“Save the #Talibés”: A State-Led Intervention to Remove Children from the Street in Dakar, Senegal

Begging for Knowledge in Senegal: Conflicting Understandings and Interests of the Dominant Anti-Trafficking Approach and Quranic Education

“…The funders of the NGOs "may be surprised to learn that not all taalibes want to be 'rescued' or to prosecute their instructors" (Lahti 2019, p. 130), and some consciously opt for Quran education rather than a formal one (Newman 2017). Furthermore, the anti-trafficking actors in Senegal are diverse in terms of intentions, influence, and understanding of the context (Lahti 2018(Lahti , 2019Reed 2018;Macleod 2023). Many of these rest on sensationalised narratives and demand dominant anti-trafficking interventions, such as criminal justice; others lean towards more alternative approaches, arguing for collaborative, context-based measures, adequate support, and focus on root causes (Bhagat 2022;Musto et al 2020).…”

“…After an impasse in implementing the 2005 ban on begging, President Malky Sall initiated the Removal of Children from the Street project, implemented in 2016-2018. Shona Macleod (2023) identified the use of competing discourses in explaining begging, which justified the dismissal of sanctions against traffickers. Macleod concludes that the project's implementation might have been "an example of the Senegalese state cunningly doing just enough to appease external pressures, without going so far as to anger religious leaders and their followers domestically".…”