Global childhood as a concept privileges western ideals of how young children experience growing up, how adults educate them, and how priorities are set for them. Ways of knowing and doing early childhood are backed by Euro-American knowledge, international conventions and scientific evidence which gives a semblance of the truths for intervening in the lives of children and their families in the majority of the world. The real conditions of young children's lives, the complexity and diversity of early childhood in the majority world require engagement with the plural concept of multiple childhoods. The recognition of the latter is creating greater focus on the versions of childhood informed by local conditions in the majority world. This article foregrounds the complex ideas and practices which form an integral part of how people shape early childhoods in the majority world. South Africa is an ideal example of how the political, economic and cultural context shaped and continues to shape versions of early childhood through the periods of apartheid, reformation and democracy. Using my experiences in investigating non-centred models of early childhood and other related South African studies, I examine early childhood programs that aim at paying attention to local ways of knowing and doing early childhoods. In particular I look at three arenas which show tensions of incorporating global childhood with local concerns for the betterment of young children's lives. Community involvement, child participation and non-centre-based early childhood education are examined as spaces for opening up debates in the field. (Contains 1 footnote.)