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State, Economy And Almajirci System Of Education In Nigeria By Sulaiman Khalid, Ph.D. Department of Sociology, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto – Nigeria.
Text of Paper presented the 1st African Regional Consultative Conference on ‘The Role of Parliamentarians in the Protection and Development of Almajiri Child,’ 7th -11th May, 2006, Arewa House, Kaduna-Nigeria.
1. INTRODUCTIONLearning to read and write the Holy Qur’an at an early age is an integral part of the socialisation processes of every child in Hausaland. It is therefore an established norm for parents to register their children with selected makarantar allo (Qur’anic school) which could be found in every Muslim community, no matter how small. The expectation of the society is that by the time a pupil graduated from one of such schools, he would be able to recite the Qur’an and read and write, using Arabic scripts. The introduction of Western education did not significantly affect enrolment into makarantar allo, as the school age children still attend primary schools in the morning while they go to Islamic schools in the afternoon.
Not all the children receive their Qur’anic education in the neighbourhood under the watchful eyes of their parents, though. Once farm work is over, some parents in distant villages despatch their boys off to urban centres of Hausaland in search of Qur’anic education. These children however return to their farms at the beginning of every planting season. The community that receive them feed the children from their left-over and make a little use of their labour; older boys do casual work if they can get it, like fetching water or carrying loads (dako), while the under-aged (6-10years), not strong enough to do such work go round begging, usually in groups. These migrant children are known as almajirai (sing. almajiri) and their activity is referred to as almajirci. The term almajiri is Hausa word for pupil or student. The word is derived from the Arabic term almuhajir, meaning the migrant. The term has its origin in the historical flight of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and his compatriots from Mecca to Medina in the early days of Islam. Those who emigrated with the Prophet were known as muhajirun (sing muhajir). Since the Prophet was known to have declared that: ‘’whoever sets out seeking knowledge will be walking in the path of God until his return, and whoever dies while travelling for learning will be regarded as a martyr’’ (The Muqaddimah, 1967:427), those who respond to this precept are, to this day, referred to as al-muhajirun or migrants. Thus, slowly, travelling came to be associated with knowledge and those who embarked on its search resorted to taking along with them disciples, abandoning all vocation, for complete devotion to their studies. In its usage, therefore, the word means those who left their towns or villages, parents, friends and relations, in search of religious knowledge and scholarship. Not infrequently, it is loosely used in referring to beggars or destitute in general.
Perhaps more than any other social problem in the northern parts of the River Niger, almajirci has remained a major source of concern to the governments and citizens alike in the last quarter of the twentieth century. Accordingly, the phenomenon has generated a long drawn debate among different interest groups of society. They either argued for the retention of the status quo or advocated a reform or even outright proscription of the system. Beginning with an examination of the nature, its modus operandi and the historical forces that gave prominence to the system, this paper seeks to highlight some of the socio-economic as well as the political implications of its retention in the contemporary dispensation. Particular attention is paid to the interplay of economic, religious and cultural factors in shaping the distinctive features of the system. The analysis is predominantly based on empirical data generated during the field study conducted in Sokoto metropolis between November 1995 and June 1997. A sample of 837 almajirai and 22 migrant malams was used.
The main objective of this paper is to assess the nature and magnitude of the problem with the view to stimulating further research and dispassionate deliberation on a phenomenon that is now assuming crisis dimension.
2. SOCIO-ECONOMIC ROOTS OF ALMAJIRCI
2.1 Main Features of Almajirci It is appropriate to begin by drawing a distinction between three categories of almajirai (migrant Qur’anic school pupils) that are found in most urban of Hausaland. The first categories of almajirai are those children given out in trust to a resident malam by parents who live in the same locality. The children are placed on a full-time, day and night, study of the Qur’an and stay permanently in the compound of the malam. Unlike their peer groups who live with their parents these children do not attend Western type primary / secondary schools. Generally looking rough and dirty, these pupils are hardly distinguishable from their migrant colleagues. They live together, sleep together and play about together. The only distinguishable element is that their feeding, clothing, medical care and other aspects of welfare were taken care of by their parents. This category of pupils will not form the focus of the paper.
The second categories of the migrant pupils are those who have to beg and, sometimes, work in order to feed themselves. Here, too, distinction must be made between two types of pupils on the basis of duration of their migration. The first category in this rank are those whose mainly rural parents attach to selected urban-based malams and will not return until they ‘graduate’ which may take two or more years. It is this category of almajirai that “keep the flag flying” throughout the year. Numerically, they are by far fewer than the seasonal migrants. Again, this category of pupils is not the focus of this paper.
The other category of migrant Qur’anic school pupils are those who come in the company of their malams from rural areas to settle temporarily in the city during the dry season and return along with their malams to their farms in the wet season. This last category is the main focus, and subject-matter, of this paper. We restricted our research to the last category because they constituted the vast majority of migrant Qur’anic schools’ pupils whose movement and activities in the urban areas became a source of major concern.
The short-term circulation is organised by malamai who would normally gather around them school-age male children numbering up to fifty. Each boy would take his transport fare, sleeping mat, clothes, wooden slate or allo, quill-pen (alkalami), ink (tawada) and food bowls. On reaching the town they would stay with an established local malam or in the compound of some prominent persons in the community. Not all the pupils are brought by the migrant teachers or even taught by them once in the town and entrust them to an established local malam.
