Parental Neglect and Juvenile Delinquency of Almajirai in Kano State, Nigeria
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Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR) Vol-3, Issue-1, 2017 ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in Parental Neglect and Juvenile Delinquency of Almajirai in Kano State, Nigeria. Thomas Imoudu Gomment, Ph.D Department of Sociology, Kogi State University Anyigba, Nigeria Abstract : This paper examines the relationship The term ‘almajiri’ is a Hausa word for between parental neglect and juvenile delinquency pupil or student. The word is derived from the of almajirai in Northern Nigeria. Almajirai, like Arabic term al-muhajir, meaning the migrant. other street boys, are victims of parental neglect Historically, the term has its origin in the famous and other family-related issues. Like other migration of the Prophet Muhammed and his vulnerable children, almajirai are left to fend for compatriots from Makkah to Madinah in the early themselves, through street-begging, which has days of Islam (Khalid, 2006). In its Nigerian usage, made them susceptible to social vices, which by the word almajiri means those who left their virtue of age, can be adjudged juvenile deviant or villages or town, parents, relations, and friends in delinquent behaviour. With the institution of the search of Islamic religious knowledge and almajiri system, Muslims are encouraged to go and scholarship. search for Islamic knowledge and scholarship, The almajiri system was established as an irrespective of the distance, as knowledge is seen organized and comprehensive system of education as a cherished value. In the past, particularly, in for learning Islamic principles, values, pre-colonial Nigerian society, almajirai were taken jurisprudence and theology. It was a replica of care of by the state, parents, and host community, Islamic learning centers in many Muslim countries which was later truncated by colonialism. With the such as the madrasah in Pakistan, Malaysia, Egypt colonial intrusion, coupled with the poverty and Indonesia (Danbuzzu, 2013). During the pre- situation of most parents, parents no longer care colonial period in Northern Nigeria, the system was for the welfare of their wards, which has made funded from the state treasury and ‘zakkat’ funds them to engage in juvenile delinquency. The study under the control of the emirs. Apart from this, the found that polygamy was a contributory factor to community supported these almajirai most of this menace. The paper recommended that whom came from faraway places to enroll in these polygamy should be discouraged, and parental schools. The students were at liberty to acquire neglect should be criminalized. vocational and occupation skills in between lessons and so were involved in farming, fishing, well Keywords: Parental Neglect, Juvenile construction, masonry, tailoring, etc (Danbuzzu, Delinquency, Almajirai, Street-begging, Poverty. 2013). This is well captured by Bala (2014), who posited that the almajiri schools, as practiced INTRODUCTION during the pre-colonial days were maintained by The Almajiri system is as old as Islam in Northern the state, communities, parents, zakkah Nigeria. Among the areas of West Africa into (almsgiving), wagf (endowment) and supplemented which Islam was early introduced is Kanem-Borno, by the teachers and students through farming. some territory of which forms part of present day- Many of these almajirai in the pre-colonial era later Nigeria. Complex communication systems on land became farmers of the northern Nigeria cotton and and water connected several areas which later came groundnut pyramids. They were the leather tanners to be known as Nigeria (Balogun, 1980). Almajiri and leather shoe and bag makers in the old Sokoto system has been a medium of early childhood Empire as well as cap weavers and tailors in Zaria Islamic education in Northern Nigeria since the 11th city (Danbuzzu, 2013). century (Bolujoko, 2008). As far back as 1921, In 1904, the British invaded and colonized there were 30,411 Islamic schools in Northern the northern Nigeria territories and took control of Nigeria (Rechmuth, 1989).The almajiri system as the treasury, abolished state funding of almajiri an age-long tradition of Muslims across the globe school system, which to them were mere religious developed as a result of the instruction given by schools. Boko, meaning western education was Prophet Muhammed that knowledge is a cherished introduced and funded instead. This development value and that all Muslims should be encouraged to rendered Islamic scholars unqualified for go in search of Islamic knowledge and scholarship employment and participation in politics. This irrespective of the distance (Khalid, 2007). created poverty situation as mallams lost their jobs because of lack of western education which is the Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR) Page 1237 Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR) Vol-3, Issue-1, 2017 ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in only criterion for white-collar jobs that was only criminal involvement. In most cases, delinquents