Maternal health is the cornerstone of early childhood development, which begins at conception. Families and communities must prioritize the care of pregnant women through early antenatal consultations, adequate nutrition, prevention of gender-based violence, and protection of their physical and emotional wellbeing.
rom our cultural philosophies, at least shared across the people of African origin, both those within the continent and those in diaspora, the sense of community is deep and strong; as the Ubuntu philosophy for example says “I am because we are.”
When young people are taught that this is our way of life they grow with a reflection to own this new sense of being as a backdrop and a springboard from which they bounce as well as make sense of their life.
What happened to the African values which have set grounds for what we regard as our social morals? Do they still stand as ideals to measure ourselves by? If yes, do we still communicate that to our generations? There are wars today in many African countries, and most of these countries have deep knowledge of conflict resolution in their cultural wisdom, and have riddles, jokes and adages communicating a whole wide range of interesting ideas about peace. If culture does not inform our deeper convictions about human values the discontinuity is a dangerous black hole.