2.2 Age Distribution of the Migrant Pupils The age of the pupils varies considerably, with more than half (50.15%) falling between the age category of 10 to 15. About one third (33.33%) are in the age category of 5 to 9 years of age. While only 16.48 per cent are between 16 to 19 years of age. On the average, 83.49 per cent of all the almajirai are between the ages of 5 to 15. The migrant teachers themselves are youthful and energetic people in their prime. Over 80 per cent of them are within the age bracket of 25 and 35 with the highest number (45.45%) being in the 31 – 35 years category. Only 4.55 per cent of them were found to be 41 years and above.
The age distribution of the migrant teachers is consistent with the demographic theory which maintains that the probability that an individual moves from one region to another is a function of the characteristics of the individual, prominent among which is his age (Rose, 1996). While members of his age-group are stimulated to migrate to urban centres primarily by economic considerations, the youthful Qur’anic school teacher move their school to urban areas to “eat the dry season” away (ci-rani). All the 22 teachers interviewed reported that they operated a makarantar allo in their place of origin. They are primarily farmers by occupation and religious teachers by profession. During the rainy season they cultivate their own farmlands. Indeed, all of them claim that the desire to acquire advance Islamic knowledge from more learned malams in the urban areas as the major motive for their migration. The tendency to partake in seasonal migration gradually diminishes as they attain the age of 35. By the time they cross 40 years (4.55%) most of them seem to ‘retire’ from the peripatetic tradition, perhaps due to growing family pressure.
2.3 Almajirci and Ci-Rani The dry-season Qur’anic school circulation in Hausa society is characterised by the movement of school-age children from generally smaller, mainly subsistence agricultural communities to larger, commercial and industrial communities. This is attested by data which revealed that 68.30 per cent of the almajirai hailed from rural areas, while 27.96 per cent originated from areas designated as semi-urban. Therefore it is safe to consider almajirci as another dimension in rural-urban migration.
Urban-urban seasonal migration for the purpose of Qur’anic studies is not prevalent in the study area. Only 2.74 per cent of our sample population came from urban areas, notably Argungu, Birnin-Kebbi and Funtua. Rural-rural migration of almajirai, though of limited scale, was also noticeable in seven villages visited in the course of this research. The massive seasonal influx of school-age boys from rural to urban areas in the name of almajirci was, indeed, consistent with rural-urban nature of the phenomenon.
During the long dry-season which characterised the Sudan Savanna, most Qur’anic schools in the rural areas remain closed, because both the teachers and pupils had shifted their classrooms to the city. Those schools that remain in session have very few students attending them. This observation is further confirmed by the fact that 86.14 per cent of the almajirai stated that they regularly attend makarantar allo when they return.
When asked to justify the reason for sending their wards to cities in the name of karatun allo (Qur’anic studies) when the relevant facilities were available right in the village, the parents seem to have a common answer: the children concentrate on their studies most if they are physically away from home. In the words of a ‘retired’ migrant Qur’anic school teacher in one of the villages, “the children learn in three months what take them more than one year to learn in the village”. Some of the parents complained that they found it difficult to enforce regular attendance of their children at the village Qur’anic school. This may account for the 13.66 per cent of those who reported that they did not attend makarantar allo back in the village.
2.4 Housing Accommodation At the destination end, one obvious implication of migration is the need for housing. Housing accommodation is required but also for the thousands of pupils on seasonal migration but also for the teachers who are often accompanied by families. For this purpose, no migrant malam leaves his place of origin without knowing preciously where he will lodge once in the city. In this regard the host community tended to be very generous with the migrant pupils and their teachers. They donate parts of their houses or built some with the sole aim of accommodating the almajirai, and no rent is charged. Over 93 per cent of the migrant pupils’ population are provided with various kinds of accommodation. The problem however is with the quality and capacity of the accommodation. When the current size of almajirai is related to existing house designated for them, it becomes obvious that the migrant pupils face acute shortage of accommodation. Thus,as many as between twenty and twenty-five pupils would sleep in a 14ft x 12ft room.
For the majority of the migrant pupils (54.72%), door entrance (zaure) was only available sleeping place, while 21.62 percent slept in the same classroom where they took their lesson. Uncompleted buildings housed 3.47 percent, leaving 6.57 per cent completely exposed to the harsh weather. Only those almajirai accommodated in the neighbourhood (11.71%) and those sheltered by their relations in the town (1.91%) were generally unaffected by the acute shortage of accommodation.
Not only were children living in an over-crowed environment, but the quality and hygienic condition of those houses left much to be desired. Most of the buildings were made of stones covered with mud and many of them are left in a state of utter disrepair. Added to that, most rooms lack inner floor plaster, roofing ceilings, adequate ventilation and basic amenities such as toilets, bathrooms and tap water.
2.5 Classroom Accommodation The problem of class room accommodation was even more visible in all the schools visited. Pupils’ sleeping rooms in all cases also doubled as their classrooms. Indeed, more space was required for the lesson sessions since in most of the schools the resident children also take their lesions in the same school with the migrant pupils. As a result of this, over 42 percent of the pupils reported that they took their lessons in the open space. If we take into account the fact that seasonal Qur’anic migration took place mostly during the harmatan season, a season characterized by sandy winds from the Sahara desert and chilly nights and mornings, this could have a devastating effect on the health of the children who were, on the whole, poorly clothed and poorly nourished.
Partly because the living conditions were no more comfortable than in the village, and partly because they considered their objective circumstances as a concomitant aspect of religious devotion, the migrant pupils did not perceive their living environment as degrading and truly appalling. So, when asked, if given the choice, whether they would prefer to remain and study in their village/town of origin during the next season, 86.62 percent were not in favour of the suggestion.
