TEXT starts
2.05
This is Dakar in Senegal, and children gather on the streets to beg. For money or food this is a daily ritual repeated by thousands of young boys across the country. There's nothing unusual about children begging in Africa but these youngsters are sent out onto the streets to beg in the name of Allah.
2.35
Between the ages of five and seven, their parents send them to the Islamic priests or Marabouts so they can be taught the Koran. The Marabouts force them to beg like this to pay for their food and tuition.
2.57
In between begging the boys sit for hours at a time religiously reciting the Arabic alphabet.
3.04
If they fail to learn quickly they're rewarded with a blow from their Marabout.
3.13
Bassirou Niang is a Marabout in charge of 20 boys. He brought them from the villages where drought and lack of food meant families could no longer look after them. The boys live crammed in together for the rest of their childhood.
3.38
Every Marabout has an assistant which is usually his son. This helps to ensure the Koranic school tradition survives through the generations despite the lack of obvious rewards.
3.56
Statement
Bassirou Niang
Islamic priest
We're poor and we don't have enough to eat. We all live together here in this room. Many of the children are sick. I have to send the young ones out to beg otherwise it all falls apart. I need to use the whip. I don't want to hurt them, but they have to obey.
4.19
In the school a donated meal is being prepared. The boys or Talibes as they're called have been up since 4.30 reciting the Koran, before going to beg on the streets for their teacher.
4.32
Some of these youngsters will themselves become Marabouts but the rest will struggle to survive as the Koran is all they know.
4.46
Despite these children coming from the poorest sections of society their parents earn great praise for having a child in a Koranic school even though it turns out to be little more than slavery.
5.04
Even the smallest children spend most of the day begging. Often they are the most likely to receive, in a society obliged by Islam to give charity.
5.18
In the villages it's household tasks rather than begging which forms the days work fare for the Marabout's students.
5.28
And before breakfast they spend 3 hrs sitting in the same position bent over their Koranic text chanting the words like a mantra.
5.44
And harshness rules here too. The children are beaten if they appear tired or aren't concentrating on their studies. These extraordinary teaching methods as handed out by the Marabout are generally accepted throughout Senegal.
6.03
The students who refuse to study are given the severest punishment. Tied to a stool they are forced to sit in the blistering heat for hours on end.
6.18
Apart from the Koran, the children learn nothing but brutality. Senegal doesn't make schooling compulsory and as over 90 per cent of the population are Muslim, criticising a Koranic school is tantamount to blasphemy. Muslims consider obedience to the Marabout akin to their reverence for Allah.
6.43
Statement
Malick Wade
Koran teacher
The Koranic school is one of the pillars of Islam. Many people want to earn money through a Koranic school, because times are bad and they want to solve their own problems. The government should help. But the beatings are part of it, it's part of bringing up children.
7.04
One man who will never forget his time in a Koranic school is the Senegalese painter Oumar Diong. His eldest brother put him in a school after the death of their father. The 49 year-old now paints to forget his time there. He says the children are exposed to all kinds of abuses, bullying and violence.
7.27
Statement
Oumar Diong
artist
Koranic schools are not open to debate. They're part of the belief system and we must simply accept them. If you question them, you're considered crazy. You're shunned by society and your whole family are ignored. It's senseless to protest.
7.49
And while this attitude prevails few will question Koranic Schools openly in public.
7.55
Not even the UN children's agency, UNICEF, who privately, voice concerns about the treatment of children in Koranic schools.
8.07
Statement
Mamadou Wane
UNICEF
The children are traumatised if they grow up without their families - particularly if they are four or five years old - it's inhuman. For them it's very important to be taken back to their own families.
8.24
The Marabout Bassirou Niang is taking his pupils Thierno and Omar home to visit their families in villages 5 hrs from Dakar. It's an opportunity to find out what could have driven their families to send them to a koranic school.
8.46
This region is blighted by drought, turning a delayed harvest into a shortage of food and water.
8.56
The Marabout himself left just such a village for the city because of these conditions.
9.06
This is Omar's family home but he hasn't been here for two years. After his father died his mother abandoned him. Omar was looked after by the rest of his family before being sent to the Koranic school. In front of them he's now asked to prove how well he's learnt the Koran.
9.31
Statement
Mour Niang
older brother
The Koranic teacher told us Omar has to beg. That hurts us. The children come from good families, but because of the drought we don't have enough for everyone. It's important to learn the Koran. We can't do anything else.
9.47
Omar is asked if he'd prefer to stay here and is immediately punished by the Marabout for answering too slowly..
9.54
Statement
Omar Niang
Koran student
My friends are here - this is my home.
10.02
Omar has a large family and with each man taking up to four wives the food shortages are acute.
10.11
After a short visit Omar's family sadly say goodbye. He has no other choice.
10.23
Senegalese Muslims are followers of the Sufi brotherhood, an Islamic sect which follows the strictest codes. Nowhere in Islam is the unconditional submission of the pupils to the Marabout stronger than here.
10.46
They travel deeper into the desert and onto another village where Thiernos' family live.
10.54
Like Omar, two years ago Thierno's relatives sent him to the Marabout. He's the eldest son and his relatives are happy to see him although after many months away some are overwhelmed by his return.
11.15
Despite the distress of separation they realise it's his destiny to study at the Koranic school. His mother wishes he didn't have to return but accepts it.
11.24
Statement
Haissatou Hot
mother
It's sad my son isn't with us but it's the will of the Almighty - even if he has to beg. We can't do anything more than pray that life for the Marabout and his students gets better. Life is hard.
11.42 -50
40% of Senegal's students attend the Koranic schools. The government is only now recognising the conditions that these children have to live in.
12.00
It seems an un-emotive parting when they don't know how many years it will be before they'll next see each other.
12.16
Omar and over a hundred thousand other Koranic school children, have no chance of escaping their situation. The night fires are testimony to the harshest of regimes where enforced studies at night allow more time in the day, for begging.
Ends 12.39
report: Marion Mayer-Hohdahl
camera: Jean-Pascal Bublex
vt cut: Grant Aerts
AKM
Beautiful World in Existence
WICD 5196
Nr 13 The Final Emotion
by Phil Sawyer - 1-30"