Africa parents and beating their kids

 In Africa a large group of us grew up with the idea and acceptance that when an older one beats you for something you did wrong, they are appropriate for doing that, But when an Elderly person does that same thing they will say they made a mistake and give excuses, (we've all seen this to be something Normal. Is this really normal ? For what reason would it be a good idea for us to get thrashed for fouling up, when No one is perfect. Nowadays You see a secondary school teacher who is Damn proud of their beating skills rather than their teaching skills. 

We should all ask ourselves 

Does beating your kids discipline them ? 

Many studies have shown that physical punishment — including spanking, hitting and other means of causing pain — can lead to increased aggression, antisocial behavior, physical injury and mental health problems for children.

Children who experience repeated use of corporal punishment tend to develop more aggressive behaviors, increased aggression in school, and an increased risk of mental health disorders and cognitive problems

Not only does hitting kids do little good; it can worsen their long-term behavior. 

The impacts of whipping were transient: in something like 10 minutes, most children (73 percent) continued the same behavior for which they had been punished.

The funniest part is us believing that beating a kid is correcting them and it’s the right way to train up a child,

many parents protested that they were raised that way, it’s African culture, after all. But is it an African tradition to spank or beat children? And does it produce responsible adults?

No!” says the data. Physical discipline is not rooted in African culture but in colonialism. Studies show that hitting children contributes to domestic and community violence and can even reduce children’s intellectual capacity.

The problem is global, and its harmful effects are multi-generational.

When children are exposed to violence in the home, there’s a high possibility for a boy when he grows up, to become a perpetrator and for a girl when she grows up, to become a victim”, said Isabel Magaya, a researcher at the Centre for Child Law at the University of Pretoria.

Spanking is a colonial import

“The beating of children was brought to this continent through missionaries and missionary schools, said sonito vohito,

and the custom became entrenched across the continent. Pre-colonial means of discipline should be remembered and applied, she said. “We need to get back to traditional practices of how children were raised”, teaching values through storytelling, folktales, turtoise stories and illustration.

Carol Bower of the Quaker Peace Centre agrees that. “From all the records that we can find, physical discipline of children was not in African culture before slavery,” she said. “The missionaries, the colonisers and the slave traders are what brought corporal punishment to Africa.”

Parents need to ask themselves, what is the point of corporal punishment? Is it about inflicting pain on the child or is it about getting the child to do what is expected of him or her?

If it is about getting the child to do what is expected of him/her, corporal punishment serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever!

Have we not seen, severally, children still misbehaving even after having being beaten with all sorts of objects (whips, belts etc) to the point of inflicting permanent damage physically and mentally on the child?

Corporal punishment is just a way of venting all the anger, frustration, pent-up emotion people have on kids.

And this refers not only to Africans but to every race out there.

Beating children only teach them that is okay to hit people just because you are angry.

Corporal punishment and beatings are Victorian value-base and never an African culture. It is self-evident from the African- names that INDIGENOUS AFRICANS give their children that Africans never physically, sexually, emotionally, and psychologically abused their children Pre- European Colonization of Africa. For example, Pre-Western Colonization Yoruba literally worshiped children and composed different individualized 'oriki' for every individual child. Banning the European cultural barbarity of flogging or dehumanizing our children- especially in our education system and by teachers who know very little about our children-is long overdue.

Furthermore, some churchy parents will use this particular verse in the Bible just to prove that it’s right to beat kids 

Prov : 22:15

Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction will drive it far from him.

What does rod means in the Bible ? 

In the culture of the Israelites, the rod (Hebrew: מַטֶּה maṭṭeh) was a natural symbol of authority, as the tool used by the shepherd to correct and guide his flock (Psalm 23:4)

Can a shepherd beat his sheep 🐑 with his rod ? 

According to the Bible A shepherd will never do that . 

They used a crook to lift sheep out of holes they had fallen into, and they used the rod, a straight stick, to guide them. The sheep were not beaten with the rod. "Sparing the rod" in that sense, means that a parent must guide his or her child and teach the child right from wrong.

In my opinion, your rod can be what you know and what you’ve been thought, your perspective of what is wrong or right , rod is your accumulated knowledge as an adult/ parent . 

Discipline your children, and they will give you peace of mind and will make your heart glad. Not beat them 

By now we should all have known that beating doesn’t add up to a child’s life , if a child is going to be a hooligan or wayward that child will be just that way and no amount of beating or punishment will ever change that .

Parents should stop damaging our future, the mental health of your kids matter 

Parenting is one of the hardest job on earth 

But we all take is slightly so many parents are bad at it and fuck up their kids.

Having a child means your life never fully belongs to you again 

I’m not saying don’t have kids 

Undo your fucking trauma first, go to fucking therapy, heal yourself before bringing a new life.

There’s no such thing as perfect parent and I fully acknowledge there’s no way to be even 90% prepared for parenthood but the beauty is in the effort, your child deserves unconditional love patience and respect.