2.6 Feeding and Welfare Once in the city, the children have to fend for themselves. Their parents do not make any provision for their feeding, medical expenses and other incidentals. They do not see anything wrong with that attitude. They reason that the host community should shoulder that responsibility fi sabil-Allah (meaning, for the pleasure of Allah). 2.27 percent of the pupils, mostly from the urban and semi-urban areas, said that their feeding was taken care of by their parents through their resident malams. Another 1.91 percent said that they were fed by their relations resident in the city. The entire remaining 95.82 percent reported that they were solely responsible for their own feeding.
For this reason, the school time-table was planned in such a way that it would allow the pupils to go and search for their means of sustenance. Between lessons the boys would go round the city with their bowls, street-by-street, compound-by compound, begging for food and money to keep body and soul in together. This was what characterized the non-school activities of 77.06 percent of the migrant pupils. Another 12.90 percent of them were engaged in household chores in lieu of which they got food and, sometimes, even accommodation. Only 10.04 percent of the boys depended on their personal productivity to maintain themselves.
The migrant pupils have developed a sense of esprit de corps. Averages of about seven boys moves about together and are always ready to assist a member in trouble. In this way, those coming to the city for the first time get properly orientated. Whatever food they get is brought back to school and eaten together, a security against starvation of any pupil that may not get any food on a particular day.
2.7 Almajirai and Urban Household Economy It is one of the assumptions of this paper that almajirci persists to date because it is partly functionally related to the needs and requirements of the institution of purdah in urban Hausa- Fulani Muslim communities. There are very few socio-economic activities open to secluded women which do not require the assistance of children. While some husbands help with shopping and see that their households are provided with all the necessary provisions such as fire-wood, meat, and so on, many simply give their wife(-ves) money for all purchases. As certain purchases inevitably require a trip to one of the markets which might be several kilometres away from their homes, the secluded women rely on the children for the shopping.
One of the daily tasks of many children in the cities is to carry goods and messages, take food for grinding, take out refuse and, in those houses without taps, carry water into the houses. In fact, even those number of economic activities affordable to women in purdah -such as tailoring, hair plaiting, embroidering men’s caps, food for sale, or trading from within the house-require assistance of the children for purchasing materials, delivering goods and selling the final products.
But the children are now busy, almost full-time, with formal education, thus depriving the women of their presence. With the reduction of Muslim cultural resistance to Western education and the acceptance of the Universal Primary Education (UPE) scheme in 1976, most of the children in urban areas have to be in school between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m., and they study at makarantar allo and Islamiyyah schools between 3:00 p.m and 6:00 p.m The consequences is that the burden of household tasks performed by them has to be passed on to certain categories of household helps. And many families found it convenient to engage the services of almajirai.
In most parts of Northern Nigeria, the almajirai provided a source of very cheap domestic labour as most were ready to accept anything offered to them. With almajirai around, not many families need to employ household help, as many of former get just accommodation and board in lieu of the chores and errands they perform. So much was the reliance of certain families on the labour of almajirai that, according to some migrant malams, they sent gifts and pleasantries to them when they left enticing them to come back on time.
2.8 Begging and Almajirci One of the most serious charges levelled against almajiranci was that it subjected its clients to a condition of beggary. The Kano State Committee on Almajirai aptly captured this mood when it stated that:
The agony of a five to ten-year old child having to live barely on his own with virtually on visible means of support for his livelihood other than the little sadaqah (charity) he gets from Samaritans is a real one (Kano State, 1988:8).
Indeed, most malams assumed that bara (begging) was an integral component of almajiranci. Some of them even emphasized that without bara the education received would not be blessed. Indeed , not only were the parents aware of the fact that their wards would have to beg in order to eat, but many even legitimated the act as a functional input which was helpful in that process. Their arguments were largely similar: the child must be detached from the comfort of his home and taste some form of material deprivation if he is to take Qur’anic study seriously. In fact, some parents reported that they personally bought the food bowls for their wards in readiness for bara the moment they reached the city.
The host community itself was partly guilty of encouraging bara by almajirai. If the parents of the migrant pupils knew that nobody would give their wards anything when they begged, they would definitely not dispatch them to the city unless they could make adequate arrangement for their welfare. But on the contrary, many people in Sokoto have made it a point of spiritual duty, in keeping with the Islamic norms of charity, to give out something to beggars on a daily basis. In fact, some households were reputed to prepare sufficient food to distribute to the almajirai. Others at least ensured that their left-over were given to them the moment they were heard outside residences chanting for surplus food. The migrant malams themselves do not go about begging for food or money, but each of those items was freely and regularly donated to them as sadaqah for the up-keep of their families.
Clearly the religious and cultural values of the area have played a very crucial role in the support and encouragement of almajiranci.
2.9 Economic Basis of AlmajirciThe issue of almajirci in Hausa society is much more complex and intricate than many people are ready to appreciate. To start with, conceptual distinction should be made between almajirci and karatun allo, or Qur’anic schooling. The two are doubtlessly related since almajirci is an off-shoot of Qur’anic school system, but it is not in its own right the same thing with the latter and the two are therefore hardly inter-changeable. It is possible to have a Qur’anic school without almajirci as is usually the case in most makarantun allo in both rural and urban centres of Hausa society. Indeed, there exist no logical or rational link between child-begging or labour and Islamic education. After all, Muslim children in other parts of the world, and indeed in other parts of Nigeria, receive Islamic education with a sense of dignity and without having to beg. Clearly, this is not a purely educational problem and therefore, no amount of reform or control or Qur’anic schools can resolve it.
