ttf)                   Reinventing Apprenticeship
^) sand Rites of Passage
An Entry into the Urban Economy in Sub-Saharan Africa
\/| ost traditional societies in sub-  who are working in conditions detri-
M   Saharan Africa have developed  mental to their growth and develop-
well-built systems for initiation  ment. Most children in developing soci-
of young people into the routines, skills  eties, it is true, do and will work. The
and understandings of adult life. These  challenge is much less one of prohibit-
include age-group organizations, initia-  ing all forms of labor by those under
tory rites of passage, and trade appren-  age than it is ensuring that children are
ticeship patterns.                   not forced  into inappropriate and
Traditional arrangements for appren-  harmful work by the pressures of sur-
ticeship and initiation remain stron-  vival, and that they have opportunities
gest in rural communities and are    for a positive transition to adult life.
much less in evidence on the urban pe-  But the plight of street children does
riphery among those whom hunger, un-  throw into relief an important aspect of
employment, or simply the lure of a  the situation in the urban periphery
better life have motivated to move   that is more thanjust economic, even if
townward. Many ties between the two  it is solidly rooted in resource depriva-
areas remain, and associations for out-  tion: the lack of socially-sponsored av-
migrants from specific villages and re-  enues for displaced young people to de-
gions are well known in the cities.  velop an adult identity. Carbon copies
of traditional associations are unlikely
A generation left to its own devices  to work. As a Hausa proverb puts the
matter, / In rawa ta sake, kidi ita ma
On the whole, however, rural out-mi-  sai ta sake" When the beat of the drum
gration has contributed materially to  changes, the dance step must change
breaking  down the  relevance and    as well. What are the new beats that
strength of initiatory and apprentice-  make sense in terms of existing social
No. 20                  ship customs over the years since "flag  capital and cultural rhythms, as well as
May 2000                  independence." The most extreme ex-
ample of the dissolution of social guar-
antees for rites of passage probably lies  IK Notes reports periodically on Indig-
enous Knowledge (IK) initiatives in
in the situation of street children,  Sub-Saharan Africa. It is published by
those young people without schooling,  the Africa Region's Knowledge and
occupation and often fixed residence  Learning Center as part of an evolving
IK partnership between the World
who haunt the highways and byways of  Bank, communities, NGOs, develop-
urban Africa.                         ment institutions and rnultilater3l orga-
United Nations agencies and many    nizations. The views expressed in this
e<g,2S X <                                 .      .             article are those of the authors and
m                          NGOs concerned with the issue con-    should not be attributed to the World
sider street children as one sub-cat-  Bank Group or its partners in this ini-
egory of working children - that is,  tiative. A webpage on IK is available at
* S159              young people below the age of legal or  http://www.worldbank.org/aftdr/ik/
default.htm
social maturity in their host cultures



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the changed conditions that challenge them? Three ex-   and materials. Most, as an Undugu "housefather" points out,
amples from Africa and one from the Caribbean offer some  responded to queries about their needs with  Nataka
ideas.                                                  kusoma"-Kiswahili for 'I want education. "1
For these reasons, the priest initially decided that efforts in
Stemming the tide of street children:                   support of the street children should concentrate on getting
the Undugu Society in Kenya                             them back into school, and he set out to find the funds to pay
fees and material costs for as many of them as possible. He
The Undugu Society was established through the efforts of a  soon discovered, however, that school directors for the most
Dutch priest who moved to Nairobi in 1972 after 17 years of  part could not take the children or did not want them back.
experience in rural Tanzania and who there began a ministry  They feared by and large that the same factors that had forced
for urban youth. Few young people turned up for his church-  these young people out of school the first time would do so
based programs, but he observed that the streets of Nairobi  again or that the street had worked character changes which
were overflowing with unemployed youth, most visibly the  would make it impossible for them to conform to standard
city's "parking boys' who sought gratuities from motorists for  classroom routine.
