Sociological Study of Street Children in Ghana: Victims of Kinship Breakdown and Rural-Urban Migration

“This book unravels some of the reasons children migrate to urban streets rather than staying ‘home,’ and is based on the experience of the Ghanaian street child, told in their own words.”-Prof. Stephen G. Gibbons, Western Oregon University

“…provides a rich sociological account of children who struggle to scratch out a life on the gritty urban streets of Accra, Ghana. Unlike many analyses of urban homelessness, this study privileges the voices of the children.”-Prof. Peter Callero, Western Oregon University

“a captivating work of originality and scholarly rigor, capturing the individual, as well as collective stories street children in Ghana. Balancing empathy with academic independence, [the author] provides a vivid picture of heroism and bravely by street children in Accra and tamale, Ghana.”-Prof. Charles Quist-Adade, Kwantlen Polytechnic University

"... This book is a useful addition to other work on street children in Africa, stressing the difficult lives of street children but also normalizing them ; it is a book in which living on the street becomes an alternative path to moral personhood and social adulthood." -- Prof. Cati Coe, Rutgers University, Camden

Foreword by Stephen G. Gibbons, Ph.D.

Preface

Acknowledgments

Chapter One – Introduction

Chapter Two – The Known Contributors

Chapter Three – Scope of the Study
The Greater Accra Region
The Northern Region
Ghana’s Decentralization and Local Government Program

Chapter Four – Poverty in Africa: The Role of the United Nations
Debt and Economic Crisis in Africa: A Theoretical Discourse
The Development Theory
The Dependency Theory
The Liberal Economic Theory
Structural Adjustment Program
International Monetary Fund Adjustment Program
The World Bank Adjustment Program

Five – The Ghanaian Situation
Pre-Adjustment Economy
Economic Reforms
Adjustment and Forest Resource in Ghana
Adjustment and Agriculture in Ghana
Post-Adjustment Changes

Chapter Six – Methodology and Emerging Themes
The Ghanaian Street Child
The Life of the Street Child
Self Definition
Life on Urban Streets
Instrumental Crime
In the midst of Exploitation and Harassment
Going Down a Virtual One-way Street
Why They Migrate
Rural Ecology as a Push Factor
Perception of Urban Ecology as a Pull Factor
Family Influence and Disruption
Primogeniture
Marriage as a Cultural Influence
Influence of Fosterage
Breakdown of Kinship Fostering as a Cultural Influence

Chapter Seven – Conclusion

References

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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