Let us first consider the timing of almajirci. There are two specific periods in which almajirai flood the cities: kadar raba (removal of the dew) and ci-rani (dry season movements). Kadar raba is the short rainy reason migration which takes place between the harvest of millet in August and that of guinea-corn in October. This is the period when there is practically no work on the farm. Ci-rani takes place during the dry season which is the most difficult period for the peasants. The farm work is generally completed and there is virtually nothing to do.
Indeed, the twentieth century developments have transformed almajiranci phenomenon itself from an educational to a political economy category (Indabawa, 1992). So when any policy seeks to reform the almajiranci system, the chances are that the problems will be left unidentified and unsolved. Similarly, controlling the movements and registration of pupils is in itself diversionary and amounts to a cover-up of the real problem behind the problems (Indabawa, 1992:78). The result of a study conducted in Sokoto (Khalid, 1997) has indicated that foremost among the determinants of the existence and persistence of almajirci in Hausa society is the economic factor. The vast majority of the migrant children were from rural communities and rural communities in Northern Nigeria as well as other parts of Hausaland are characterized by mass poverty, virtual absence of non-agricultural economic activities and general neglect in terms of provision of infrastructural facilities and other indices of socio-economic development. The pupils’ parents were mainly low-income farmers whose annual crop production was far below the requirement of their domestic consumption and expenditure. It was also understood that due to the near-total dependence of farmers on rain-fed agriculture and a corresponding absence of non-agricultural productive activities, most able-bodied men undertook dry-season circulation. Thus, the timing of almajirci to coincide with the long dry-season makes economic sense. Not only to the children remain idle and unproductive during this period, but they also sponge on available and already insufficient resources.
2.11 A Source of Cheap Labour One of the major conclusions that could be drawn from this research is that seasonal migration of Qur’anic school pupils thrived because the almajirai were positively integrated into the urban economy as a source of cheap labour. And since nearly 85 percent of the almajirai were boys below the age of sixteen who have to fend for themselves, it could be stated that the institution of almajirci is guilty of subjecting its clients to child labour/abuse.
Child labour, it needs to be clearly stated, may be exploitative and socially approvable. In the second category, child’s labour becomes part of the child socialization process. After all, traditionally, child-rearing customs in Hausa-Fulani society prescribe that the child should be assigned some domestic work or activity commensurate with the age, sex and physical ability. Such work/activities serve to provide the child with the necessary skills and training required for future adult roles. Psychologically, “they help to provide the child with a sense of personal worth, pride and accomplishment” (Obilkeze, 1985:21). On the other hand, exploitative and abusive child labour, as Rogers and Standing (1981) have pointed out, occurs when a child is made to engage, on a regular basis, in productive or income yielding activities for which the primary beneficiaries are persons other than themselves.
The data in our research has provided ample evidence on the magnitude and pervasive forms of exploitation and abusive child labour. Every member of the host community in our sample has reported that he has at one time or the other made use of the migrant pupils’ labour. As for the secluded urban women, whose children go to western-type school in the day, their dependence on almajirai was considerable. Above all, the pupils were subjected to what literally amounts to “forced labour” in which the benefits accrue to the malam alone (Table 6.18). Indeed, most migrant malams depend on this as a regular source of earning. Generally, almajirci serves as a very cheap source of labour for the host urban community and the almajirai, thus, constitute an economic category.
Since the phenomenon of child labour and exploitation is a historical one, we can conclude that child labour by almajirai in the twentieth century is a function of a dependent neo-colonial capitalist economy. It has already been argued that seasonal migration of children and youth from rural to urban areas was never part of the feature of Islamic education in the pre-colonial Hausa society. The existence and perpetuation of almajirci could therefore be explained by the logic of capital the need for cheap labour, rural proletarianization and increasing poverty which are the direct result of capitalist development policies.
3.0 WIDER SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS OF ALMAJIRCI 3.1 Economic Implication The results of this study have indicated that foremost among the determinants of the existence and persistence of almajirci in Hausa society is the economic factor. The vast majority of the migrant children were from rural communities, and rural communities in Sokoto state as well as other part of Hausaland are characterized by mass poverty, virtual absence of non-agricultural economic activities and general neglect in terms of provision of infrastructural facilities and other indices of socio-economic development. The pupils’ parents were mainly low-income farmers whose annual crop production was far below the requirements of their domestic consumption and expenditure. It was also understood that due to the near-total dependence of farmers on rain-fed agriculture and a corresponding absence of non –agricultural productive activities, most able-bodied men undertook dry-season circulation. Thus, the timing of almajirci to coincide with the long dry-season makes economic sense. Not only do the children remain idle and unproductive during this period, but they also sponge on available and already insufficient resources.
3.2 Educational Implications There is ample evidence from the present study which suggest that the recruiting and gate-keeping mechanisms of the Western-type schools system has operated in favour of the minority but highly influential urban class, who are most likely to fit in with the values and requirements of modern schools. The system kept the gate shut against the majority but powerless rural class who are prone to traditionalism and resistance to change which in effect made them heavily under-represented in these schools. The quantitative differences in education are reinforced by the tendency of children to drop at each stage. The socio-economic implications of this educational process are grave, varied and far reaching. The rural majorities who have not attended school have neither the skills nor the certificates of the others. They are unable to compete so successfully in the labour market, and this means that in a situation in which there are differences of income between those who are employed and those who work in subsistence agriculture or in the informal urban sector, they suffer a disadvantage from the beginning. Beyond the economic distinction between the schooled urbanites and the non-schooled ruralites there would arise also the physical and infrastructural imbalance between the urban and rural areas. This is so because since the rural classes are less-educated they will be under-represented in politics, bureaucracy and policy-making.
