A talibé (also spelled talibe, plural talibés; , 'student'; pl. ) is a boy, usually from Senegal, the Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Chad, Mali or Mauritania, who studies the Quran at a daara (West African equivalent of madrasa). This education is guided by a teacher known as a marabout. In most cases talibés leave their parents to stay in the daara.Human Rights Watch, Off the Backs of the Children: Forced Begging and Other Abuses against Talibés in Senegal (2010), https://www.hrw.org, p 4, 17, 21; Donna L. Perry “Muslim Child Disciples, Global Civil Society, and Children's Rights in Senegal: The Discourses of Strategic Structuralism” (2004) 77:1 Anthropological Quarterly 47 at 49.
Within Senegal, the term talibé can be used in a wider context, “for instance to denote a militant adherent of a political party.”Ed van Hoven “The Nation Turbaned? The Construction of Nationalist Muslim Identities in Senegal” (2000) 3 Journal of Religion in Africa 225 at 245 (footnote 26).
Overview The talibé's relationship with his marabout is one of “devotion and strict obedience.” The marabout provides “guidance, protection, and intercession” for the talibé. A talibé's allegiance to his marabout is expressed through economic support or tithes.Codou Bop “Roles and the Position of Women in Sufi Brotherhoods in Senegal” (2005) 73:4 Journal of the American Academy of Religion 1099 at 1104.
The views on talibés in Senegalese society are diverse.Donna L. Perry “Muslim Child Disciples, Global Civil Society, and Children's Rights in Senegal: The Discourses of Strategic Structuralism” (2004) 77:1 Anthropological Quarterly 47 at 65. Some individuals, ethnic groups and religious denominations promote the raising of talibés while others reject the practice. Among those who support it there is a range of views of the best way to manage a daara.Perry at 55.
Many theories exist to explain the motivations of parents to send their children to a daara. These include; de facto fostering because of financial difficulties; securing a better future for the child by building a relationship with the Muslim brotherhood to which the marabout belongs, and; preparing the child for a career as a marabout.Perry at 58-59.Anti-Slavery International Begging for Change: Research findings and recommendations on forced child begging in Albania/Greece, India and Senegal (2009) http://www.antislavery.org/, p 14. Donna L. Perry disagrees with those who portray parents of talibés as “ignorant traditionalists or economic victims,” and marabouts as being “warped by the stresses of modernity.”Perry at 72-73. Based on interviews with Wolof farmers, she contends that the popularity of raising talibés remains essentially linked to West African values on child-rearing, rather than a response to “rampant population growth, intensified poverty, and neoliberal policy.”Perry at 74. The framing of the plight of talibés in socio-economic terms is, according to Perry, an intentional strategy of NGOs to “avoid accusations of cultural imperialism.”Perry at 71.
History Daaras have existed for hundreds of years. They grew in significance during the French colonial period.Perry at 56. The number of rural daaras declined during the latter half of the 20th century in favour of Arab-styled medersas (madrasa). Medersas grew in popularity as they enabled farmers to keep their children working outside of school hours, provided a secular and Quranic education, and exposed children to fewer hardships. During this time many daaras moved to the cities.Perry at 62.
In 1992, UNICEF launched a five-year operation to raise awareness about talibés, and sought to work alongside marabouts to improve talibes’ living conditions. In 1997, this work was picked up on an ad hoc basis by NGOs. These agencies sought to avoid the shortcomings of UNICEF's model which supplied marabouts with resources which were not always used for the benefit of talibés. Instead, these humanitarian groups worked directly with talibés.Perry at 66-71. Talibés continue to be a topic of discourse in Senegalese society.Perry at 74-75.
Abuse of Talibes
Nature of the abuse
Begging used to be characterised by the talibé asking for food to supplement the daara's supplies when it could not sustain its own demands from the harvests provided by the marabout's fields.Human Rights Watch, p 18, 21. The increasing number of daaras in urban settings has stemmed the traditional forms of support that sustained daaras. The prevalence of almsgiving in Senegalese society has made child begging profitable in cities.Anti-Slavery International, p 14. In the 1970s, some urban daaras ran seasonally, allowing for marabouts to return to their villages for the harvest. However, it became more economically viable for urban daaras to remain open all year round:
Perry warns that the above view can imply that only urban daaras exploit talibés. She contends that urban and rural daaras “are the same. There is just one difference: the urban talibe’s ‘farm’ is the urban street, and [the] ‘crop’ he harvests is cash, and not peanuts.”Parry at 63.
The practice of marabouts taking on talibés is seldom subject to state regulation, making it easier for abuse of this relationship to occur.Human Rights Watch, p 4. The Senegalese government has recently created state-regulated daaras in order to reduce abuses. However, urban daaras with resident talibés form the most common form of Quranic schools.Human Rights Watch, p 24.
Some marabouts, instead of teaching their talibés about the Quran, exploit them for labour, typically through forced begging on the streets. The nature of this exploitation exposes such talibés to disease, injury, death, physical abuse and sexual abuse.