guarding or washing their cars in Nairobi's crowded central
district.                                               A learning process
In 1973, the priest began spending most of his time on the
streets developing rapport with the boys, talking to them  This first reversal was followed by a series of new departures,
about their daily lives and about their aspirations. He found  failed initiatives and learning experiences that led the Undugu
many of them to be primary school dropouts whose abandon-  Society to gradually develop an innovative and progressively
ment of school and home had often been because their fami-  more successful approach to the situation of deprived youth in
lies could not pay school fees or buy the necessary uniforms  Nairobi. That model had four clear steps. The first was a net-
work of "informal schools" located in slum communities in
and around Nairobi. They targeted boys and girls aged 10-16
1K        N   o   te     s                              who had not entered or been able to stay in primary school and
would be of interest to:                                were thus at risk of becoming street and working children, if
they had not already done so. The program was designed to last
Name                                                    three years, give participants basic literacy and survival skills
plus a heightened sense of their own self-worth, and allow
Institution                                             those who wished, to return to formal education or move into
vocational training.
A dtress                                                  This initiation to formal education or appropriate vocational
skills constituted phase two of the process and occupied an
additional year. Those who remained in the program -or re-
turned to it after a period in formal schooling-had an oppor-
tunity to experiment with trades that were prominent in
Nairobi's informal economy and for which Undugu possessed
Letters, comments, and requests for publications   adequate workshop facilitites: principally carpentry, tailoring,
should be addressed to:                            auto mechanics and metalworking.
Editor: IK Notes
Knowledge and Learning Center                      Finding a place in society
Africa Region, World Bank
1818 H Street, N.W., Room J5-055                   The third phase involved transition to employment and adult
Washington, D.C. 20433
E-mail: pmohan@worldbank.org                       economic roles. Young people who had developed a trade pref-
erence were assisted in identifying an informal-sector artisan



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with whom they might apprentice for a year in order to gain  packages and materials from  one side to another of
further training and experience. Undugu was partner to this  Khartoum's sprawling trafficjams. And they came up with the
negotiation and developed certain criteria for the selection of  idea of a Street Children Courier Service.
"host" artisans as well as a procedure for periodic inspection of  As developed, this initiative involved
their facilities to help ensure that the apprentices were being
trained and thatworking conditions were not exploitative. Dur-  procuring bicycles for the cadre of couriers, which each
ing this year of apprenticeship, the young people involved  child could then reimburse from their work proceeds
come in weekly to the workshops at Undugu headquarters for  * training the children in the delivery scheme and appropri-
"skill upgrading." This consisted of targeted training with  ate safety measures
equipment and on technical skills that most local artisans  * helping them to establish the central organization and ac-
could not offer, training designed at the same time to prepare  counting measures that would make the activity feasible.
them to take the first government trade test in their vocational
area at the end of the year.                              It was, in fact, a considerable success; and the model was
Placement of Undugu trade graduates injobs or, more fre-  replicated with good effect by SKI in Banglore, India a few
quently, in situations of profitable self-employment in the in-  years later.
formal sector was the final and fourth phase. Undugu's Busi-
ness Advisory Unit provides business training and loans to the  Artisans' Associations in Senegal (ENDA/GRAF). Initiatives
program's graduates in order to help them set themselves up  supported by ENDA (Environment and Development) Third
in their trade. The Society has also established an Industrial  World in the urban area of Dakar, Senegal, started in a sense at
Design department to work on improving the design and mar-  the other end of the stick. ENDA staff were involved in helping
keting of goods and services produced by the informal sector,  informal sector artisans - in carpentry, leather working and
and specifically in the trades that Undugu supports and by the  beverage manufacturing - to form their own associations in
artisans with whom apprentices have been placed. Staff of the  the interests of upgrading their technology and resolving com-
industrial design unit hold workshops for the informal sector  mon problems of supply and marketing. Each activity began,
artisans who are collaborating with Undugu on the design and  however, with a thorough "reconnaissance" of the local envi-
marketing of their products, in effect using Undugu appren-  ronment. It is ENDAs practice, and particularly the habit of its
tices as a vector or vehicle for progressive technical upgrading  action research unit (Groupe recherche-action-formation or
of informal sector production.                          "GRAF"), to base all local development work in urban slums
upon action research carried out with the beneficiaries. One of
A variety of other approaches                           the prime issues identified in this exercise by the artisans
themselves was the situation of the numerous out-of-school
The SKI Courier Service in Khartoum. A different but related  youth on foot in their neighborhoods.
