” when you educate a girl, you educate a nation” (Malawian proverb in ‘I am a Girl in Africa’)

This photo is not from my current trip, but I have witnessed the roadside scene in all the African countries that I’ve visited. Small children on their way to school. Plus a couple of snaps from a rural school. It has oft been explained to me that these youngsters may be up at some ungodly hour to walk potentially 14kms to reach their school desk, particularly in the rural areas. This comes to me from the lips of my African work colleagues and their own childhood experiences. I reflect on this distance every time I see these joyous tykes traipsing the side of a dusty road on their way to absorb some knowledge that will make a difference to their prospects. I would be proud of myself if I walked 28kms across a whole day, and I might crow about my ‘achievement’ to others. When I collected data for my PhD in 2019, I heard young people say they did not do well in school because they had the “spirit of forgetting“. Such an evocative term to explain their struggles in school, which must surely be partly attributable to the distance walked. This phrase still tugs at my heart strings as I write it on the page. Parents expectations of school outcomes are high and they too accept the blame if they struggled to pay the fees required to keep their children in school. In many households, a child may not get a second chance to pass critical exams as there is another sibling following close behind who must also receive the opportunity. When parents’ livelihoods improve the extra income is often usually used for school fees alongside the essentials of more nutritious food. So much is bound up with this daily walk for knowledge.