A 2007 UNICEF study of child begging in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, found that "the large majority of child beggars (90%) are talibés".UNICEF Enfants Mendiants dans la Région de Dakar (2007) at 7, accessed 5 May 2014 at http://www.unicef.org/socialpolicy/files/2008_Senegal_Enfants_Mendiants_Dakar.pdf (Translation from the original French: « La grande majorité des enfants mendiants (90 %) sont des talibés »). UNICEF has estimated there to be between 50,000 and 100,000 begging talibés in Senegal.UNICEF at 35. A 2010 report suggests that the number of talibés is on the rise.Human Rights Watch, p 26-27. Other researchers, however, warn that "estimates on the numbers of street children rest upon largely elastic and nebulous definitions."Perry at 62. Indeed, there are no official statistics to substantiate these claims. Others respond that the rise of Arabic-maderas is causing the number of talibés to decline.Perry at 72.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has warned that the social status enjoyed by marabouts has emboldened "those responsible for the proliferation of forced child begging and other abuses committed by the marabouts against talibé children."Human Rights Watch, p 17. Perry cautiously agrees that "reverence of marabouts and respect for the talibé institution may be a dominant ideology, but it is not now, nor ever was, totalising or uncontested".Perry at 56.
Platform for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (PPDH) along with HRW, reported in December 2019 the overlooked abuse, exploitation and neglect of thousands of talibé children at traditional Quranic schools. The Senegalese government was accused of neglecting and not doing enough to tackle the widespread and chronic abuse faced by children at the religious schools.
The United Nations' Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) creates rights to adequate living standards for children, with regard to the means of the primary caregivers, as well as the means of the state to support the primary caregivers.United Nations “Convention on the Rights of the Child,” 1577 United Nations Treaty Series 3; 28 International Legal Materials 1456 (1989), adopted 20 November 1989, entered into force 2 September 1990, ratified by Senegal July 31, 1990, arts 24, 27. HRW argues that states, parents and marabouts are in breach of CRC in failing to oversee the adequate housing, care and nourishment of talibés.
HRW also cites the following as other abuses of talibés which breach CRC. Forced begging;“Convention on the Rights of the Child,” arts 6, 18, 19. HRW argues that this exposes talibés to considerable dangers. HRW documented cases of talibés dying in car accidents while trying to beg on the streets. The exposure to dangerous work, HRW argues, not only threatens the physical and mental security of talibés, but their lives.Human Rights Watch, p 32-33. Corporal punishment; physical punishments in schools has been described by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, as a type of violence which CRC seeks to stop.United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, “General Comment No. 8: The Right of the Child to Protection from Corporal Punishment and Other Cruel or Degrading Forms of Punishment (arts. 19; 28, para. 2; and 37, inter alia),” UN Doc. CRC/C/GC/8 (2007), accessed 5 May 2014 at http://www.refworld.org/docid/460bc7772.html. Education; HRW argues that, where a child's education is almost entirely neglected due to copious hours of begging, this may amount to a breach of CRC.“Convention on the Rights of the Child,” art 28. Sexual abuse; CRC requires states to take steps to protect children from sexual abuse.“Convention on the Rights of the Child,” arts 19, 34. Leisure; where a marabout denies talibés leisure time, this may breach the child's right “to rest and leisure.”“Convention on the Rights of the Child,” art 31.
Forced labour and slavery Recent studies show that talibés average just less than 8 hours per day, every day, begging.Human Rights Watch, p 3, 31. The exact sums that a talibé must yield each day vary between daaras. A survey of 175 talibes revealed that the average sum demanded by a marabout is 373 CFA (US$0.79), rising to 445 CFA (US$0.94) on holy days when greater almsgiving is customary.Human Rights Watch, p 31; Exchange rate: $1 USD= $473 CFA on 5 May 2014. World Bank statistics show that just under 30 percent of Senegal's population lives on less than 593 CFA (US$1.25) per day, and over 55 percent live on less than 949 CFA (US$2.00).The World Bank “Poverty headcount ratio” http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SI.POV.2DAY/countries/SN?display=graph accessed 24/04/2014 Exchange rate: $1 USD = $473 CFA on 5 May 2014. This highlights the difficulty talibés have in meeting the quotas requested by marabouts. In addition to financial quotas, some marabouts set quotas for basic foodstuffs such as sugar and rice.Human Rights Watch, p 32.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) has opined that the practice of exploiting talibés for labour also falls within the ambit of the Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour.Convention Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour (ILO No. 182), 2133 United Nations Treaty Series 161, entered into force 19 November 2000, arts 1(a), (d); International Labour Organization Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations, Individual Observation concerning Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, International Labour Conference 102/III(1A) (No. 182), “Senegal,” 2013, p 390, accessed 5 May 2014 at http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---relconf/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_205472.pdf. This is because, its opinion, forced begging is akin to slavery, and because the labour exposes children to a plethora of dangers to their wellbeing.