Nchimunya, Elias Bboloka Bubala (2016) The Rights of a Girl-Child: The Significance of the Zambian Humanism and the Catholic Social Teaching for a Girl-Child Education in Zambia. PhD thesis, Santa Clara University, Berkeley, California.
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Abstract
It is now widely believed that education is the world’s most powerful tool for transforming the lives of the poor from less human to more human conditions. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), aimed at improving people’s standards of life, logically included education for all as one of their goals. Despite the global belief and MDG goal, reality on the ground is not encouraging. Poor girls from developing countries have high illiteracy. Zambia is no exception. The 2015 United Nations Development Report estimates Zambian population to be at 15 million with a distribution of 39% urban and 61% rural population. The census further indicates that 45.5% of the population is predominantly youth (below the age of 15). Thus, half of Zambian population is supposed to be school going age. Unfortunately, most girls are not in school or are poorly educated. Regrettably, a girl-child suffers from both education and gender discrimination in Zambian society. No wonder another MDGs goal of gender parity needs to be attained in Zambian society. Ultimately, the goal of this dissertation is to attain education for all and gender equality for the Zambian society. To understand the current Zambian girl-child situation, I have employed Amartya Sen’s entitlement and capability approaches. On one hand, entitlement approach revealed the fundamental entitlement failures suffered by the girl-child, namely: security, healthcare, and quality education. One the other hand, the capability approach exposed the obstacles that hinder the girl-child from attaining her fundamental entitlements. The conversion factors of personal, social, and environmental contributes a lot to either the failure or the success of a girl-child in society. Tragically, the conversation factors in the Zambian scenario, have contributed to fundamental entitlement failures of a girl-child. Among the factors that hinder girl-child progress include: national and household poverty, negative traditional customs, government underfunding, ineffective legal systems, and gender imbalance. An appeal to human rights, especially to global, regional, and national human rights instruments, permits us to understand that it is not only legal but also moral entitlement failures that are experienced by a girl-child. To rectify the fundamental entitlement failures of a girl-child, I appeal to the Zambian founding fathers and mothers’ spirit. They believed in the philosophy of Ubuntu, the term John Mbiti, a Kenyan philosopher coined as “I am” because “we are.” The Ubuntu philosophy advocates, among other factors, for inclusiveness, community-minded, mutual aid, cooperation, and acceptance of the other. These are the values John Paul II had in mind when he reminded the African Church to look at the riches of the African traditions, the faith the Church was celebrating at the end of 20th century, so that Africans could find genuine freedom. For the Zambian society these values are found in Zambian Humanism and Catholic social teaching. The two sources have principles that united the country to fight against discrimination in the young independent country. The principles of human dignity, solidarity, common good, option for the poor, and respect for human rights and its correlative responsibilities are the rich values for developing Zambian society. That is why I argue that the foundational vision of Zambian humanism is critical to addressing the needs and concerns of the girl-child education and gender equality in Zambian society.
| Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BR Christianity |
| Divisions: | Afro-Christiana |
| Depositing User: | JHI Africa |
| Date Deposited: | 29 Apr 2016 14:49 |
| Last Modified: | 29 Apr 2016 14:49 |
| URI: | http://thesisbank.jhia.ac.ke/id/eprint/346 |
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