marabouts

This post is obviously my personal opinion and is tainted by my American perspective. With that said:

My group went to Sokone, a beautiful village in the Southeastern part of Senegal in a region called the Saloum. My group went with our history of Islam professor and one of the student coordinators. We had a wonderful time because of the beauty and peace that was omnipresent. We ate good food and slept well despite a loud obnoxious donkey whose bray sounded like it was in my room. The trip to Sokone, which took about 6 hours in total, provided us with landscapes and sights we had never imagined. Such sights included pigs (I can’t figure out what purpose they serve since Muslims can’t eat pig byproducts), a baobab tree forest, huts, a body of water which evaporated leaving salt in its place, and my favorite- a live goat tied to the top of a car with its ears flapping in the wind and body protected by a blanket.

One of our mini trips was to a bird-hatching island, which lies on the delta between a Senegalese river and the Gambian River. The island receives about 40,000 birds a year who migrate from the Netherlands, France, and Belgium etc to hatch their eggs then return to Europe. The island was very flat with lots of crabs. We walked around it through viney plants and sand. The island did not have one tree on it which seemed counter intuitive to me because I associate birds with trees. Supposedly the birds build sand pile nests and lay their eggs there. Unfortunately we did not see one bird on the island because it’s not hatching season. We see evidence that the birds had been there thanks to a copious amount of bird droppings.

The main point of this entry however is to talk about our visit to see the Sokone marabout. Marabouts are a synthesis between Senegalese culture and Islam. They are spiritual leaders who have mastered the Koran. There are many kinds of marabouts. If you have a need like finding a job you go to a specific marabout, if you want to win an election you go to another. Some marabouts are more powerful than others. President Wade has his own marabout, as do some soccer teams. Before exams, many students visit marabouts to get their blessings. Marabouts will bless them and make them do or buy certain things to have their blessing work. Some people have to wear gris-gris; others have to write a section of the Koran on an egg, others have to cleanse their bodies at weird times in public spaces. I find it mind-blowing and ridiculous because it’s all a mind game. If you believe in it, it will work. People pay enormous sums of money in order to see these marabouts and do their tasks. Some marabouts tell their customers to find objects that are impossible to find in Senegal others refuse people if they cannot pay their fees. In the end marabouts win because they make money and if their “power” did not work they can either blame it on the customer saying he or she didn’t follow his directions or he can say that it wasn’t gods will for the action to take place.”

Another job the marabouts have is to teach the Koran to children, called talibes – talib is student in Arabic, in special Koranic schools. Parents, especially those from villages, send their children to marabouts to be taught the Koran. There has been a trend in recent years of many marabouts taking advantage of the distance between parent and child and send the child to beg and not teaching him the Koran. All of the begging talibes are boys. It must be noted that a part of Koranic school is begging because Islam teaches people to be humble and begging is a form of humility. The system works because one of the five pillars of Islam is to give to those who are in need. The system of begging and giving this perpetuates. Normally these talibes should be studying from 6-12 then go beg for food. They then restart studying in the evening. Instead, many marabouts only lead about an hour worth of class a day and the talibes who range between the age of 4 to 24 beg between five to ten hours a day. The money they get goes directly to the marabout whom buys cars, houses, and feeds and clothes his wives and children. Talibes are given a quota, which they must fill daily. If they do not make enough money they are beaten or not given food.

There are hundreds maybe even thousands of talibes in Dakar. I am sure that not all of them are under the direction of corrupt marabouts but many are. Daily a little boy follows me down the street asking for money. “Bonjour Madame, cadeau?” Or “Madame, donne-moi cent franc”. They look up at me with wide eyes, their lean bodies with scars and cuts, standing clothed in tattered tee shirts and hole-ridden shorts, most of them not wearing shoes. It is a heartbreaking moment. I usually give them my small change because I cannot bear to just leave them standing there. These boys suffer too much. A turning point for me was one day I was sitting on the balcony of my house, which looks onto a busy road. I noticed a group of talibes with their tin tomato cans walking down my street. There were about seven of them ranging in age from about six to fourteen. They were kicking and bouncing this one tiny little ball amongst themselves. They were just having fun and playing. It is such a rare sight to see talibes smiling or just having fun. It was at that point that I became extremely outraged at these marabouts. They are taking these boys childhoods away from them sending them out on the streets. I realized that the money I used to give them was perpetuating the system. I decided instead to use the money I would have given them to buy them peanuts or other goodies. This way I am feeding them, punishing the marabouts, and supporting local vendors. I cannot even begin to explain how quickly the talibes eat the peanuts.

In any case my group of nine female college students went to visit the Sokone marabout. As we pulled up to his modern house juxtaposed among the huts we were instructed to put on floor length panges. Panges are wrap skirts that can be worn as normal skirts or as clothing protectors. All of us, even though we were all wearing “appropriate” knee covering skirts or pants, had to put them on. This was my first annoyance; the second was when we were instructed to curtsey when we entered the room where he was sitting. I find the curtseying I see to be demeaning. Religious women curtsey when shaking men’s hands but don’t with other women. I know I am making a cultural judgment but it drives me crazy. The last thing I wanted to do was curtsey to some corrupt man while wearing a skirt that was way too long for me. My blood began to boil as I entered the room and took a seat. The marabout was wearing a lavish boubou with yards of fabric in the pure white color to denote he has been to Mecca. He was wearing an outrageous black fez with a long tassel that swooshed when he moved his little head. He basically preached to us from his seat telling us that we are smart for studying other cultures. Then he led a prayer. When everyone turned up heir palms to receive his words I felt like running out of the room or simply starring at him instead of accepting his words. I couldn’t, however, bring myself to be that rude so I turned them up not listening to him thinking to myself how Islam is killing Senegal. When the prayer was over I looked down at the hands of the man next to me who was out hotel owner and guide. In his hands was an envelope full of money which he discreetly past off to the marabout as we were leaving. I tried to leave his house as fast of possible. I was shocked. Customers pay marabouts not visitors and we just went to say hello to him. We did not ask for his blessing nor did any of us have any interest in meeting him. The more I think about it, the more horrible it becomes. If you visit a priest, rabbi, or minister you would not even think about paying them. It is just not done, not even here. Why are marabouts so different?