Lost Boys
There are 10,000 talibes on the streets of Dakar, taken from their rural villages at a young age by a marabout, a Muslim religious leader with credibility elsewhere but in Senegal is using the ancient practice to exploit.
Talibes go barefoot onto the streets of Dakar to beg for their food and for money. If they do not bring a sufficient sum to the marabout at the end of the day they are beaten. They also are isolated in that they often can only speak their tribal language, of which there are 36 spoken in Senegal alone. Read more about them here.


Nice to see a blog from West Africa. And nice to see one that recognizes the talibes, too. I like your pictures and your writing and will link to you soon. Best wishes.
Benjamin Madison
2 Jan 09 at 6:55 pm
benjamin, your blog is a great source of information on street kids in west africa. i linked to it. thank you for all you do to spread recognition. let me know if i can help.
Kari
5 Jan 09 at 8:25 am