Children across Africa, not unlike elsewhere in the world, suffer myriad hardships, some of which include sexual and physical violence, economic exploitation and ritual killings. Using a literature review, this article maps the foci of research on the status and value attributed to children in various African contexts. The article also juxtaposes this value by considering how children have been maltreated historically and contemporaneously, discussing how notions of personhood contribute to the devaluation and possible revaluation of children. Here, the authors contrast two dominant positions in the treatment of personhood in Africa as communitarian – personhood-as-acquired and personhood-as-endowed. Noting the appeal and limits of these positions, the authors articulate a synthesis of both that could contribute towards a revaluation of children in African contexts. They argue that while ‘personhood-as-endowed’ safeguards against a hierarchy of persons that might be vulnerable to abuse and arbitrary excesses sanctioned by one’s community, ‘personhood-as-acquired’ holds adults to a high moral standard which has a protective effect for children while maintaining the role of community in cultivating moral development.

非洲的儿童与世界其他地方一样，经历了无数的苦难，其中包括性暴力和肉体暴力，经济剥削和仪式性杀戮。本文通过文献综述，勾勒出非洲各种背景下儿童的地位和价值的研究重点。本文还考虑了历史和当代如何虐待儿童，并讨论了人格观念如何导致儿童贬值和重估，从而将这一价值并置。在这里，作者对比了非洲在以人际主义对待人格方面的两个主要地位-获得性和赋予性。注意到这些职位的吸引力和局限性，作者阐述了两者的综合，可能有助于非洲背景下儿童的重估。他们争辩说，尽管“赋予人格”保护了可能易受虐待的人的等级制度，并可能受到社区的制裁，但“获得性人格”使成年人处于高道德水平，并具有保护作用为儿童服务，同时保持社区在道德发展中的作用。