Latest Issue (9). Children and childhoods in the History of Africa
Latest RHCA's special issue: "Children and childhoods in the History of Africa", edited by Kelly Duke Bryant (Rowan Unversity) and Kalala Ngalamulume (Bryn Mawr College).
Editorial coordination within RHCA by Karine Ramondy, in collaboration with Lydia Hadj-Ahmed.
It is well known that Africa is the youngest continent in the world today, with 70% of its population under the age of thirty according to 2024 statistics. Youth are often seen as vectors of change in African societies. But historical scholarship on childhood and youth in Africa remains underdeveloped compared to the scholarship on childhood and youth on other continents. This special issue responds to this gap, bringing together work from several historians of childhood in Africa that highlights the problems, constraints, and possibilities African children have encountered from within their own communities, from missions, or from the state. Concentrating on the period from the nineteenth century to the present, these articles suggest that we must examine how the meanings of the word “child” have changed over time and across different African societies.
