Changing Our Talibé Mentality By Lauren Seibert,
SeneGAD Talibé Coordinator
The issue of talibé in Senegal has become my world for the past year. I almost can’t even remember what it was like to first arrive in country and see these scruffy kids everywhere with their begging bowls. It’s hard to remember how many visits I had to make to their daaras – schools where talibé live and study the Koran under tutelage of a marabout – in Kolda before the complexities of the talibé system really sunk in.
In the beginning, I understood that they were being exploited, forced to beg for change on the streets to “support” their marabout and his daara. I didn’t understand why a society could allow this, though. The hardest part of all is to remember how I used to feel about them, these world-weary, sometimes sweet and sometimes abrasive boys roaming the streets. But when I read back through my old journals, I remember: I was intimidated, overwhelmed and a little irritated. I didn’t know what to think about these kids because I didn’t understand the whole system – but I knew that they wouldn’t leave me alone, and they were making my transition into this new culture even harder.
It wasn’t until I sat through a presentation on talibé a few months into my service that I understood how to look at the issue. And now by working with SeneGAD, I’m hoping to pass that perspective on to as many people as possible, because honestly, it doesn’t come naturally. Abrasive or confrontational kids getting up in your space will inspire negative feelings or reactions if you don’t train yourself. And that’s okay – you just have to recognize why you’re feeling these things and know what to do.
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