As the Western-type school keeps its gate shut against the rural folk, the makarantar allo threw its own wide open to them. The makarantar allo is manifestly continuous with their cultural and religious tradition and at the same time in harmony with their dominant economic activity. There is no doubt about the fact that the traditional religious schools which breed the almajirai produce highly knowledge-able Northern Hausa-Fulani Muslims. However, given the geo-political configuration of the modern Nigeria, whatever educational system is adopted by the community should be capable of producing not only a Hausa-Fulani Muslim but a full Nigerian citizen and, clearly, the traditional system cannot do this on its own.
If the nation, and Hausa-Fulani Muslim society too, is to develop, the skills and techniques required for organizing and administering a modern state must be acquired. In the past, Muslims possessed these assets through the traditional Qur’anic educational system, but with the advent of colonialism, things have changed and the historical process cannot be reversed. Rather than facilitating a free and harmonious interaction between the Western and Islamic education for the mutual benefit of both systems, the colonialists placed an iron curtain between them. In effect, the former denoted all modern branches of knowledge, while the latter was restricted to Islamic religious knowledge only; one was regarded as progressive and the other as retrogressive. ‘’The Western-type was associated with all the scientific and technological achievements of the modern times, while the other was harnessed together with retardation, backwardness and underdevelopment’’ (Galadanci, 1993:103). Hence, any attempt at tackling the phenomenon of almajirci must necessarily remove the artificial barrier between the two systems. Unless we do that, the cultural resistance to Western education will continue and the makarantun allo which held sway in the rural areas will continue with their function of unlimited supply of almajirai to the urban towns.
3.3 Religious and Cultural Implications No doubt, the economic and education variables stand out prominently as the major factors that create that created and perpetuated the contemporary phenomenon of almajiranci. However, this research has also clearly demonstrated that the economic and educational variables were themselves influenced and shaped by religious values and societal norms and customs.
For instance, if the movement of the migrant malams and their pupils from rural to urban areas are explainable in terms of Todaro’s (1969) “push” and “pull” factors, the behaviour of the host community which provided them with free shelter, feeding and, in the event of ill-health, free medication, can only be explained in terms of those religious and cultural values which encourage hospitality towards those on “sacred mission” and spending surplus resources on the needy and the less-privileged.
The almajirai may be a source of cheap labour for anybody that patronizes them, and the secluded urban woman may derive benefit from their services, but the average wealthy man who built a school compound to accommodate the migrant pupils or the ordinary man who donates part of his residential house for similar purpose, along with he who gave them regular or occasional sadaqa (charity) in the form of money, clothing and left over food, did it out of purely religious consideration. This attitude conforms to what Lubeck (1986:274) describes as “the ethics and norms of status-honour” among the privileged members of the Muslim community which necessitated the Qur’anic students receive alms in the form of food and shelter. In addition, given the reduction in peasant grain consumption which the seasonal migration of Quranic School pupils entailed, the institution of almajirci was actually a form of redistribution of wealth from the more affluent urban dwellers to the sons of farmers under the norms of Islamic charity. Indeed, I reliably gathered that from about the age of 18 most of the pupils shun away from Sokoto and proceed to the economically more prosperous eastern towns of Gusau, Zaria and Kano. Although, here too, they divide their time between Islamic learning (karatu) and manual labour (bida) they considered themselves first and foremost as ‘yan ci-rani to confirm the assertion that, thanks to the nineteenth century jihad led by Usmanu Danfodiyo, Sokoto is essentially a centre of religion and Islamic scholarship rather than of commerce and industry. Like any traditional society, religion has pervaded every sphere of life that it remained the decisive reference point for all social practices. The influence of ulema (religious clergy) is overwhelming. They are the dominant social critics and opinion moulders. Any government that did not secure their allegiance and loyalty, or any official programme that was not sectioned and endorsed by them, is doomed to failure.
Previous attempt by the Sokoto state government to enforce the 1980 edict on almajiranci entitled “The control of juveniles Accompanying Koranic Mallams Adoptive Rules “was thwarted by a popular opposition against it spearheaded by a section of local malams who accused the government of trying to undermine Islamic education. Perhaps it was this experience that made the government to be reluctant to promulgate new laws prohibiting the movement of almajirai as recommended by the 1986 committee on Migrant Qur’anic Teachers and children. Rather, it stated rather diplomatically:-
The adequate arrangement being “good shelter, provision of good and adequate food, provision of clothes and taking good care of their health” (Sokoto State, ibid). The government was simply unwilling to risk the pious protests and devastating criticisms that greeted the previous edict, for it knows very well that neither the migrant malams nor the impoverished rural parents could meet those requirements.
This favourable religious environment, more than any other considerations, w magnetized the migrant malams and their pupils to Sokoto. Moreover, if the host community did not guarantee free food and shelter, scarcely any parent will allow his under-aged ward to leave his village environment in the name of Qur’anic education.
