Ten years ago, on 3 March 2013, a fire ripped through a building in downtown Dakar, Senegal. Nine children died. Seven were talibés, young boys who had been locked in their daara, or traditional Qur’anic school, while the responsible adult was sleeping elsewhere with his family.
Talibés are common on the streets of Senegal, empty tomato tins in hand to collect alms from passers-by. Many, but not all, must beg to survive. Around 30,000 are thought to beg in Dakar, the capital city, and 100,000 in the country. But it is difficult to know how accurate these figures are.
Who are the talibés? A newcomer – as I was ten years ago – will hear two very different answers, depending on whom they ask. For some, the talibés are young religious scholars. They are walking embodiments of the Qur’an, which they are memorising under the tutelage of their teacher, the serigne daara. For others, these same boys are victims of child trafficking. Their impoverished rural families were tricked into entrusting their sons to ‘imposters’ – men posing as religious teachers – and now the serigne daara forces the boys to beg for his own personal gain.
