Introduction

Summary

Why this book?

Since embarking on research on constructions of childhood, child-rearing practices and children's rights in the early 2000s, the bulk of my work has been undertaken in Ghana, the country of my birth and where I spent the early years of my life. While there were various factors that underpinned my decision to focus my research on children's rights on Ghana, not least because it was the first country in the world to ratify the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child in February 1990 – a fact that intrigued me given everything I knew about the country in that period – I must admit that I was also driven by personal motivations. Leaving Ghana with my family at the age of six, which signified the last time I would live there as a resident, can be identified as one of several reasons behind this country becoming so pivotal to my work over the past 26 years. Researching Ghana, which is an endeavour I embarked upon while still an undergraduate at university in the UK in the late 1990s – though not relating to childhood research – was part of a desire to better understand the country of my birth and the place where I spent many of my long vacations during my later childhood and adolescent years. Beyond understanding, researching this country enabled me to contextualize and make meaning of some of my personal observations, experiences and relationships as a Ghanaian.

In particular, given my interest in urbanization and processes of social change more broadly, especially as it relates to childhoods and family life, the bulk of my research in Ghana has centred on Accra, which is located in the southern part of the country (see Figure 1), and assumed its current administrative role in 1877 when the capital was transferred from Cape Coast. Accra (see Figure 2) is now the ‘primate city’ of the country (Brydon and Legge, 1996: 26). It is the seat of national government ministries, the locus of most secondary industry, the site of the country's major services such the Korle Bu teaching hospital, the country's main international airport, Kotoka International Airport, the oldest university in the country – the University of Ghana Legon – and the location of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation and all major press agencies.