Therefore, since the belief system and societal norms are partly accountable for the existence of almajirci, one of the most important conditions for its eradication is a profound and far-reaching change in the peoples’ values and attitude towards the phenomenon. Of course, it is known that attitudinal change is the most difficult aspect of social change, especially when it involved practices that are embedded in religion and many centuries old. However, it is encouraging to realize that other countries in North Africa and the Middle East who happened to find themselves in similar circumstances have attempted it and achieved a remarkable success.
The contemporary Muslims scholars need to take yet another look at their stance vis-à-vis the reform and modernization of traditional Islamic education. They should be able to distinguish between the principle and tool as far as education in Islam is concerned. The principle is that every Muslim child must have a comprehensive education. This is an absolute, rather immutable principle. The tool for achieving this objective is however a different matter. The present makarantar allo system and its almajiranci sub-system are many centuries old, with hardly any modification or updating. Colonialism and capitalism have altered the social, economic and political landscape of this country, and because it has failed to respond positively to these historical developments, the system remained ossified in the past and hardly relevant for purposes other than spiritual. The Hausa Muslims of this generation, let alone those of the coming generations, are not bound by the old method and system. They must devise new techniques, new methods and new tools of imparting knowledge and skills to meet the requirements of a new and rapidly changing social order.
However, as the religious scholars rest on their oars and fail to address the ever-emerging new issues, the society in its dynamism will proceed without them. And as the society progresses without scholars it naturally fails to come to grips with its problems, and the scholars, having been left behind, and unable to cope with societal dynamics, continue to be irrelevant and when they attempt to address the society they often sound ridiculous.
So, as we approach the end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first century, the Hausa-Fulani society cannot effort to live in the nineteenth century, not any more. Once there is the political will to tackle the problems of almajiranci, government can bank on the co-operation a number of forward looking Muslim organizations and the emerging but progressive section of the ulema who felt genuinely concerned about the future of these Muslim children. This means with additional support of other major agents of social change such as the electronic media organs, traditional rulers, community and youths organizations, the government could change the attitudes and perceptions of the people in relation to traditional system of Islamic education in general and the phenomenon of almajiranci in particular.
4.0 STATE’S RESPONSE TO ALMAJIRCI The first official attempt to put a halt on the practice of migrant Qur’anic schooling system was started by Kano Native Authority as far back as 1959 when it warned parents against allowing their children to roam the streets begging in the name of Islamic scholarship. Qur’anic school teachers were specifically warned against taking their pupils to other towns without the approval of the village or district head of the targeted town. The warning did not yield any fruitful result and, in fact some malams waged a campaign against the local authority, accusing it of ‘’trying to undermine Islam’’ (Abba, 1983). Since then, it was only after the June 1980 Maitatsine uprising in Kano that some state governments in the North began to express their concern about the almajirci phenomenon. Starting with a programme of clearing beggars from the streets, the Kano State government enacted an Edict, tagged ‘’The Qur’anic Schools Registration Edict ’’ in 1980 which was subsequently amended in 1988 to read, ‘’Qur’anic Schools (Registration and Movement)’’.
Also in July 1980, the Sokoto State government signed into law an edict regulating the movement of almajirai entitled: ‘’The Control of Juveniles Accompanying Qur’anic Mallams Adoptive Rules’’. Six years later, the government decided to move away from the legalistic approach to the phenomenon of almajirci and sought for a more practical solution to a problem that was bordering on social crisis. Consequently, the state government appointed a Committee on Control of Migrant Qur’anic Teachers and Children on March 5, 1986. The reason for setting up this committee, according to the state government, was to enable the government to determine the needs of these children and provide such needs to settle the children in western education in their home villages. The terms of reference given to the committee were as follows:-
i. Determine the locations and number of school and number of children in each ii. Determine the home towns and villages of the children iii. Determine the living condition of these children iv. Suggest the best way to transport the affected children to their villages of origin. v. Recommend the best way to ensure that parents uphold their responsibility of looking after their children vi. Make any other suggestions or recommendation aimed at total success in the exercise.
The committee went into action immediately. It concluded and submitted its report three months later. Two years later, the Kano State Government decided to revisit the problem of almajiranci with a view to nipping it in the bud once and for all. On May 24, 1988, the government inaugurated a 10-man Committee on Almajirai comprising leading ulama (Muslim scholars), professionals and other representatives of diverse interest in the social setting of Kano State. The terms of reference for the committee were as follows:
i) To determine the best ways the almajiranci system can be integrated with the Western educational system for mutual benefits;
ii) To draw out modalities for the recognition of the almajiranci system; iii) To suggest ways to improve the curricula of the almajiranci system iv) To study the existing laws on the movement of almajirai and make appropriate recommendations for enforcement; v) To assess the problem of begging by almajirai and recommend how best to eradicate it; vi) To assess the degree of exposure to which the almajiranci system as it stands subjects pupils to the attendant social ills. vii) To make any other recommendation the committee may consider relevant to its assignment.
Clearly, both the Sokoto and Kano State governments have identified almajiranci as a social problem which requires official intervention and control if not totally eradicated. Going by the terms of reference of their respective committees, none of the State government demonstrated proper grasp of the problem in question. Nor was there any attempt to locate the causes of almajiranci phenomenon either in the social, economic, political, religious or cultural fabric of the society. On the contrary, the Sokoto State Government was simply anxious to repatriate the migrant pupils back to their home villages. Thus item no.4 in the terms of reference was to “suggest the best way to transport the affected children to their villages of origin”, and item No.7 was “to determine the approximate costs of the logistics’’. In a tone suggesting that the parents were solely responsible for the problems of almajirci, the government further directed the committee to “recommend the best way to ensure that parents uphold their responsibility of looking after their children at home”. Once it enumerated the schools of the affected children and identified their home villages (items 1, 2, and 3 above), nothing more is expected from the committee other than “to make any other suggestions or recommendations aimed at total success in their exercise” (Sokoto State, 1986).
