Enfants-soldats au Nigeria : les romanciers témoignent

During an interview, Ishmael Beah, conscripted in Sierra Leone when he was 13, testified to the fact that the rights of child‐soldiers were constantly violated. In recent years, the plight of these soldiers defined as “anyone under the age of eighteen who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed group in any capacity”, started attracting the world’s attention, following the conflicts which have been ravaging most of the African continent for the last century. While former Biafrans and foreigners who experienced the conflict first hand wrote about casualties and the plight of refugees, the stories of young boys conscripted into the Biafran army has so far attracted very little attention. The present study seeks to assess the impact of the recruiting of child-soldiers during the Nigerian civil war on four Nigerian novelists: Abani, Adichie, Iweala and Saro-Wiwa

Childhoods and play: Facebook, exhibition and competition

L'objectif de ce document vise à explorer les relations entre le jeu et les enfants dans le contexte contemporain. L'article considère le jeu d'enfants comme pratique significative à partir des nouvelles technologies de l'information et de la communication. Comme les enfants associent Facebook aux jeux, Facebook représente le point central de cet article. Nous traitons les jeux auxquels les enfants jouent, les articulations les plus appropriées entre les enfants, la socialisation et Facebook. Nous proposons d'entrer dans l'univers où les enfants, les représentations, les médias et les adultes entrent en relation. Nous analysons Facebook comme la plate-forme contemporaine la plus importante à partir de laquelle la socialisation, l'exposition et la concurrence sont construites par les enfants.The objective of this paper is to explore the relationship between games, play and children in the contemporary context. The article begins with the consideration of children’s play as a meaningful practice focussing on new technologies of information and communication. Along the research, Facebook was identified as the most important place that children associated with games. That is why, the role that Facebook “plays” is one of the most important focusses of this paper: the uses that our informants report of the most used social network, the games they play and the most relevant articulations between children, socialization and Facebook. It is not our objective to analyse games thoroughly (we will analyse “Farmville” briefly), but to enter the universe in which children, representations, media and adults are related and intertwined. And in this path, we will analyse Facebook as the most important contemporary platform from which socialization, exhibition and competition are built by children as the main subjects of our research.Fil: Duek, Sara Carolina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Université Catholique de Louvain; Bélgic

The Effect of Childcare and Early Education Arrangements on Developmental Outcomes of Young Children

This study investigates the relationship between child care arrangements and developmental outcomes of young children using data from Cycle 1 of the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth. Models of the determinants of Motor and Social Development (MSD) scores for children aged 0-47 months, and of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test assessment scores (PPVT-R) for children aged 4-5 years are estimated controlling for a variety of non-parental childcare and early education characteristics. The results suggest that infant-toddler non-parental care arrangements have insignificant or negligible impacts on developmental outcomes (MSD). For preschoolers, modes of care and early education do not, on average, influence cognitive development (PPVT). The results of fixed effect estimates for a sample of siblings aged 0-47 months confirm the preceding conclusion. The analysis is repeated to identify the determinants of the probability the child's MSD (PPVT) score is in the bottom part of the distribution of MSD (PPVT) scores and the conclusions are similar. Cette étude explore la relation entre les modalités des services de garde et des indicateurs mesurés du développement des jeunes enfants à l'aide des données du cycle 1 de l'Enquête longitudinale nationale sur les enfants et les jeunes canadiens. La modélisation économétrique analyse les déterminants des scores de développement social et moteur (DSM) des enfants de 0 à 47 mois ainsi que les scores à un test de vocabulaire (EVIP-R) administré aux enfants de 4-5 ans en prenant en considération différentes caractéristiques des services de garde et d'éducation des enfants. Les résultats suggèrent que pour les nouveaux-nés et les enfants en bas âge les modalités de garde non parentale ont des effets non statistiquement significatifs ou négligeables sur le DSM. Pour les enfants d'âge préscolaire, les modes de garde ou d'éducation préscolaire n'ont pas en moyenne d'effets sur le développement cognitif (EVIP). L'estimation d'un modèle à effets fixes pour un sous-échantillon d'enfants composé de frères et de soeurs confirme la conclusion précédente. L'analyse est répétée pour identifier les déterminants de la probabilité qu'un enfant soit observé avec un score le classant dans la partie inférieure de la distribution des scores (DSM et EVIP), et les conclusions sont similaires.Childcare, early education, developmental outcomes, public policy.

Autour de la mort prématurée dans l’oralité igbo

This study, based on nine folktales recorded between 1972 and 1987 in Anambra, Enugu and Imo States of Nigeria, considers the traditional attitude towards untimely deaths, especially repeated children’s deaths as presented in oral literature. The article focuses on three of these folktales, told by the same story-teller from Umuida, in Enugu-Ezike (northern Igboland) and recorded in September-October 1986 and March 1987, which provide a clear picture of the phenomenon. Traditional Igbo society has always explained these untimely deaths as having a supernatural cause, and oral genres, especially folktales, embed this explanation in narratives centred around young characters described as ogbanje (o gba nje « traveller ») children who come and go and cannot/choose not to stay in this world

Enfants et écrans : grandir dans le monde numérique

A l\u27occasion de la journée internationale des droits de l\u27enfant, chaque 20 novembre, le Défenseur des droits et la Défenseure des enfants remettent un rapport thématique consacré aux droits de l\u27enfant au Président de la République et aux Présidents de l\u27Assemblée nationale et du Sénat. Consacré cette année au thème « Enfants et écrans : grandir dans le monde numérique », le rapport dresse un état des lieux des travaux, des systèmes de régulation et de protection et en mesure l\u27efficacité. Il pointe l\u27apport bénéfique de ces nouvelles technologies mais également les dangers auxquels les mineurs sont exposés. Dix propositions viennent compléter les analyses du rapport

Portraits de femmes au Biafra: Étude comparée de Chinua Achebe et Leslie Ofoegbu

This study explores the impact of the Nigerian Civil War on the daily lives and interpersonal relationships of Biafrans as they are depicted in Chinua Achebe’s Femmes en guerre et autres nouvelles and Leslie Ofoegbu’s Blow the Fire. Achebe, whose work has been translated into several languages, was the first writer to expose the Igbo country to the international scene. Ofoegbu is a Scottish woman married to a Nigerian who lived in Biafra during the war years. Beyond their differences, both authors offer insider testimonies on the conflict which tore the country apart from 1967 to 1970. Femmes en guerre et autres nouvelles is a collection of short stories, three of which are directly inspired by the conflict. Blow the Fire is an autobiographical novel which bears witness to the authors’ and her family’s daily lives at the time. This article highlights traditional values and changes of behaviour in the face of uprooting, exodus, danger and the omnipresence of death. It also reveals the crucial role played by women as the “guardians of life” in the encircled area

L’organisation et la gestion de l’espace dans la langue et la culture igbo du Nigeria

This study based on Igbo language and literature – especially proverbs and folktales – focuses on the use of space, the way it is distributed, organised and managed. It reveals a highly structured use of a communal space organised around the person, considered as member of the group. Traditions, which protect the communal space and ensure its being handed down from one generation to the next, equally give everyone an individual share in it. This space is both versatile and highly partitioned, closely managed and distributed according to age, gender and the sons’ rank in the family. Folktales describe the human world, represented by the village where life revolves around the house and the market, as close to that of the spirits, with the forest and the stream acting as boundaries. Humans and spirits share this space on the understanding that men are only managing it for a while as representatives of their family