Childhood memories and contemporary parenting in Ekiti, Nigeria.

ABSTRACT

The practice of pawning children, whose labour served as interest paid on loans, was common in precolonial and early colonial Ekiti Yoruba society. Known as iwofa, these children would work for the lender until their kinsmen had repaid the debts they had incurred. British colonial officials came to view this practice as a form of slavery and eventually outlawed it. This paper considers the life history of one older man who worked as an iwofa in a small Ekiti Yoruba town, focusing on his memories of child-pawning and how this practice has been interpreted by his children. ...

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