The Kano State Government on the other hand, perceived almajirci as essentially an educational problem to be tackled by some educational reforms. In accepting the report of its Committee, the government has clearly stated that its main intention is “to accord recognition and evolve a systematic means of control over Qur’anic schools to regulate the curricula, intake and movement of students” (Kano state, 1988:1).
Report of the CommitteesThe two Committees made a number of observations and recommendations based on their respective terms of reference. With regard to the integration of Qur’anic education with Western education, the Kano State committee observed that most Qur’anic scholars are hesitant to accept the idea. The committee could, therefore, not recommend anything concrete other than suggesting that “the government should wage a large campaign to educate the public on the importance of both Qur’anic and Western education, pointing to the compatibility of the two” (Kano State 1982:1). As for the recognition of almajirci system, it was recommended that the government should establish at least one State-funded Qur’anic Model School in each Local Government Area so that they would serve as demonstration institutions “to show the people the possibility of acquiring thorough knowledge of the Quran in an organized modern structure: (Kano State, 1988:2). A similar recommendation was made by the Sokoto State committee claiming that the measure will “curtail rampant migration of school children’’ (Sokoto State, 1986:4). Recommendations were also made for improving the curricular and for the dissemination of new methods of teaching to the Qur’anic teachers.
With regard to the legal provision on almajiranci, the Kano State committee observed that the legislation contained in the 1985 edict on the movement of almajirai had not been widely enforced. A great number of the teachers were not even aware of it. It, therefore, recommended that the edict should be written in ajami script and the written copies should be widely circulated so that each registered school is provided with a copy. In addition, the committee recommended that the said edict should be amended to contain a specific injunction restraining the movement of children for ci-rani. The government accepted the recommendation and amended the edict as follows:
(a) Almajirai below the age of twelve are banned from moving anywhere outside their domains. (b) Those between the ages of 12-17 may move, in accordance with the provision of the Edict, provided the movement is not to the designated 29 urban centres (Kano State, 1988:6).
In Sokoto State where no previous legislation is available, their committee recommended that the government should ‘enact an edict to restrict the movement of Migrant Qur’anic teachers and school children ‘(Sokoto State, 1986:11). The government readily accept the recommendation and directed the Ministry of Justice to draft an edict in relation to the issue. The edict had since been signed into law.
Coming to the issue of begging by almajirai, the Kano State committee observed that a number of Qur’anic scholars seem to think that begging is an integral part of their profession, and legitimize the practice from religious view-point. But the committee countered that begging has never been part of Islamic education. Its practice, they argued, seems notably a phenomenon of Hausaland which is largely necessitated by not only religious but socio-economic factors. They therefore recommended, among other things, that
The government should make a multi-faceted approach to the problem of begging by first of all attacking it from its socio- economic roots. There would be no lasting solutions to this problem unless an improvement is made in the economic life of our rural population. Viable rural development policy would have a determinative impact in this regard. (Kano State, 1988:9)
One of the major drawbacks of official policy towards almajirci is its tendency to equate the phenomenon with Qur’anic schooling in all respects. This is essentially what explains the general emphasis on “reform” of the system via “improvement” of the curricula and/or “integration” with the Western educational system. But, as it has been demonstrated earlier, it is possible to have Qur’anic schools without the attendant problem of almajiranci. According to Abba (1983), “a number of parents…in Kano city had never placed their children with itinerant mallams or forced them to beg for arms, and yet these children had grown up to become learned scholars” (p.197).
Indeed, the twentieth century developments have transformed almajirci phenomenon itself from an educational to a political economy category (Indabawa, 1992). So when any policy seeks to reform the almajirci system by reference to reforming the Qur’anic schooling system, the chances are that the problems will be left unidentified and unresolved. Similarly, controlling the movements and registration of pupils are in themselves “diversionary and amount to a cover-up of the real problem behind the problems” (Indabawa, 1992:78).
Indications that solution to the problems of almajiranci were far from being found could be seen from the fact that the much concerned Sokoto State Government had to inaugurate yet another “Committee to look into the issue of Almajiranci in Sokoto state” on 20th January, 1997 with the following terms of reference:-
(a) To study the phenomenon of almajiranci including various reports written on the issue in the past; and (b) To advise the Government on how best to tackle the problem.
Three months later, i.e., in April 1997, the Committee submitted its 54-pgae report. Ironically, instead of concentrating on the study of “the phenomenon of almajirai:, they exhausted most of their energy on issues that did not constitute part of their terms of reference, namely, the rehabilitation of beggar destitutes in the state. The only observation they could make on almajirci was that it was caused by “the government neglect of Islamic education system” (Sokoto State, 1997-52). Consequently, they recommended the incorporation of Islamic educational system in the New National Policy on Education (p.53).
