HISTORY
OF ALMAJIRI EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
THE ORIGIN
The word Almajiri is derived from
the Arabic “Almuhajirun”, meaning an emigrant. It usually refers to a person
who migrates from the luxury of his home to other places or to a popular
teacher in the quest for Islamic knowledge. It is hinged on the Islamic concept
of migration which is widely practised especially when acquisition of knowledge
at home is either inconvenient or insufficient.
Imam Shafi’I is the greatest
proponent of migration for seeking knowledge which he also extended even to
business and a number of things. He likened it to a precious stone which he
said is nothing unless it is mined and transported away from its soil. He summarised
everything in two verses
:
:
“Emigrate from your home in quest of excellence, and
travel for in travel there are five benefits: relief from sorrow and earning a
livelihood, then knowledge, good manners and friendship with the famous“.
Shafi’i himself was born in Gaza. He
travelled almost the entire Middle East seeking for knowledge until he finally
settled in Egypt. Danfodio travelled to Niger to learn from Sheikh Jibril. The
malams of ilm in Zaria city still receive students from distant places like Mali,
Cameroun, Chad, Central Africa, etc.
During the pre-colonial era, the
Almajiri education system, originally called the Tsangaya was established under
the Kanem-Borno Empire, one of the oldest ruling empires in the world extending
from the frontiers of northern Nigeria across the Chadian region up to the
borders of Libya. It was established as an organized and comprehensive system
of education for learning Islamic principles, values, jurisprudence and
theology. It was a replica of Islamic learning centres in many Muslim countries
such as the madrasah in Pakistan, Malaysia, Egypt and Indonesia etc.
The system was funded by the state
treasury and the state zakka funds, and was under the control of the emirs of
the traditional government system that existed before the coming of the
British. Since Islam encourages charity to a welfarer and to a student of
learning, the community as well readily supported these Almajiri most of whom
came from faraway places to enroll in the Tsangaya schools. In return, the Almajiris
offered services such as laundry, cobbling, gardening, weaving, sewing e.t.c as
charity to the community that contributed to their well being; hence they gave
the society what the society gave to them.
The Amajiri system, though funded
was not over dependent on the state. The students were at liberty to acquire a
vocational and occupational skill in between their Islamic lessons and so were
involved in farming, fishing, well construction, masonry, production, trade,
tailoring, small businesses etc. Many of them were the farmers of the northern
Nigerian cotton and groundnut pyramids. They formed the majority of the traders
in the commercial city of Kano. They were the leather tanners and leather shoe
and bags makers in the old Sokoto Empire. The cap weavers and Taylors in Zaria
city were said to be Almajiris. Thus they formed the largest percentage of the
community workforce and made significant contribution to the economy of the
society before the introduction of white collar jobs. After colonialization,
they were recruited by the British as columbite and tin miners in Jos city
which was then under Bauchi before the creation of plateau state
The system also produced the judges,
clerks, teachers etc. and layed an elaborate system of administration in Northern
Nigeria. They provided the colonial administration with the needed staff. The
first set of colonial staff in Northern Nigeria was provided by the Almajiri
schools and this went on for years. In fact, the Almajiri system was a
civilizing agent second to none. Before they were gradually replaced, phased
out & indeed abandoned.
Almajiri teachers and their pupils
also freely provided their community with Islamic Education, in addition to the
development of Ajami i.e. reading and writing in Arabic alphabets. Prof Fafunwa
mentions that there were 6000 Almajiri schools in Northern Nigeria through
which writing came to the North first before any other region. Based on this
system, which is founded upon the teachings of Qur’an and Hadith, the then
Northern Nigeria was largely educated with a complete way of life, governance,
customs, traditional craft, trade and even the mode of dressing. The chronicles
of the travellers said that the northern part of the territory was well
organised, people were in walled cities, were literate and devout, the southern
part was characterized by wars, savagery, superstitious butchery akin to
Conrad’s observations in his ‘Heart of Darkness‘.
Apart from being responsible for the
literacy of hundreds of millions of our children over a span of ten centuries,
More importantly, the almajiri system is the only one today known in the Muslim
World that has retained the reproduction of the Qur’an in writing direct from
memory. Without looking at any copy, an alaramma studiously writes the entire
Qur’an portion by portion, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, beginning with
all its consonants, then he returns to add all its vowels, then its fullstops
and commas, dilations and nunnation, and so many little things that vary from
page to page. He does all these without a single mistake and despite the
abundant minute differences in many verses or portions that appear similar. The
counterparts of our alarammas in the Middle and the Far East, people like
famous calligrapher Usman Taha of Syria who reproduced the most widely
circulated Qur’an today, do so amidst luxury accorded by petrodollars. Yet,
they can only place a copy of the Qur’an and copy from it one word after
another, not from their memory. Nigerian alaramma who reproduces it direct from
memory may not even be sure of his next meal but he is never bothered since he
is already used to such hardship from his early days as a balla, kolo,
tittibiri or gardi. That is how every indigenous Qur’an we come across in
Kasuwar Kurmi or elsewhere in Nigeria is written.
THE FALL OF THE ALMAJIRI EDUCATION
SYSTEM
In 1904, the British invaded and
colonized the northern Nigeria territories and took control of the state
treasury. They killed and disposed those emirs who resisted the foreign rule,
while those who were subjugated lost control of their territories and accepted
their new roles as mere traditional rulers used only for the indirect rule. The
British also refused to recognize the Almajiri education system as an important
education system and deliberately abolished its state funding arguing that,
they were mere religious schools. Boko, meaning western education was
introduced and funded instead.
