14 Complexity of Gender and Age in Precarious Lives: Malian Men, Women, and Girls in Communities of Blind Beggars in Senegal

Abstract

This chapter provides a perspective on the migration of communities of blind beggars from Mali to Dakar, Senegal. Migration for begging across borders as a way of making a living adopted by persons affected by river blindness involves being guided by non-blind guides – usually a girl or young woman who can be a relative or acquaintance. The patterns of movement are generally seasonal and circular and are based on a variety of social arrangements for guiding, including a modification of ‘child fostering’ as a tradition, biological kinship and marriage, and employment. Each type of arrangement delineates specific obligations and entitlements between the guides and the beggar according to the relationship involved: parent, guardian, spouse, or employer. The last arrangement applies especially to girls and women who migrate on their own account in search of other types of work but end up as guides. Social justice strategies that address the individual rights of young migrants from Mali to Senegal have yet to recognize the existence of this group of female guides. Understanding the experiences of the migrant blind beggars from the perspective of multiple conditions of ‘disability’ may help towards an appreciation of how mutual dependency based on gender and age can be interwoven into layers of culturally defined inter-generational obligations, for which social justice strategies built only on the idea of the individual rights of women or children may not necessarily be appropriate.

Keywords

This chapter draws on the results of a broader study funded by IDRC, project number 104891-001, and entitled: “Femmes, Migrations et Lois au Mali et Sénégal” (Women, Migrations and the Law in Mali and Senegal) implemented by the Research Group on Women and Laws in Senegal (Groupe de Recherche Femmes et Lois au Sénégal). The members of the research team are: Codou Bop, Fanta Cissé, Fatou Binetou Dramé, Aissa Haidara Touré, Ndeye Sokhna Guèye, and Cheikh Ibrahima Niang.