore, Oregun Department of Education (2008) posited that comprehensive developmental school counselling programs have positive impact on students, parents, teachers, administrators, boards of education, other student services personnel, school counsellors, business, and industry. The alarming evidence in the prevalence of drug abuse, the effects and consequences of substance abuse among students has called for concern and challenge to all helping professions to mount strategies of equipping youths with skills of living devoid of substance abuse. In Nigeria today, the consequences of substance use are diverse, including acute and chronic health, social as well as psychological problem. There is disruption of interpersonal relationships particularly within the family, marginalization, criminal behaviour, school failure, vocational problems and failure to achieve normal adolescent milestones, yet these adolescents are expected to be the leaders of the country in the future when they do not even have any focus for the future. Majority of the Nigerian youths ignorantly depend on one form of drug or the other for their various daily activities such as social, educational, political, moral etc. such drug include tobacco, Indian hemp, cocaine , morphine and Heroine. In their research on the effect of drug abuse on educational performance of some adolescent drug abusers in Ibadan, Fayombo and Aremu (2000) found that the misuse of marijuana has reached an epidemic level in the present Nigeria society and the drug abuse could lead to reduced academic achievement or even halt one’s entire academic process. Odejide (2000) point out that the desire to achieve success in a competitive world as a major factor is responsible for drug abuse among students. Hence child counselling exist in Africa.

In addition, the development of guidance and counseling started in Nigeria for various reasons which include: expansion in the enrollment of pupils in the primary and secondary schools after the independence in 1960, the growing need of youth in Nigeria, repeated changes in the education system and unrest in tertiary institutions and the changes in home and family life. (NPE,1977). According to Adediran (1995), it is generally accepted that in Nigeria the organized and formal guidance and counselling service started in 1959 at St. Theresa’s College, Oke Ado Ibadan, by a group of dedicated religious reverend sisters who had the perception of the need for proper guidance in job selection for their secondary school leavers. They invited some twenty outsiders to advise them about placing sixty of their final year female students in appropriate careers. This is about eight decades after the birth of an established and functional guidance and counselling services in America. The advisers even though were not vocational guidance specialists, later formed the core of what later became the Nigerian career council.

Moreover, the indigenous Shona people provides an argument for multicultural counselling, which means that child counselling in Africa existed. The vast majority of the Shona people use both traditional (informal) and modern counselling services and to safeguard their children. The indigenous approach to counselling tactfully captures the importance of the family and the community as a mode of communication for therapy and moral values. The eldery women in Zimbabwe, in different villages, used to call young girls at night and counselled them not to have sex whilst young and not yet married. And the girls were checked to see whether they have not yet engaged in sex on a monthly basis – virginity testing (Makoni 1996). This helped them to reduce child mariages and prevalence of diseases. Hence the assertion that child counselling in Africa is non-existent is discredited to a larger degree.

Furthermore, child counselling existed in Africa as evidenced by the existing of folktales that were used to socialise children. Through folktales cultural values, norms, and beliefs are inculcated into the young minds early in their formative years. Telling and listening to folktales is one way of ensuring that the individual is schooled in the traditions of his/her people and that s/he is guided into adult life in accordance with family and societal expectations. Although these narratives were meant to provide entertainment and moral lessons there were other folktales that can be put into their own category because they were deliberately meant to groom the girl child into a life a of docility and muteness in which she should accept suffering, ill-treatment and subordination without complaining as s/he goes through the various stages of life” (Mtuze, 1990:49). One of the tools of reinforcement is oral literature, such as folktales. This was to strengthen the boy child to be a real man and also the girl child to be a good girl. Hence the assertion that child counselling in Africa is non-existent is discredited to a larger extent.

The existence of counselling in Zimbabwe is also evidenced by the Guidance and Counselling programme in schools. Guidance and counselling is a professional field which has a broad range of activities and services aimed at assisting individuals to understand themselves, their problems, their school environment and their world (Egbochuku 2008). School guidance and counselling programmes have been introduced to assist students overcome the number of challenges they experience at home and at school. Nziramasanga (1999) states that because of many pressures imposed on the family, parents tend to have little time with their children to give them the necessary guidance. The school guidance and counselling programme aims to reduce school dropout rates; impart students with life skills, attitudes and values that enable them to solve problems and make sound decisions; helping students address the social, psychological and emotional problems they experience and help students to become aware of their career choices. The programme has also helped in increasing knowledge about HIV/AIDS and social issues affecting the lives of Zimbabweans among the children.

More-so, non-governmental organisations and other government ministries like the ministry of women affairs, offers awareness campaigns and workshop within the country of Zimbabwe. They will be offering counselling sessions, awareness campaigns and educating young children about child marriage, child rights, issue of violence – its implications and how best to avoid it (ICRI 2015). This shows that child counselling exists in Africa.

