Talibe is an Arabic term for disciple. In Senegal, what was once a respectable education system has become criminal. What tries to pass as religious teaching today has become a business for exploiting children. Everyday, talibes, who range in age from 5 to 15 years old, beg on the streets for eight hours a day and return back to an overcrowded and squalid daara, rife with skin disease, breathing problems, stomach parasites and Malaria. Little education takes place and talibes are routinely subjected to physical abuse. Mario Cruz gained rare access to the dark and violent world of the daaras where children’s dreams are suffocated by fear.
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