(For the full story, and Mario’s astounding photographs, please see the September issue)
The Talibes and the Daaras Talibe is an Arabic term for disciple. What was once a respectable education system has become criminal. What tries to pass as religious teaching today has become a business for exploiting children. Everyday, talibes, who range in age from five to 15 years old, beg on the streets for eight hours a day and return back to an overcrowded and squalid daara, rife with skin disease, breathing problems, stomach parasites and Malaria. Little education takes place and talibes are routinely subjected to physical abuse. Mario Cruz gained rare access to the dark and violent world of the daaras where children’s dreams are suffocated by fear.
The physical abuse of talibes is well known but takes place hidden behind the doors of the daaras. The marabouts are well aware that their actions are criminal and access to daaras is heavily restricted by them. Even the police have difficulty getting access to some daaras. Talibes are unlike beggars found in other countries. They are children with marks of physical abuse and often visibly traumatized. But Senegalese society doesn’t seem to see them. They have become a routine part of daily life. The number of children exploited by thissystem of modern-day slavery is estimated to number as many as 30,000 in the Dakar region alone and 50,000 across the country. The long tradition of sending boys to study at Quranic boarding schools in Senegal is rooted in positive values of religious and moral education but in the last decade the system has changed drastically and uncontrollably. Thousands of so-called teachers use religious education as a cover for economic exploitation of the children in their charge. With many of them having more than one daara throughout Senegal. Trafficking in Children Parents often send their children to study the Quran because they simply can’t afford their education, others just believe that a daara is still a good solution. Today, child trafficking also plays a crucial part in the numbers. Most of the talibes are Senegalese but the number of children from neighboring countries, like Guinea-Bissau, has grown to become an important part of this phenomenon. Every month, the Guinean anti-trafficking unit finds children in remote areas between Senegal and Guinea-Bissau.
Not only the amount of money required is increasing but also the marabout demands are changing, with some of them using talibes as cheap labor for different kinds of services or forcing them to dig for valuable goods in large garbage dumps around cities. Sadly, many of these children can stay enslaved for many years in a long a dramatic path towards despair but some of them flee and take a chance living on the street. Some of them become what they hated most when they reach adolescence in a horrible cycle that infects Senegalese society.
The Power of the Lens My purpose in this project has been to alert the world to this systematic exploitation and abuse of children and bring back documentary evidence that would demand a response from the international community. In July 2009, I was in Guinea-Bissau when I first heard stories about Guinean children who were taken to Senegal to work and beg for Quranic teachers. Many of them had disappeared while playing in remote areas; others were given by their parents after promises made by marabouts. These stories stayed with me. In early 2015, I started planning an indepth project about what was happening in Senegal. I made contact with Human Rights Watch, Senegal’s Ministry of Justice and local NGO’s focused on the talibes, like Voices of Talibes. I thought I was ready to document the disturbing reality of child slaves but, in truth, I could never be fully prepared to see children whipped and chained in front of me. After six months of research and investigation, I traveled to Senegal and gained access to several daaras across the country: in Dakar, Rufisque, Keuer Massar, Diamaguene, Saint Louis and Touba, where I also followed the lives of many talibes that had run away. After Senegal, I went to Guinea Bissau, to visit shelters, families and border points to track the child trafficking that fed some of the daaras. Despite the magnitude of the talibe system, I strongly believe that by reporting and sharing the suffering of so many children we can bring needed attention to this problem and change to the criminal and exploitative talibes system in Senegal.
After publishing the first series of “Talibes, Modern-day Slaves” he won World Press Photo – 1st Prize for Contemporary Issues (Stories) raising international awareness and pressuring the Senegalese government to address the issue.
mariocruzphoto@gmail.com http://www.mario-cruz.com
About FotoEvidence FotoEvidence was founded in 2010 by Svetlana Bachevanova with the intention of publishing the work of documentary photographers working on long-term projects that focus on social justice and human rights. In addition, each year the FotoEvidence Book Award publishes a book for one photographer whose project demonstrates courage and commitment in the pursuit of human rights. FotoEvidence’s website: http://www.fotoevidence.com
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