Visit to a Daara

Yesterday, my Education and Culture class visited a daara in Pikine, a banlieu (suburb) of Dakar. Unlike the suburbs in the United States, the banlieus are really poor. They are the poorest areas of the city. We took cabs from our university to Pikine and then stopped at our professor's house. Professor Kane lives in one of the nicest homes in the entire banlieu. Then, we walked to the daara, which was located onthe other side of the train tracks. Daaras are koranic schools, where boys ages 5 to 20 are taught the Koran by marabouts (religious leaders). This was definitely one of the most interesting and saddening experiences I have had in Senegal.

The way that most of the schools are run, is that the kids all live there and only see their parents during Muslim religious holidays. At this particular daara, most of the kids come from the Touba region. This is a religious center for Mouride Muslims. They wake up in the morning and study koran until lunch time. This means memorizing passages in Arabic, even though they only speak Wolof. None of these kids, or even the marabout, spoke French. Therefore, most of the kids couldn't tell you what the passages that they recite mean. As they get older, the marabout and other students will help translate the Arabic into Wolof, so they can have some idea of what they are saying.

In the afternoon, the talibe (which means religious students) are sent out onto the streets of Pikine to beg for food and money. The marabout makes most of his money this way. The kids' parents don't pay for them to attend school, so begging allows the marabout to run the daara. Also, his adult followers will give him whatever money they can afford. Any marabout, or really any Senegalese person, will tell you that the purpose of begging is to teach the talibe to be humble. Humility is a very important part of Islam. However, in my opinion and in the opinion of most other Muslim countries, there are many better ways to teach kids to be humble. Really, I see begging as a way for marabouts to exploit their students and earn a living.

During our visit, we got to sit down with the marabout and ask questions, which our professor translated into Wolof. Many of the questions that people asked didn't provide us with any inight into this system, but it was interesting to see how he answered. For example, when we asked what most of the kids do when they leave the daara, he told us that many students end up working the United States. Really? These kids who cannot speak any language other than Wolof, have never been to regular school, and can't even write their names manage to acquire gainful employment in the United States? I don't think so. These kids have never learned math, history, science, or French. All they know is the Koran.

The saddest part of the whole visit was when the subject of beating the tablibe came up. This particular daara is well-known because a few years ago, the old marabout beat a child so badly that he died. When word got out, that marabout fled to Touba and has been there ever since. However, when we asked the current marabout if he beats children, he said yes without any hesitation. He told us that he has a cane that he uses if the children are misbehaving. He explained that beating is a necessary part of learning, and that if he didn't beat kids they would never learn the Koran. Even the public schools here still use corporal punishment. I don't know about all of you, but I was never beaten by my teachers, and I think I have done pretty well as far as education is concerned.

Recently, Senegal has come under international scrutiny because of the mistreatment of talibe by marabouts. Many talibe are beaten if they don't bring in enough money everyday while begging. Human Rights Watch recently did a report on this phenomenon, urging the Senegalese to do something for the 50,000 talibe in the country. The problem is the amount of power that is held by these marabouts. They are extremely influential politically, so the government is really afraid to take them on. If you're interested, the NY Times recently did a story on this problem that can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/04/15/world/international-us-senegal-streetchildren.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Senegal%20talibe&st=cse