Improvements...
Minna has been undergoing a transformation of late - I wrote about it before. The city is being cleared of non-permanent structures and beggars are no longer allowed to linger. But a story in the paper recently shows how these changes are effecting some of the most vunerable people in our state.
A pickup carrying 105 children was stopped enroute from Kano to Suleja (a town between Minna and Abuja) on a six-hour journey. The children were aged from 4-14 years; they were "discovered loaded in two layers. In the first layer they were seated on their luggages while a shelf was put above them where the other set was accommodated."
The driver explained, "we wanted to take the children for Quranic education in Suleja, they are all Quranic students being taken for further education with their parents permission. I have been doing this for 15 years."
These children are known as Almajirai. I cant claim to know the ins and outs of the system but I have lived by one such group for 2 years. They spend their evenings in the football field beside my house and wander off in the direction of the mosque each evening as it gets dark. Each boy carries a bowl for begging, although they never approach me near my house (infact only the bravest of them will return my greetings). I often pass them sitting under a large tree in the morning (where I think they study the Quran with their malam or teacher); more frequently they are begging outside our local shop. In general, these children are the second or third sons (always boys) of impoverished families; their parents cannot afford their school fees and so they are sent to learn the Quran instead. Usually in a different city with no payment made towards their shelter or food. There is a component of humility in this system which requires the children to beg for food - although this educational system is in place in many Muslim countries without creating shelterless, hungry children who rely on the decency of a malam to care for them. The poverty in this place has made the system what it is, but the improvements in the state are no longer tolerating it.
One youngster from the pickup told the reporter: "I was to be taken from Agalawa to Suleja for Quranic education with the agreement of my parents. I am a Quranic student back at home. I was in the middle layer in the van. I want to go back home to my parents today".
A pickup carrying 105 children was stopped enroute from Kano to Suleja (a town between Minna and Abuja) on a six-hour journey. The children were aged from 4-14 years; they were "discovered loaded in two layers. In the first layer they were seated on their luggages while a shelf was put above them where the other set was accommodated."
The driver explained, "we wanted to take the children for Quranic education in Suleja, they are all Quranic students being taken for further education with their parents permission. I have been doing this for 15 years."
These children are known as Almajirai. I cant claim to know the ins and outs of the system but I have lived by one such group for 2 years. They spend their evenings in the football field beside my house and wander off in the direction of the mosque each evening as it gets dark. Each boy carries a bowl for begging, although they never approach me near my house (infact only the bravest of them will return my greetings). I often pass them sitting under a large tree in the morning (where I think they study the Quran with their malam or teacher); more frequently they are begging outside our local shop. In general, these children are the second or third sons (always boys) of impoverished families; their parents cannot afford their school fees and so they are sent to learn the Quran instead. Usually in a different city with no payment made towards their shelter or food. There is a component of humility in this system which requires the children to beg for food - although this educational system is in place in many Muslim countries without creating shelterless, hungry children who rely on the decency of a malam to care for them. The poverty in this place has made the system what it is, but the improvements in the state are no longer tolerating it.
One youngster from the pickup told the reporter: "I was to be taken from Agalawa to Suleja for Quranic education with the agreement of my parents. I am a Quranic student back at home. I was in the middle layer in the van. I want to go back home to my parents today".
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