Children of Swaziland

Children are the same all over the world and in Swaziland too, childhood is a time of play and learn. Although many families are financially poor and there is no money to buy toys, kids are never bored: they make their own. It is quite common to see boys pushing cars, cleverly made from iron wire, with a working steering mechanism and running on wheels made from shoe-polish tins. Trolleys, with which they may race downhill, are made with ball-bearing assembles for wheels and there are many other examples of ingenious contraptions made from discarded materials. Girls role-play womanly pursuits and little girls can be seen carrying dolls in slings on their backs, in typical African fashion.

But they are also quite early given responsibilities: older children look after their younger siblings, boys spend days looking after their father's cattle and of course there is school which is taken very seriously: school fees have to be paid by parents who can hardly afford it, not everyone out of a family may be able to go to school as a result and the children are therefore expected to do their very best. They learn at a very early age to respect their elders and to obey their older siblings as well. Recently however many children have had to accept responsibility running whole households as a result of the tragic AIDS epidemic that has devastated the country long after these photos were taken.

	Kids from Msunduza	Playing Marbles	Fetching water	Home-made toy
	Looking after sister	Iron wire car	Small boy	Racing trolleys
	Sliding rocks	Unusual toy	Three girls	Growing tomatoes

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