It takes a VILLAGE to do what?

I know what the normal and popular answer is.

It takes a VILLAGE to RAISE a child.

I think that is very correct but it happens not to be my focus of discussion today.

My focus of discussion is that it TAKES A VILLAGE TO ERASE a child.

I have often told my story of truncated or arrested childhood. Many years ago I began to sum up my story thus, ‘I was not RAISED; I was ERASED.’

It is my deep-seated belief that you are either RAISING or ERASING him/her. There is no middle of the road here and there is no fence to sit on. Our actions or omissions in our relationship with the child either coalesce to RAISE or ERASE the child.

I will limit the meaning of RAISING here to mean helping a child to KNOW WHO HE/SHE IS (IDENTIFY); the ESSENCE of his/her EXISTENCE, undergirded by a total submission to TRANSCENDENCY of God Almighty.

To ERASE on the other hand is to tamper with with the HUMANITY of the child such that there is a massive breakdown of communication between his/her PERSON and the ESSENCE of his/her EXISTENCE. It is a negligent or deliberate obliteration of the child’s IDENTITY, achieving in the mind of the child, a devaluation of his/her worth as a HUMAN PERSON.

I can experientially discuss what it means to ERASE a child. I was ERASED.

The LEAD CULPRITS were not my parents! They were definitely part of the culprits but they were who I call the VICTIM-CULPRITS. The LEAD CULPRIT is the VILLAGE, known as the Third World and her so-called institutions.

The same errors of the VILLAGE is still very much with us today. But the real tragedy is that it has become NORMATIVE.

How exactly do I mean that the LEAD CULPRITS is the VILLAGE?

On Sat. Feb. 29, 2020 at our discourse on on PARENTING ACCORDING TO SOCIAL PROTECTION™, I will be answering this critical question, among others.

Please register here right NOW https://bit.ly/2TOm989 and kindly share within your areas of influence.

The program is FREE but REGISTRATION is COMPULSORY.

Thank you and do have an INSPIRED day.

Yours IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THE PRECIOUS AFRICAN CHILD,

Taiwo AKINLAMI