Renowned photographer Mario Cruz, who has been documenting the enslavement of children as young as four in Senegal, recently received a tip that gave him a closer look at the lives of these students at Islamic schools. Sent by their families to daaras to become early scholars of the Koran, some of these children have instead been enslaved and forced to beg up to 12 hours a day, seven days a week. According to the recent tip, Cruz learnt that these students, also known as talibes, were not only enslaved and forced to beg but also subjected to frequent beatings and severe violence after being kept in shackles for years.

Most daaras are genuine in their mission as they continue to educate children about the Koran but roughly a decade ago, some of these schools started abusing students, thus poisoning a centuries-old tradition. In Senegal’s predominantly Muslim society, where religious scholars exercise immense political and social power, children have long been entrusted with marabouts, or teachers, who are supposed to educate them in residential Islamic schools. Many marabouts, who serve as de facto guardians for their talibes, conscientiously carry out the noble tradition of offering young boys a holistic moral and religious education. Yet, a 114-page study by Human Rights Watch in 2010 estimated that as many as 50,000 talibes were being exploited by certain daaras they had been enrolled in by their parents. The study was based on interviews with 175 former and current talibes as well as 120 other people, including marabouts, Islamic scholars, government officials, humanitarian officials and family members who had sent their children to daaras.

When Cruz finally reached one such school in the city of Touba, his translator tried his best to convince the marabout to let the ace photographer take a couple of shots but was unsuccessful. The pair decided to wait until the teacher finally left for lunch and that is when they managed to sneak in. Cruz immediately found three shackled children, each with one foot encircled by a tight chain that was bolted to the ground. Each of the three children had roughly 10 steps of slack, which was just enough for the talibes to have access to a bathroom – a small wooden compartment with a hole in the ground.

As Cruz started preparing to photograph them, seven or eight older talibes noticed the pair and panicked, thus alarming the chained children as well. As the older boys prepared to charge towards the pair, Cruz and his translator fled before jumping into a taxi and heading homewards. However, news of Cruz’s presence had already spread throughout Touba and as the pair tried to navigate their way out of the city, they saw more than one road being blocked by people holding cords. With the help of roundabout routes, which caused a three-hour trip to turn into a six-hour one, Cruz and his friend finally made it back to their home base in the capital city of Dakar.

For years, Cruz has been photographing and researching such abusive Koranic schools, run by marabouts, for his yet to be published book titled Talibes: Modern Day Slaves.

“I didn’t think that I would see the abuses being committed in front of me,” he said. “I didn’t know for sure what access I would have once I was in Senegal. The first time I saw a talibe being whipped in front of me, I was shocked.”

Marabouts are known to beat these children with electric wires or strips of car tires as their blood runs — in certain cases daily. Some days, they are beaten even when they bring back their daily quota of between $1 and $3. In the daaras visited by Human Rights Watch, marabouts typically collect $20,000 to $60,000 each year from their talibes’ begging. Some marabouts are believed to amass upward of $100,000 a year by exploiting talibes left in their care while some others are also known to rape their talibes.

Speaking to Human Rights Watch last year, a prosecutor described how one talibe had been threatened by his marabout in front of the entire courtroom when asked to testify against his son for charges of rape.

“I will beat you,” warned the marabout, before the talibe promptly changed his story.

The charges against the marabout’s son were soon dropped.

Tired of total deprivation and continual abuse, over 1,000 talibes run away from daaras each year.

“Every day I try not to cry. Every day I try not to scream. I don’t sleep. I just close my eyes and imagine myself in a different place. … I know stories about dead talibes, but I’m not afraid of death anymore,” said a former talibe, Amadou, to Cruz.

Amadou was among the few talibes who decided to flee and take his chances on the streets of Senegal than face constant abuse from his marabout at his daara. Even though he is only 15, he looks far older than Cruz himself.

“I think that he was one of the talibes that really suffered. You can see in his eyes that life was really hard for him,” Cruz said.

Cruz discovered Amadou at a dock on the banks of Senegal River in St Louis, hanging around with a group of street kids, who were milling about a deserted fishing boat. Although Amadou could not tell for sure how long he had been a talibe, he guessed he had stuck around the daara for about eight years. And having grown up in the vicious system, he could not recall where he was from or who his family members were. Unfortunately, this is the case with many talibes, who are sent away as young as Amadou and that is what makes it extremely difficult to rehome them later.

The Senegal government has been criticized for not acting against these schools. In 2013, a law was drafted after nine boys were burnt to death at a daara in Dakar. While the law was drafted to regulate curriculum and bring accountability as soon as possible, last month, Mody Ndiaye, permanent secretary of National Task Force Fighting Trafficking in Persons, said President Macky Sall had only recently asked his cabinet to accelerate the legislation so it could be sent to Congress for a vote. Essentially, many recommendations to fight the talibe problem propose simply implementing a law that has been in the books since 2005. While that law criminalizes child trafficking and forced begging, the rare convictions under it result in measly fines and minimal, if any, jail term. Till now, not one marabout has been charged or tried solely for the crime of forced begging, even though a large number of these children can be seen on the streets of Senegal on any given day.

Still, a State Department report from last year ceded that Senegal has made significant progress in addressing this issue. Apparently, the government has put in place a system for collecting data on human trafficking and started working with neighbouring countries to address the issue of porous borders. According to Ndiaye, the government has also been training social workers, police and those in the judicial system to address the issue even better.

Photo Credits: The Washington Post