Daara

Daara, is the title used in Senegal to designate the traditional Koranic schools that have ensured for centuries religious education was well spread out in all segments of population in the West African countries. These Daraa have permitted to diffused literacy and consequently offer a didactic platform to convey specific ancestral philosophies and customary practices deemed as compatible with the adoption of the Muslim religion. Therefore, while having benefited a royalty of communities as temples of knowledge, these religious schools have subsequently underpinned the intensification of intrusion of foreign cultural practices entrenched in the use of the doctrine in some localities. These Daara have preceded the implementation of the contemporary very influential religious brotherhoods, as they have grounded with the education they provided a selection of teaching derivative mainly of the Sufism form of Islam.

Nowadays, the denomination conveys a very controversial portrait depend on the understanding one have on their usefulness in social progress. Too often, it has been reported abuse by non-governmental organisations such as XALAAT of the principle of being educational religious school to have been rather perniciously perverted as institutions of financial exploitation and ill-treatment of child beggars called Talibe.

This is explained by XALAAT by a lack of provision for truly free school as support for schooling stationery or other related expenses, many poor parents chose to give away their children to surrogate Guardian call Serigne or Marabout that should be providing them with alternative social-religious education. Instead these children end up begging for hours in the streets of Senegalese Cities in the benefit of their guardians who find likewise 'production factors' that do not cost pretty much anything to their business.

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Wikipedia