approach has been taken by the non-governmental organiza-  As a consequence, the associations resolved to create their
tion (NGO) Street Kids International in its work in Khartoum,  own apprenticeship system to provide avenues for socialization
Sudan. The problem of how to secure for these young people  into the workplace and adult life for these young people. The
an insertion into urban society and the urban economy led the  Carpenters' Cooperative was the most active in this regard and
organization's staff and the young people themselves to reflect  has developed a system for rotating the out-of-school youth
on the "comparative advantage that street children might  whom it adopts as apprentices among a series of master crafts-
have on the urban market. One of their skills is that they do in  men to learn different aspects of their trade and then - with
fact know the streets-i.e. the highways and byways of a  ENDA/GRAF's help - initiating them as well into accounting
conurbation like Khartoum-and are able to handle them-  and management for small business.
selves effectively in what others might find to be an intimidat-
ing environment. Staff and street children put this fact up  SERVOL in Trinidad. A final example of note is taken from a
against what economists call current "rigidities" in the urban  location well off the African continent, but linked to it in nu-
economy, and in particular the difficulty of getting important  merous historical and cultural ways: the island of Trinidad in



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the West Indies. Problems of youth-adult transition in urban  Essential ingredients: employment, meaning
environments are every bit as pronounced there as in the three  and self-direction
casesjust examined - and in a sense, the origins of one of the
best known programs that has sought to deal with them,  All these examples represent efforts to fill the void in appren-
SERVOL ("Service Volunteered for All"), were similar as well.  ticeship of adult roles for impoverished young people thrown
Like the Undugu Society, SERVOL was founded by a Catholic  out of a traditional framework and into the vortex of African
priest concerned with deteriorating conditions for youth in the  cities. And they seem to succeed best where they manage to
city. Like Undugu, it has grown into an organization that offers  'recreate tradition, infusing the customary categories of
notjust employment but alternate paths of socialization into  apprentice and age-group association with new economic di-
adult life for its charges. Prime among these are the SERVOL  rection and increased self-direction and definition by the par-
"Life Centres."                                         ticipants.
As the name implies, the Life Centres are much more than  A few other lessons emerge from this rapid overview of ef-
vocational training facilities. To begin with, they are built by  forts to assist Africa's impoverished youth in building new
their adolescent members to house workshops, classrooms  identities:
and community facilities. Each serves as a preschool center as
well, and all participants must take some responsibility for the  An "adult education" approach works best, insofar as it in-
infants. Then, too, a major emphasis is on peer counseling and  volves building on the experience and skills that young
opportunities for young people to talk through the varied so-  people already have and giving them a determining role in
cial and emotional challenges they face, in a context imbued  guiding the program.
with values from the island's three religious traditions: Chris-  * Gainful and meaningful employment is a cornerstone of
tian, Muslim and Hindu. The young people participate in devel-  new identities, but not the cement. That is provided by a vi-
opment of their own "SPICES" curriculum: Spiritual, Physical,  sion of the future-whether religious, cultural or political-
Intellectual, Cultural and Emotional savvy. From there, partici-  and the opportunity to apply it to one's own life. Peer coun-
pants may move into vocational training and employment or  seling is thus a frequent element of successful programs.
qualify for modest loan fundsto start as entrepreneurs on their  * Traditional forms of apprenticeship and youth association
own. The program drop-out rate is only 5 percent, the post-  should be used as repertoire and resource, but also be cri-
training employment or successful self-employment rate over  tiqued. Such programs are typically a crucible for many
75 percent.                                             neighboring cultures.
* Discovery of one's environment - and advocacy for change
-are critical complements to any effort.
This article is based on research conducted by local researchers with the support and technical supervision of Peter
Easton, Associate Professor Graduate Studies in Adult Education, Florida State University, with the active collaboration of
the concerned African communities. The research was carried out under thejoint aegis of the Club du Sahel/OECD, the
Interstate Committee for Combating Drought in the Sahel/Comite Inter-etat Contre la Secheresse ( CILSS ) and the Associa-
tion for the Development of Education in Africa.