User:Shamsurabiu/sandbox

Almajiri, a common name for a mendicant in Nigeria especially who is from the North.

Mendicants eating food they begged for from houses.

Etymology

The Hausa term Almajiri is derived from the Arabic word ‎المهاجر‎ (Almuhaajir) which literally means 'a male migrant'. This word appears in a number of chapters of the Holy Quran with slight inflections denoting plurality, subject noun, or object noun.

When speaking English, the word 'almajiri' can take suffix of an 's' to make plural form. It can also be used as an adjective, as in Almajiri school, or almajiri foundation. However, Hausa speaking people use appropriate native inflections for almajiri.

Word Usage

• Almajiri =

  a male mendicant. 

• Almajira =

   a female mendicant.

• Almajirai

the plural of almajiri and is gender neutral.

• Almajirci (or almajiranci)

mendicancy.

Almajirai and Beggars

1. Almajiri: a mendicant who many dictionaries define as a 'beggar with religious affiliation'. Almajiri is known to be a 'Qur'anic student' who mostly lives away from his family under the custody of his teacher called 'malam or mallam' along with other almajirai. Though under his custody, malam does not feed his almajirai instead, some malams expect their students to bring food to his family. Hence, an almajiri has to beg for food to sustain his life. Almajiri mendicancy is not a lifetime business: it ends when the student graduates by either reciting the whole Holy Qur'an thoroughly or even committing it to memory. So almajirai are not like Buddhist monks who take vow of poverty.
2. Beggers: poor people who live by asking other people for food, money and clothes. They are different from almajiri in some obvious ways: They may engage in lifetime begging and they do not directly relate their business with any religion. Beggars are mostly physically challenged people such as the blind, cripple and deaf as well as the old aged and so is their reason for begging. Some people with acute diseases like V.V.F patients, engage in begging.
3. Maroka: Because of rampant pirasites in Northern Nigeria, many people tend to entreat and harass people with persistent request of money, clothes, or food. The assaulters vary seriously in the methods they use to beseech.

But the original and known maroka' are part of the tradition whereas they have title of ’Sarkin Roko.

Mendicants in religions

1. Muslim mendicants

Almajirai or similar Qur'anic pupils exist across West Africa with almost the same system of teaching and learning and problems. For example, in Senegal, millions of children who go to Quranic schools are called 'talibets'. From the Arabic word ‎طالب‎, the 'talibes' are 'students' who are subjected to hardship in the course of learning with poor learning environment. They beg to feed themselves and their teachers. However, this is attributed to the general economic challenges facing most of the families in the poor country.

1. Christian mendicants
2. Sikh mendicants

Public Opinions About Almajiri

Having more than 10 million children roaming Nigerian streets as almajirai, the issue becomes

1. Religious scholars
2. Human rights activists
3. Traditional rulers
4. The government

Almajiri in Hausaland

1. Because of punity
2. Myths About the benefits of 'mendicance'
3. Consequences of Almajiri:

|a. Graduation in Qur'anic school (makarantar allo) and becoming a teacher in a similar school.

|b. Engaging oneself in business in cities after graduation.

|c. Returning to home village after graduation.

|d. Dropping out before completion of the school.

Almajiri and Terrorism in Nigeria

With the history of crisis in the country and the North East in particular, some people accuse almajiri students of being the savages of religious crisis. This may not be unconnected to Mai Tatsine crisis.

1. Mai Tatsine violence: Mai Tatsine's motley followers who were his almajiris from various places had caused serious violence in Kano, Maiduguri, Yola, Kaduna, and Gombe states from late 1970s into the mid 1980s. The series of crashes between police and 'Yan Tatsine (followers of Mai Tatsine) led to the death of tens thousands of people including the leader himself. They studied Quran alone rejecting Hadith and all other Islamic books. They claimed that any religious book other than Quran was false.
2. Boko Haram:

Government's involvement in Almajiri system of education

1. Federal level
2. States level i.e Sokoto and Katsina. The government has lauched Almajiri mobile ambulances to treat almajiris of common diseases such as cholera, cough, malaria and rushes.

Katsina state government, 70 almajiri foundation schools teach local crafts such as tailoring, ironing clothes, carpentry in the afternoon after normal almajiri lessons in the morning. They also clothe them occasionally.

1. Tsangaya in Kano
2. Oyo state

Look up begging, spanging, Though most of beggars seen in Lagos streets are Hausas, and called almajirai, but they are actually not almajirai in its real sense. They fall within beggars' group. These beggars panhandle in public places like motor parks, churches, masjids (mosques), markets and any social gatherings.

<ref> Number Eight to be cited in Maroka Accost, Begging in a new disguise |Lagos, the ‘