available for educated individuals. have been viewed as individuals who come from With the loss of support from the less-intact families often referred to as “broken government and the helpless Emirs and increasing homes” (See Sanni, et al, 2010). The number of pupils to take care of, as well as aforementioned shows the relationship between increasing level of poverty in the country, the care family-related problems and juvenile delinquency of the almajirai became overwhelmingly in society. burdensome for mallams who were left with no Abuh (2015) found that almajirai are other alternative than to send the almajirai to go effectively abandoned by their parents and and beg for alms. In the course of begging, they are exploited by their Mallams and members of the likely to imbibe negative values from the influence public; as they end up facing a future lifestyle of people they come across. woven by poverty and hardship. This is because the Begging is the most distracting aspect of Islamic education they receive only equips them almajiri system as it takes them out of the control with few skills that do not fit into the harsh and of mallams, and exposes them to negative habits as capitalist oriented modern economy that the nation they come in contact with people of low virtue like operates and thus cannot offer them profitable prostitutes, cultists, drug addicts, traffickers, employment. The above findings corroborate terrorists, arsonists, etc. These are some of the Asuelimu (2015) who observed that almajiri features of the almajirai of nowadays who are system is a dysfunctional educational system, victims of neglect and exploitation. They are seen which produced children the parents don’t care for everywhere singing and begging for food and but dumped them with mallams or quranic teachers money, which according to Tilde (2009), are who misuse impressionable kids as beggars and vulnerable to abuse, drugs, trafficking, and various means of livelihood was a time bomb the nation set forms of exploitation. Their conditions of living is recklessly with fatalistic assumption that what less than average as reflected in their torn, dirty would be would be as if the almighty has not given looking cloth, hungry stomach, and unkept body. man the wisdom to recreate life and environment. These almajirai are outside their place of In a field survey conducted in Sokoto domiciliation in search of Islamic knowledge, State by Sule-Kano (2010), it was found that most which means they are not staying with their parents would prefer not to contribute anything to biological parents, who for religious the upkeep of their almajiri children. In some permissiveness, marry as many wives as possible schools less than 10% of parents made any and produce scores of children. These children are contribution at all. This shows that almajirai are dumped in almajiri schools because Islamic neglected by their parents which is capable of education is free; some of the parents will not show pushing them into social vices as they rely on up again, let alone caring for their children. different devices to keep body and souls in harmony. Those in the village constitute the major Parental Neglect as a Delinquency- source of labour in farms while those in the city are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation of different Breeding Factor magnitude (see Tilde, 2013; Khalid, 2000). The proliferation of street children especially in Closely related to the deteriorating role of developing countries is attracting global attention. the families of Almajirai is the issue of polygamy. Bourdillon (2001 in Oyeniyi, Ojo, Lanre and This is a situation where people just for religious Olusina (2009) noted that when we see children permissiveness, marry as many as 3-4 wives and neglected on the street, we should be worried about produce as many children as possible only to be what this means for the future of our society. When taken to mallams so as to relief themselves of the they are left unsupervised, they will rely solely on responsibilities of training them. As a corollary, the values of the informal group they come across children from such families who suffer deprivation and as they interact with these people, they are seek alternative means of survival which may only likely to imbibe negative traits which sometimes, be found in the easily accessible ‘trade’ of street are in conflict with the expectations of the society. begging. Thus, child abuse and neglect has . According to Cashwell and Vacc (1996), families continued unabated in Northern Nigeria (Aluaigba, behaviours particularly parental monitoring and 2009). This shows a close relationship between discipline seem to influence association with polygamy and the plight of almajirai. delinquent peers through out the juvenile period. A This is to buttress the position of a former long history of research has further linked family Youth Corp member, Lawal Olaitan, in Gombe dysfunction with future criminal offending, in part State who told “Islam Online” that men who abuse because parents monitor and provide nurturance to the institution of marriage by marrying many wives children.