Parenting and Child Development: A Comparison of Yoruba Parenting and Pauline Concept of Child Rearing in Ephesians 6:4

Abstract

The importance of children in any society cannot be overemphasized. This is why they are
highly desired and valued in every home and culture particularly among the Jews and the
Yoruba of south west Nigeria. Their presence signals hope and future for the family, church
and the society at large. Yoruba and Pauline concepts of parenting and child development
clearly pointed out that there are a lot of similarities between the two worlds. There has been
a remarkable paradigm shift from what parenting used to be and what it is now. Both Yoruba
and Pauline ideas are at variance with the attitude of many parents in the society today.
Children, in most cases, are seen as weak, ignorant, foolish and thereby deserve little or no
recognition. This attitude of neglect actually calls for concern. The paper examines the concept
of parenting as practiced by the Yoruba people of western Nigeria. Similarly, it also surveys the
Pauline concept of child rearing as encapsulated in Ephesians 6:4. As a contextual study, the
paper correlates the biblical perspective with the contemporary realities in the Yoruba land
and Africa at large. The paper also highlights the elements of contextual connectivity between
the parenting in Paul’s world and the African view vis-à-vis the Nigerian situation. Consequently,
Inferences are drawn from the Biblical and the Yoruba principles of child rearing for the
purpose of bringing up total children that will become leaders tomorrow.