mukina2:

]“Almajiri” is a word borrowed from Arabic for someone  who leaves his home in search of knowledge in Islamic religion.

  Almajiri: Beyond the rhetorics

by
Muhammad Mahmud, kano state.


Recently there have been media reports about a bill sponsored by some Northern members of the Senate to abolish or eradicate the present day Almajiri (or Qur’anic) system of education.
Ostensibly the bill is geared towards modernization of the Almajiri schools, but reported contributions by the sponsors of the bill as well as earlier utterances by some members of the lower chamber betrayed the cover.
The bill did not come as a surprise to anybody for obvious reasons. The only thing that is surprising is that the move sprang from the upper chamber instead of the lower chamber to which belongs Saadatu Sani who informed the public, earlier, that they will do everything possible to eradicate the Almajiri schools.
The bill seeks to establish a National Commission for the Eradication of Child Destitution. If the bill scales through all the Almajiri schools must register with the proposed Commission. Failure of this will put the Alaramma in prison for two years without option of fine. An alaramma who also sends his students to beg will attract the same punishment.
From the reports, it is clear that the bill is prompted by the need to do away with grievous challenges facing effective implementation of the child rights act to which Nigeria is a signatory, not by humanitarianism and the need to save our people from quandary. It is, also, clear that the sponsors of the bill are either confused or cannot differentiate between Almajiri (student) and almajiri (destitute or beggar). Maybe this informed the glaring mix-ups in the senate’s reported contributions and the bill itself. It is, however, not clear whether bill is to eradicate beggars or almajiri or both.
The word Almajiri emanated from an Arabic word Almuhajir meaning “immigrant”. The name was given to Qur’anic pupils, in most of the present day Northern Nigeria, for they left their home towns usually to other places or to a popular teacher to obtain sound Qur’anic education.
Almajiri is a general name given to both student and destitute but with different meaning to each. Whereas Almajiri (student) is meant generally for Qur’anic student, almajiri (destitute) is simply a beggar (whether child or adult). Almajiri (student) too, begs for alms and food, but only at a specified time, that is after school break or on school-free days, unlike almajiri (beggar) who only stops begging when he falls asleep.

http://www.triumphnewspapers.com/aljS262008.html

NGO Works to Improve Muslim Education in Nigeria

By Isiyaku Ahmed
Kano, Nigeria

The National Council for the Welfare of Destitutes in Nigeria says there are about seven million child and teen-age beggers -- or Almajrai, in the north of the country. Kano State accounts for more than a million. The World Health Organization says over three percent of these boys suffer sexual abuse and neglect -- a situation that worries many northern political and social leaders. Voice of America English to Africa reporter Isiyaku Ahmed in Kano says the word “Almajiri” is derived from the Arabic word “Al-muhajirin,” meaning a seeker of Islamic knowledge.

In Nigeria, Almajiri is any child or adult who begs for assistance in the streets or from house to house. Islamic teachings strongly prohibit begging except in very special circumstances. They include a man’s loss of property in a disaster, or when a man has loaned much of his money for the common good, such as bringing peace between two warring parties.

The majority of Almajiris in Nigeria are children from 3 to 18 years old. Community leaders say these children are totally neglected by their parents.

Health workers say they are vulnerable to diseases and social crimes. These beggar children are found on Zaria Road, one of Kano’s major streets. In order to survive, they beg from dusk to dawn everyday. After begging, they return to their makaranta, or school, or are left on the streets.

The privileged ones among them have a few hours of Quranic recitations with their mallams, or Islamic teachers, in a traditional Islamic schooling system called tsangaya.

Unlike in western school systems, Almajiris are taught how to recite and memorize the Holy Quran and Hadiths.

An organization funded by USAID, called Enabling HIV/AIDS, Tuberculoses, and Social Sector Environment, or ENHANSE, is making efforts to reform the Almajiri system and help Almajiri children. Recently, the ENHANSE group was in Kano for a workshop seeking ways of protecting children and keeping them at home or in dormitories.

