The fate of the Talibés

NO. Omar has never been neglected by his parents. He has been given away in absolute trust and unshakeable confidence by his parents Rama and Abdoulah to his uncle in the big city. Their intention is for Omar to be educated and probably be in a position to help his brothers and sisters 500 km (five hundred kilometres) away from the capital in the years to come.

This however was never to be so. Betrayal, tragedy, lack of parental care and uncertainty await Omar in the big city. His Uncle's empty promises in the village was yet another deceptive drama which led to another victim of circumstance. Omar has been placed under the care of those who have no parental love for him or the many children like him who are now his only family.

Omar has become a " talibe" (a student) in the big city of Dakar. Working on the wide pavements in the big city, I saw them sitting in clusters of 4, 5 and 6. These "talibes" mostly boys between the ages of 7, 8 and 9 run recklessly across the streets harassing pedestrians
asking for alms persistently. Taking a cursory look at them, one sees without doubt abuse, poverty, neglect, malnutrition, hunger, dirt and filth. A picture of Robinson Crusoe comes to mind.

Running energetically towards me, I saw in his face a cheerful smile. But obviously this was just a fleeting glimpse of sheer joy in the midst of sheer poverty, humiliation, dirt and starvation. These "talibes" who are everywhere in the Senegambia region and in other countries in West Africa such as Mali, Guinea, Niger, are sent out to beg for alms regardless of their health conditions. The alms are mainly in the forms of food, clothing and money. Most of them prefer money.

This phenomenon has become a serious cause for concern. For it had made our cities the most beautiful places where the ugliest things happen. Over the past decade or so, a new and more dangerous and scary situation has come to confront the "talibe". Today there is ample evidence that Omar who has been taken away from his loving parents to be educated in the big city has been trafficked to the plantations in the Ivory Coast without the knowledge of his parents, where he labours inhumanely for wages that go into the pockets of his traffickers.
On the other hand some of his colleagues who were his closest associates and "family" have also been trafficked far away to Gabon and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

According to article 29 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (which most West African governments have signed and ratified without reservation) State Parties to the present charter shall take appropriate measures to prevent:

a. The abduction, the sale of, or traffic in children for any purpose or any form by any person including parents or legal guardians of the child.

b. The use of children in all forms of begging.

However, one could say that our governments have not taken appropriate measures to crack down on the syndicates and barons of child trafficking. Most often people in their naivety have blamed this phenomenon on poverty and have even implicated parents in certain instances as accomplices in this inhumane act. But perhaps a more critical analysis of this whole concept might reveal that the outstanding "associate" might be inadequate government legislations and lack of proper implementation of conventions and charters they have signed and ratified especially the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. (CRC)

As moralists and pious people, we might not need to be reminded that Child Rights are Human Rights, that is to say that Children's psychological, physical and emotional vulnerability
should be morally and legally recognized both by the State and parents at all cost.

Today as we sit and pray that tragedy may not unfold in the Ivory Coast, there are hundreds of children who have been trafficked to Ivory Coast and are working in plantations in Bouake and its surroundings, which today under the control of mutinous rebellious factions of the Ivorian Army. In the same vein there are also thousands of children who are presumed to be West Africans trafficked to Gabon at an early age and who are now at the verge of being repatriated to their countries of origin. This is sad but true.

As members of civil society whether we are working in the media, security forces or even if we are policy makers we must all put hands on deck to ensure that this intolerable menace is crushed once and for all.

Each generation must out of relative obscurity discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it. The future will have no pity for those men and women who possessing the exceptional privileges of being able to speak the words of truth to their oppressors have taken refuge in the attitude of passivity, of mute indifference and of cold complicity.

We should not stand aside and watch as the trafficking in children destroy the moral fabrics of our nation.