Corporal Punishment: South Africa bans beating of kids, Nigeria parents are laughing

Do you think corporal punishment will be stopped in Nigerian homes?

This week in South Africa, it became illegal for you to spank your child at home.

Yes, you read that right. You can't beat your child anymore in South Africa. In a predominantly black nation like SA, this news makes people wonder.

In comedian Trevor Noah's book 'Born A Crime', he narrated how his mother would beat him silly when he was a boy. Noah confessed he was a troublesome kid and his mother would set him straight in beatings.

 

If Trevor Noah's mum had a kid now she won't be able to beat her child even if he is as troublesome as the now famous comedian.

South Africa has always been regarded as a progressive nation in Africa. Same-sex marriage is allowed in the country while in many African countries, it can lead you behind bars.

Doing away with corporal punishment would further make other African countries view South Africa as too progressive. With this news, Nigerian parents won't definitely raise their kids in the country now.

 

Average Nigerian parents hold this bible verse dear to their hearts. "Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them," says the Good Book in Proverbs 13:24.

This Bible verse has been recited so many times in churches, youth fellowships and in homes especially when daddy or mummy is about to cane someone.

Corporal punishment is an integral part of the growing up in Nigeria experience. If your parents never beat with cane, 'koboko', or 'pankere', they surely made you kneel down or do the frog jump.

 

Doing all these made you earn your stripes among your friend. There are kids who never got whooped by their parents and they sort of didn't that respect among their friends. Kids who were not beaten were seen as soft. Kids who were beaten regularly were the hard men.

 

It must be said that some parents blur the line between corporal punishment and child abuse. We have heard stories of parents or guardians of kids doing terrible things just to discipline them.

If any form of punishment causes permanent or great physical harm to a child then it is no longer punishment, it is child abuse.

 

South African has led the way in corporal punishment. Would it be possible for Nigeria to follow? If we can use the legalization of same-sex marriage as a benchmark, it is going to take a long time.