Fatimah Shagari is a northern specialist with the ENHANSE project in Nigeria.  She says the Almajiri system was originally designed to give children Quranic knowledge, but the structure has been changed from its original intent. She says,

“The Almajiri child presents only as a begging street child. People of the society have used the Almajiri system to abuse the Muslim child, to traffic the Muslim child, to make the Muslim child vulnerable to all source of diseases, unsafe conditions and to some extent expose them to terrorism, thuggery and other menaces, to be used as social destructors, and to some extent also be used as sex hawkers or homosexuals in particular.”

Shagari says members of the ENHANSE project are meeting with Imams, the legislators, parents whose children are Almajiri and the Muslim Ulamas. She says they hope to come out with a workable action plan to correct the present situation of the Almajiri child and the Alamjiri system in Nigeria,

http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2007-11/2007-11-28-voa46.cfm?CFID=29456190&CFTOKEN=95452781

ALMAJIRI SYNDROME AS A FORM OF CHILD ABUSE

The issue of almajiraira has remained worrisome in the minds of northern elite. This is because the practice has been a source of embarrassment to the region.

The word ALMAJIRI emanated from the Arabic word “AL- MUHAJIRIN”, the concept of Al-MUHAJIRUN came as a result of Prophet Muhammed’s migration from Mecca to Medina, meaning the emigrant. In Hausa land the term Almajiri could take any of the following forms any person irrespective of gender, who begs for assistance on the street or from house to house as a result of some deformity or disability; children between the ages of seven and fifteen who attend informal religious school who equally roam about with the purpose of getting assistance or aims; or even a child who engages in some form of labour to earn a living.

Almajiri syndrome can be said to be another form of child abuse, in the sense that children are exposed to laborious work at tender age, normally children between the ages of seven and twenty. Their mallams cannot feed nor provide the necessities of life for them therefore they embark on begging or laboured work in order to survive and gain.

The Almajiri syndrome or phenomenon is alarming because It takes a different dimension compared to the initial idea of Almajiri formation. Almajirai plural of almajiri are children that are sent to school for learning by parents, but instead of doing what they are expected to, they will be seen roaming the street beging and engaging in unnecessary activities in which they will eventually became a burden to the society due to lack of career guidance and counselling by teachers.

Such children (the Almajirai') are usually aggressive and violent as they are exposed to different forms of pressure, problems, hunger and jobs that demand several times their energy and weight before the job Is accomplished. Some of them do go to restaurants to wash plates, fetch water so that they will be given left over foods. They are all over the streets, very dirty, hungry thirsty, they lack all kinds of necessities of life and at times they cause traffic hazards.

Child labour is a fundamental factor of child abuse, these children who are laboured about in our communities are our children. They are the leaders of tommorrow as aged ones are dying up the younger ones replace them. They are our future hope and pillars, without which the future may look bleak in terms of development, because all these violent exhibiting children grow up to become criminals in the society within which they live, hence set back in the society because the increase in number of crime that is being attributed to increase of criminals in the society.

This issue of begging is more common in the northern part of Nigeria where the children are being denied their rights including the right to western education. As the case may be, these children turn out to be loosers in whatever perspective because some of them may not concentrate to learn even the spiritual knowledge they are sent for talkless of the western education. They are automatically denied.

Usually a child becomes an Almajiri when there is high striking poverty line in his family to take care of his essential needs such as sustenance. Some children are forced to become one simply when they lose their parents and when their relatives or guardians cannot keep them. Most of such children become victims when their parents send them to Quranic schools outside their hometowns.

A child is usually taken away from his parents, his relatives, and his home to some remote areas for the purpose of learning the recitation of holy Qur’an. At the end of the day the child will learn less If any about the. Qur'an recitation and more mischievous acts. This exercise is prevailing in the northern part of Nigeria as the Hausa/Fulani are predominantly Moslems and settlers of the north.

Social psychologists also noted that when a child is exposed to labour at a tender age and deprived with little or no benefit and entertainment, such child normally develops the habit of loneliness and thus lead to schizophrenia, therefore children’s right must be protected, preserved and maintained, similarly they should be given equal rights and priviledges as adults for a brighter future. The primary or basic children’s needs are right to education, health, entertainment, association, interaction, shelter and nutrition. Once these essential needs are provided, there is no doubt that they can perform wonderfully in their undertakings and can deliver as leaders of tomorrow.



  http://library.thinkquest.org/06aug/00168/syndromes.html

Abu Zola:

Mercy is shown to those who have mercy , you foool

Abu Zola:

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