However, their subsequent recommendations indicated that by ‘incorporation’ they meant adequate funding of the traditional Islamic education system rather than harmonizing it with its modern counterpart. This seems to be clear when they said:
(a) Government should adequately fund Islamiyyah and Qur’anic schools as done with Primary and Secondary schools; (b) Local Government should build and equip a Qur’anic school in every village with 500 tax paying adults; (c) (State) Government should build and equip Islamiyyah schools in every community with over 1,000 paying adults. (d) Local Governments should pay salaries of Qur’anic school teachers while State Government pays Islamiyyah teachers (Sokoto State, 1997:53-54). 5.0 SOLVING THE PROBLEMS OF ALMAJIRCIRecent attempts to provide solutions to the problems of almajirci, as discussed above, tended to be too legalistic. Of course, there is nothing wrong in applying legal framework to sanitize a social practice that was getting chaotic. This should however come only after the fundamental problems relating to rural poverty, education, religion and culture are properly addressed.
A careful perusal of the edicts promulgated by the Sokoto State Government in 1980, and Kano state government in 1986 will reveal that both did not purport to out rightly ban the movement of almajirai as such, but rather to regulate, control and restrict the movements. For example, both edicts require that the migrant malam and his school should be duly registered in his local government of origin. He needs to obtain a valid transfer certificate and the necessary permit granted under the edict before he could move with his pupils an inch outside his domicile. In addition, whenever a migrant malam arrives at his destination, he must immediately present the relevant documents to the local government council through the village head of the locality for endorsement. In order to minimize the dehumanizing act of begging by the almajirai, the Kano state Edict (CAP. 74) specifically stipulated that:-
No permit shall be issued in respect of any student who is below the age of twelve years out of the locality in the local government council in which his parent or guardian reside.In addition, every village head must ensure that each parent or guardian has given some financial assistance to the Koranic mallam which will help in the maintenance of his son or ward Accordingly, in keeping with the universal legal tradition, the official transfer certificate and permit are revocable if a local government is satisfied that the migrant malam has failed to comply with any of the provisions of the edicts or “it is in the public interest to do so” ( Kano State, op-cit ) The laws themselves are relevant and comprehensive and are potentially capable of providing legal support to the socio-economic measures discussed above. However, in the light of the findings of this research the edicts need to undergo fundamental amendments and refinements as follows:-
1. The age limit for participation in almajiranci networks should be raised from 12 to 16. This provision will technically ban over 80 percent of the seasonal movement and at the same time ensure that only those not of school age and who can fend for themselves without begging are allowed to leave their villages.
2. Since almajirci took the form of rural-urban migration, migrant malams should be not granted permission for movement to any designated urban area including local government headquarters
Finally, even though the problems of almajirci affected mostly states in Northern Nigeria, the law should be adopted and enforced by all the states of the federation. This is necessary because if it is left to individuals states to enact the law, the migrant malams could take their pupils to the states where the law has not been promulgated. Mohammed (1991) recalled that in the 1950s when Katsina Native authority passed a bye-law prohibiting malams from taking children out their towns and villages. The malams avoided Katsina and took their pupils to Kano and Sokoto provinces thus rendering the law useless. Also, in 1980 when the Sokoto State government enacted and enforced the relevant edict restricting the movement of almajirai, the malams avoided Sokoto and took their pupils to Katsina, Kaduna, Niger and even Kwara and Oyo in the south.
Conclusion The position of this paper is that the contemporary almajirci which involve mass movement of school–age Qur’anic school pupils to urban areas was never part of the features of Islamic education in Hausaland before the advent of colonialism.
While the religious beliefs and local customs played a prominent role in the promotion and legitimating of the practice, the phenomenon of almajirci is ultimately a function of perennial rural poverty brought about by capitalist development processes and closely linked to the pace of urbanization and lopsided development accelerated by oil wealth and the widespread expansion of primary education in the country.
Any effort aimed at tackling the problems of almajiranci that does not address the fundamental problems of rural sector which, “despite pious protestations of successive governments since independence”, according to Abdulllahi (1995:6), “has remained a depressed sector steeped in poverty and the near absence of social services”, is doomed to failure. In other words, it is only when a direct and missive assault on rural poverty is given priority that the re-orientation of people’s belief and attitude, state intervention via educational reforms and legal framework, could make meaning.
Given the role of government as a major agent of change by virtue of its geo-political configuration of the nation and the nature of its political economy which provided for the dominance of the state in socio-economic policies, educational and legal frameworks, it is the government that should spearhead these changes. How such government itself could come about should be the subject-matter of another paper.
From the foregoing discussion it is clear that any attempt aimed at tackling the phenomenon of almajiranci must first attack it from its socio-economic root. Therefore, any attempt aimed at tackling the phenomenon of almajirci must first attack it from its socio-economic roots.
However, it need to be pointed out that any effort at curing poverty would vary according to the nature and causes of poverty as well as the wealth at the nation’s disposal. So, since agriculture is the mainstay of the rural Hausa economy, efforts should be intensified towards improving the farmers’ productivity and, by extension, solving the problems of almajiranci.
The provision of rural roads, for instance, is very important in agricultural development, because it facilitates the evacuation of produce and constant link between the rural and urban communities thereby enhancing exchange of ideas and practices. Provision of electricity, portable water and health services will, in addition to making life easier and happier, boost the development of informal sector and attract agro-industrial firms to engage in backward integration. If these and many other rural development strategies are adopted and meticulously executed, income and productivity of the rural people will increase, and the tide of rural urban movements could be stemmed.
So long as mass rural poverty exists, and so long as improvement is not made in the economic life of the rural population, almajiranci will flourish, and the number of its clients will increase steadily relative to population growth and to the down-turn in rural economic fortunes.
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