Peer-reviewed article

Decolonizing the child protection apparatus: Revisiting child rights governance in Zanzibar

Franziska Fay · 18 Jun 2019

Abstract

In Zanzibar, child protection actors hold reservations against the child protection aspects of child rights governance as they are considered to carry connotations of moral devaluation and to dismiss multiple ways of protecting children. In this article, I argue that this rejection of child protection is a means of constructing a distinction from too exclusive ways of regulating and defining what childhood and safety ought to be, rather than a disagreement with the fact that children should be safe. This, ultimately, calls for a decolonial approach that rethinks current child protection activities from the perspectives of local child protection actors in order to allow protection programs to better fulfill their well-intentioned aims. Drawing on data generated during 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Zanzibar, I propose a decolonization of child protection that will help to prevent misuses and misinterpretations of programs that intend to better children’s lives.