Circumstantially all the learned
people who were at the helm of affairs in pre colonial north fell in one swoop
and were considered illiterate or uneducated, (at least to the government), in
the new status quo, making them not only unemployed but unqualified to be
employed despite being able to read and write. Islamic scholars who were
revered professionally for controlling the moral fibers of the society
gradually became neglected. An imam who may be the source of arbitration to the
people of his community was relegated only to delivering sermon once a week at
the local Friday mosque. The same imam is considered not qualified enough to
have a say in government or sit in the chambers of state House of Assembly to
deliberate on the laws and constitution of the state because he was considered
uneducated and illiterate.
With loss of support from the
government and the helpless Emirs, the Almajiri system thus collapsed like a
pile of cards. The responsibility of the Almajiri was then taken over by the
local scholars who deemed it a moral and religious duty to educate these pupils
for the sake of Allah. Although there was scarcity of funds and overwhelming
number of pupils to cater for, the system continued to flourish with the
support of the immediate community and begging was still not a norm instead
they resorted to odd menial jobs to make ends meet.
Disregard for the Almajiri system in
preference for western education ignited animosity and antagonism from the
Mallams, the pupils and the society at large. The case scenario is aworsen by
the belief that the western education (BOKO) was of Christian-European origin and
therefore anti-Islamic. It bred the fear that a child with western belief will
eventually lose his Islamic identity and embrace vices that negates the values
and principles of Islam such as alcoholism, fornication, semi naked dressing,
partying, abandoning the prayer, fasting, zakka etc. This predicament is often
reflected in the grievances vented out at those attending the western schools
as echoed in a popular Almajiri song “Dan makaranta bokoko, ba karatu, ba
sallah, sai yawan zagin mallam” meaning “oh students of western
education, you do not learn the Quran and you do not pray, except to be mocking
the mallam.”
With the increasing level of poverty
in the country, the care of the Almajiri became overwhelmingly burdensome for
the Mallams who were left with no choice but to send these little boys out to
beg from the good will of the society. To make end meet, some of these Mallams
began to impose on the Almajiri what is called “kudin sati”, a form of weekly
fees for the lessons he derived. They were reassured that to beg was better
than to steal.
These boys swam into the society
with no bearing moving from street to street, house to house, vehicle to
vehicle. They were everywhere….. Markets, car parks, restaurants, university
gates name it. They became a burden as well as nuisance to the society. They
sang, begged and prayed, appealing to the mercy and good will of the people.
It’s really sad when you see these Almajiris, hungry, malnourished, wounded;
rushing for flies’ infested leftover food, searching through trash can for
little morsels, just to stay alive. They consume all kinds of food, fresh or
stale. Their common food called” jagala” which is stored by an almajiri over a
number of days is a combination of locally made corn food (Tuwo), pasta and boiled
yam altogether in one bowl like a fresh vomit.
The roam about dirty, tattered, bare
feet, pale with flies pecking on their cracked lips and dry faces, which is
filled with rashes or ringworm. How can the Islam of these dirty boys be
complete when the Prophet (Muhammad) SAW clearly said “Purity is half of
faith“. They sleep on worn-out mat in uncompleted building. Goats may not
find the small rooms where the almajiri and 15 others sleep conducive as there
are no windows for cross-ventilation and the walls have given room to cracks
looking as if it will fall the next minute.
These victims of neglect were also
victims of exploit. Many give them a stipend or leftovers out of sympathy or
after exploiting them for menial jobs, others abhorred them, hold them with
contempt and even blamed them for their helplessness. It is common to hear many
scold them “go to school” or “get a job” or “go back to your
parent”. It is clear that the begging took away all iota of dignity
confirming the words of Rasulillah S.A.W who said “Begging is a distortion
that disfigures a person’s face” (Abu dawud 663)
Many eventually became traders,
drivers and so on. Those who could not make it are condemned to menial jobs,
since they have no skills at hand. They resort to wheelbarrow pushing, touting
and so on. The nomadic search for livelihood and the struggle to support the
Mallam take much of their time rather than engage in learning.
The fact that pupils of Almajiri
School go out begging to survive is not a necessary and intrinsic element of
the system as a lot of exceptions abound. However, the complete negligence of
the institutions by elites and successive governments that see themselves as
the heirs, custodians as well as defenders of values of colonialism and
colonialist institutions and legacies and who in the interest of their estate
so much impoverish the Almajiri system by not only depriving it of state
resources but by ensuring that the only ticket for meal and reward able
employment with the state is a certificate of alienation or westernization
[western education] obtainable through state established and funded schools,
forced the Almajiri, whose parents probably abhors their children being
westernised and alienated, to roam the street begging for crumbs to survive.
Though this system has produced
prominent Islamic scholars of northern extraction like Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi,
Late Abubakar Gumi, Jaa`far Adam and Kala Rawi, Goni Habib, an octogenarian,
who has produced over 300 Qur`an memorisers and run schools across various states
in northern Nigeria, says the Tsangaya system as it is presently run is a
corruption of the original. Hear him;
“Almajiris, during our time about 60 years ago did not beg
and were held in high esteem in northern Nigeria, houses in the neighbourhood
bring food in calabash every day, we help our teacher on the farm, gather
firewood from the bush which we use to read at night, assist his wife with
domestic chores for food in return and no pupil is taxed as the teacher gets
his reward from Allah.”
He laments that at his age of 86, he
sometimes feels like weeping because the present crop of Tsangaya students
lacks the spirit of scholarship like endurance, morals, discipline and their
intellectual capacity is low.
The National Council for the Welfare
of Destitute (NCWD) puts the current population of the Almajirai at about 7
million and research shows that 6 out of 10 of them never find the way back
home. Many are lost through street violence, ritual murder, while others
through disease and hunger. With these, 7 million potential Scholars, judges,
accountants, engineers, doctors etc. waste away.
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