© Kamla-Raj 2014 J Hum Ecol, 45(3): 233-242 (2014) Conceptions of “Child” among Traditional Africans: A Philosophical Purview Amasa Philip Ndofirepi 1* and Almon Shumba 2 1 Education Studies, Wits School of Education, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. E–mails: amandochi@gmail.com or ndofiamasa@live.com 2 School of Teacher Education, Faculty of Humanities, Central University of Technology, Free State, Bloemfontein 9300, South Africa E-mails: ashumba@cut.ac.za, almonshumba@yahoo.com KEYWORDS Community. Tradition. Modernity. Childhood. Africa ABSTRACT In this paper, the researchers present a theoretical discussion of the notion of “child” in traditional African communities. The researchers’ premise is that different societies have unique conceptions of child and childhood hence each group of people have a peculiar philosophical outlook of a ‘child’ notwithstanding some similarities in places. While the researchers acknowledge that there is a multiple range of socio-cultural communities present in Africa, they submit that there are common threads that connect the African worldview. Their thesis is founded on their Shona background although they attempt to make comparisons with other African cultures. The researchers survey the different conceptions of the notion of child in traditional Africa from a historico-philosophical perspective. * Address for correspondence: Dr. Amasa Philip Ndofirepi Education Studies, Wits School of Education, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. E-mail: amandochi@gmail.com or ndofiamasa@live.com INTRODUCTION Philosophers have given attention to the vulnerability of children and their need for pro- tection and control; their duty to love and ho- nour their parents, obligations of parents to care and shape their children according to some pre- determined patterns. However, they have given less written attention to the ontological and metaphysical status of children. While Plato, Aristotle, Rousseau, Kant and Locke have been recognised for their contributions to an under- standing of children in the said respects, post- modern philosophers have been “…content to accept without challenge whatever notions of children...”(Scarre 1989: ix) although “...the future of any society is determined by the qual- ity of its children...”(Boakye-Boateng 2010: 104) . Many presume to know much about children- whether because they have all been children, or because they have children around them and maybe because they have spent so much of their time taking care of children, or studying and teaching them. As a result, adults have taken themselves to be the yardstick of what they pro- nounce about childhood and they explain chil- dren from themselves, that is, from what they (the adults) have been, or from what they imag- ine they have been. But does this imply that they are fully aware of what it is to be a child? The notion of “child” cannot be discussed outside the dimensions of childhood as a social phenomenon. The central premise here is that ‘child’ is not a natural or universal category, pre- determined by biology, nor is it something with a fixed meaning. On the contrary, childhood is historically, culturally and socially variable. It is a truism that ‘child’ and childhood are best un- derstood within a cultural context and to attempt to universalise the concept child is a misrepre- sentation of the world of children. In this paper, the researchers submit that children and the notion of ‘child’ have been regarded in very dif- ferent ways in different historical epochs, in dif- ferent cultures and in different social groups. In addition, the researchers observe that the mean- ings of childhood and child are not rigid and therefore are subject to a constant process of struggle and negotiation in public discussions including the media, in the academy and in so- cial policy; and in interpersonal relationships, among peers and family members. The researchers explore the notion of child in the traditional African context. It is however