‘We Don’t Even Use Our Older Children’: Young Children Accompanying Blind Adult Beggars in Tamale, Ghana

Abstract

This chapter analyses the phenomenon of child–adult partnerships for begging in Tamale, Ghana. It explores how and why children are preferred as companions to blind adult beggars. What the presence of a young child does to the moral evaluation of begging, and how in contexts of poverty the interaction between age, gender, migration, and (fictive) kinship shape children’s entry and exit into the activity. The chapter brings together voices of blind adult beggars, their young child companions as well as voices from the almsgiving public and officials. Yet, the central analytical focus is on the experiences and perceptions of the children involved in this activity.