they asserted that the international community also had to appreciate that in the Congo, a fifteen-year-old boy would consider himself to be a grown man. Europeans and Americans were not in a position to determine what constituted adulthood in the Congo. A fifteen-year-old already had to provide for his family as an adult would, I was told. It was a fair point. The norms of wealthy countries could not simply be imposed upon the poor. What makes eighteen the magic number for adulthood?
