Talibes Modern Day Slaves
Talibe is an Arabic term for disciple.
Throughout Senegal, children follow an old practice of begging for their religious guardians called Marabouts.
What tries to pass as a form of education is only a way of business for those exploiting children everyday.
What should be a school is in fact, sometimes, a place of torture.
Quranic schools known as Daaras are no more than fragile buildings where attrocities happen every single day to children between 5 and 15 years old, that are forced to spend more than 8 hours a day begging in the streets, for money, rice and sugar. The rest of their time is spent learning the Quran, while the marabout collects their daily earnings.
According to a Human Rights Watch report, the number of Talibes is increasing and are more than 30,000 boys subjected to forced begging in the Dakar region alone.
Parents often send their children to study the Quran because they simply can't afford their education, others just believe that a Daara is a good solution but in the other hand children trafficking plays a crucial part in today's numbers. Most of the Talibes are senegalese but the number of children from neighbooring countries like Guinea-Bissau has increased, becoming an important part of this phenomenon.
In 2005, Senegal adopted a law that prohibits forced begging and trafficking but the results have been disappointing so far. In the meantime, the abusers continue to exploit children without any type of concern of law being applied against them.
Talibes Modern Day Slaves was awarded at World Press Photo and POYi.
TALIBES MODERN DAY SLAVES
The largest module of the exhibition that shows the daily life of the Talibes in Senegal.
TALIBES MODERN DAY SLAVES - BLACKBOX 1
This blackbox allows the visitor to see the same photograph with different exposures in order to give the feeling of when we enter a dark place and our vision adapts and we begin to see better. This idea is present in the book Talibes Modern Day Slaves, in which the reader sees the photograph appearing as he passes the pages.
TALIBES MODERN DAY SLAVES - BLACKBOX 2
This blackbox allows the visitor to see the photograph that shows a group of runaway talibes, establishing a parallel with the other blackbox that shows a group of talibes sleeping inside a daara where they are imprisoned.
