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Striving for Knowledge and Dignity: How Qur’anic Students in Kano, Nigeria, Learn to Live with Rejection and Educational Disadvantage

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Abstract

What is it like for young people not to conform to increasingly globalised standards of ‘modern childhood’, as epitomised by formal schooling? Drawing on ethnographic and participatory research conducted with Qur’anic students (Almajirai) in Kano, Nigeria, this article explores how young people – excluded from forms of knowledge to which they aspire – struggle to make sense of the constraints upon their lives and futures. It first traces how the Almajiri system evolved from a prestigious avenue to power into a coping strategy for the poor. It then describes the educational policy context of the Almajirai's experiences and explores how, shut out from modern Islamic and secular models of education, they cope with the exclusion and rejection they face in daily life. Throughout the article, the problematic implications of pushing for universal enrolment without addressing the inequalities governing access to education that is meaningful and of acceptable quality are pointed out.

A quoi ressemble la vie des jeunes qui ne correspondent pas aux normes de plus en plus globalisées de ‘l’enfance moderne’, telle que la symbolise l’école formelle? En nous appuyant sur une recherche ethnographique et participative menée auprès d’élèves d’écoles coraniques (appelés les Almajirai) de Kano, au Nigeria, nous cherchons dans cet article à savoir comment les jeunes – exclus des formes de savoir auxquelles ils aspirent – donnent tant bien que mal un sens aux contraintes qui pèsent sur leurs vies et leurs avenirs. Nous cherchons tout d’abord à déterminer comment et pourquoi le système des Almajirai, après avoir constitué une porte prestigieuse d’accès au pouvoir, est devenu une stratégie de survie pour les pauvres. L’article décrit ensuite le contexte de politique éducative dans lequel vivent les Almajirai, et examine la manière dont ces jeunes – écartés des modèles d’éducation moderne musulmane ou laïque – font face à l’exclusion et au rejet qu’ils subissent quotidiennement. Tout au long de cet article nous soulignons les conséquences problématiques associées au fait de pousser à la scolarisation universelle sans remédier aux inégalités dans l’accès à une éducation pertinente et d’une qualité acceptable.

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Notes

  1. First as part of my Master's (see Hoechner, 2009), since January 2011 as part of my doctoral research.

  2. Many schools lack physical infrastructure beyond a canopied forecourt where the teaching takes place, compelling their students to cohabit other spaces like mosques or neighbours’ entrance halls (zaure).

  3. Leftovers from the meal are the traditional ‘alms’ given to young Almajirai. Whereas in rural areas, they may collect and sell firewood to secure some cash income (for example, to buy soap), in urban Kano, many have taken to begging for money at traffic junctions.

  4. Students of peripatetic or rural schools, and students under more pressure to contribute financially to their teacher's livelihood, or without access to employment paid in cash (and thus likely to beg on the street for money), may, for instance, have fairly different experiences.

  5. ‘Society for the Removal of Innovation and Reestablishment of the Sunna’ (see, for example, Loimeier, 1997; Kane, 2003).

  6. For example, through the fervent implementation of Shari’a law in Nigeria's Northern states since 2000 (cf. O’Brien, 2007).

  7. Attributable to low levels of education spending, high pupil/classroom ratios and low teacher qualification (MoE, 2008).

  8. Towards the end of puberty, adult gender norms begin to govern the Almajirai's behaviour fully, thereby ruling out forms of employment that involve entering a house other than their own.

  9. http://www.conss.net/almajiri.htm.

  10. http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/africa/a-13-2007-11-28-voa46.html.

  11. The claim that the Almajirai participate in violence has been investigated systematically only in the aftermath of the Maitatsine crisis of the 1980s when members of an Islamic sect rose against the police, resulting in hundreds of deaths. A Tribunal of Inquiry established that children aged 10-14 years, unaccompanied by their parents, were among the sect's followers. Federal Republic of Nigeria (1981): Report of Tribunal of Inquiry on Kano Disturbances (Maitatsine) (cf. Awofeso et al, 2003).

  12. http://allafrica.com/stories/200810131093.html.

  13. All names have been changed to protect the informants’ identity.

  14. Unlike cats, which might be kept as pets, dogs entertain little sympathy in Hausa society. They are considered polluting, and Prophet Mohammed also disliked them (personal communication with Murray Last, 07/12/2010).

  15. Approximately 69 million school-age children are still not attending formal education, almost half of them (31 million) in sub-Saharan Africa (United Nations, 2010).

  16. Net primary school enrolment increased from 60 per cent in 1999 to approximately 75 per cent in 2008 (UNESCO, 2008).

  17. Kwara is considered to be one of the better-performing Nigerian states education-wise, and certainly as performing better than Kano.

  18. cf. http://www.dawodu.com/jaafar7.htm.

  19. For example, food that has been kept for too long and gone off. Some Almajirai wash, dry and re-heat such food before eating it. Often young children are sent to gather food remnants to give them to Almajirai. They might indeed be unaware that what they give away is inedible.

  20. For example, Habibu: ‘Even Allah says you should know him first before you worship him’; Nasiru: ‘God will also punish them for giving him bad food’; Habibu: ‘Allah said what you cannot eat, don’t give it to someone to eat, even if he's a mad man’.

  21. In the context of rural Hausaland where divorce is frequent and easy to obtain, it seems that children from broken-down marriages are particularly unlikely to find sponsors for their education. Both fathers and step-fathers are often reluctant to assume financial responsibility for them, and mothers may not have command over the necessary financial resources.

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Acknowledgements

Financial support from the German Academic Exchange Foundation (DAAD – Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst), the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes), the Green Templeton College travel fund, the QEH travel fund, and the Gurdev Kaur Bhagrath Memorial Research Fund is gratefully acknowledged.

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    Hannah Hoechner

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Hoechner, H. Striving for Knowledge and Dignity: How Qur’anic Students in Kano, Nigeria, Learn to Live with Rejection and Educational Disadvantage. Eur J Dev Res 23, 712–728 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1057/ejdr.2011.39

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