Karen Coen Flynn - Yale University

x Several secondary-school graduates assisted me at various times with my largerresearch, of which our work with street children was only a part. These were PhilbertBugeke, Agripina Cosmos, Gilbert Maganga and Emma John.xi The 28 children included in this study were formally interviewed once to learn of thechildren’s life histories and food-acquisition activities either by me or one of myassistants. Yet because I was in regular contact with many of them, I was able toreconfirm and collect new information over the course of weeks and even months,depending on the amount of time these very mobile boys and girls spent in town. Iacquired much of the information about the boys, in particular, during countless informaldiscussions with them while walking either individually or in groups through the streetsor marketplaces, while sitting near the bus stand, ferry ports or post office, or whilehanging around outside of my house or the street children’s center. My assistants’interviews and my long conversations with some of the center’s staff members alsohelped me acquire information from the shyest boys and many of the girls.xiiContemporary child labor is complicated further because children are socialized torespect authority in ways that made voicing complaints both inappropriate and aninvitation for corporal punishment, which is practiced widely in Tanzanian homes andschools. In addition Tanzanian parents, like others, may be powerless to voice grievancesagainst their children’s employers not only because of local customs concerningdisciplinary relationships between child laborers and their employers, but because of the26