Furthermore, the assertion that child counselling is non-existant in Africa is discredited to a greater extent as evidenced by the existence of youth friendly in many countries in Africa. At Matero Reference Health Center in Zambia’s capital, Lusaka, dedicated young volunteers staff the youth-friendly corner—a private space where young people come for counseling on sexual and reproductive health topics, including contraception and safe abortion. The health center serves a low-income community where young people struggle to access sexual and reproductive health care due to stigma, lack of information, and a cultural belief that adults should not talk to young people about sex. Now special posters across the community direct young people to visit the health center’s youth-friendly corner, where they can speak with peers who are trained to counsel and refer clients for services as needed. No one is ever judged or turned away. Working to ensure young people can easily access services, Ipas collaborates with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Community Development, Mother and Child Health to support a network of youth-friendly corners throughout Lusaka, as well as in other parts of the country (Newsday 2015/08).

In addition, child counselling do exist in africa as evidenced by the the existence of many churches who offers counselling sessions to children. For instance, ZAOGA - Forward in Faith Youth (FIF Youth) is a worldwide group of young people who are on fire for God. Since the establishment of the ministry, the youth has been highly influential in the church, and is especially active in areas of evangelism. Throughout the nations, FIF Youth grows strong through event and activities including: outreach events, street evangelism, weekly meetings, youth sunday services, youth conferences, short films, music, online social networking – thereby offering child counselling sessions. Youth members are encouraged to walk in holiness and to live with Jesus in the forefront of their lives. The word of God and prayer is what continues to grow FIF Youth worldwide, as is the vision of Archbishop Dr. Ezekiel Guti (Admin 2011).

Also, the profession of counselling as a helping profession has been viewed in the eyes of Western practices, resulting from the pioneering work of Freud’s psychoanalytic approach. Counselling has always existed in Africa (Richards, 2000) albeit not in the Western sense but in various forms of African culture. In Zimbabwe, for example, counsellors were often found in every village being an elderly man or woman who has gathered wisdom over the years of his or her life. Among the Shona speaking, a counsellor was known as chipangamazano (the one who gives advice, ideas and solutions). Chakuchichi and Zvaiva (2010) pointed out that it was then possible for people with problems to visit such counsellors and tell them their problems. Parents used to send their adolescent children to such counsellors or advisers to be given information about growing up and marriage practices and expectations.

Counselling as a practice is still in the milieu of Western oriented practiced of a table and chair or the Famous Freudaian relaxing couch. The setting is quite formal whereas, in the African context counselling takes place in situ. Counselling in African societies is quite informal but effective. This scenario among the Africans captures the essence of truly African counselling setting in modern days. Many African women have their own natural help seeking support networks and activities towards their children. Within their everyday surroundings, African women counsel each other in church, communities, beauty shops, sitting side-by-side in cars, buses, or trains en route not only for physical beautification, but a space for information, change and vicarious learning. African women are able to sit, listen, and learn about how another individual may have dealt with a presenting/ similar problem before on behalf of their children. This shows that child counselling do exist in Africa.

However, the visibility of professional counsellors in Africa is very limited, if not non- existent in most African countries. In Zimbabwe, for example, counselling is incorporated in hospitals, but does not stand on its own as a private practice, and this also provides another dimension why professional counselling is facing many challenges. In Zimbabwe, the public services commission is even refusing to recognize counselling degrees in schools, despite the fact that it is mandatory to provide guidance and counselling in both primary and secondary schools. This kind of attitudes and negative perceptions by some government boards also work against the professionalization of counselling in Africa

Also, professional counselling in Africa is relatively new in the case of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe Open University is the only university offering counselling as a degree program and is one of the few handful education centres which offer counselling as a program of study. Other education centres only offer counselling as one of the courses offered in various social sciences oriented programs of study. Thus African industries are still to create vacancies for the counselling graduates hence counselling as a professional practice is still to make its mark.

From the above presentation, it can be concluded that child counselling do exist in Africa and the assertion that child counselling in Africa is non-existent is discredited to a greater extent. This is evidenced by guidance and counselling by the eldery people, guidance and counselling programmes at schools, the existence of gender based violence desk at schools, churches offers counselling, through folk tales, through indigenous knowledge systems (IKS), some non-governmental organisations offers counselling session and the existence of youth friendly corner at hospitals. However, child counselling seem to be absent and non-existent because of ever-increasing child’s bad behaviour and increase in child marriages.

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Oregon Department of Education (2003). Oregon’s Framework for Comprehensive Guidance and Counselling Programs. SALEM, Orhttp://www.ode.state.or.us/teachlearn/certificates/cam/pdfs/orframe/ oregonframework-cgcp.pdf

Odejide, A. O., (2000) “Research, prevention and treatment of alcohol and drug abuse in Nigeria Probem and Prospects” Paper presented at the 10th Anniversary Lecture of CRISA JOS

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