Trafficking is a “heavy word” in Guinea-Bissau

Each year, the University of Iceland awards between 70 and 80 PhDs to candidates who have completed demanding research studies on an incredibly diverse range of topics. Approximately 40% of these PhD students are foreign nationals, and many conduct their research here in Iceland. Others carry out their research in their home countries in collaboration with their supervisors at the University of Iceland, thereby extending the University’s influence far beyond national borders. One such student is Hamadou Boiro, who defended his doctoral thesis in anthropology earlier this week. He is the first person from Guinea-Bissau to earn a PhD from the University of Iceland. In his doctoral research, Boiro examined a tradition in his home country that international organisations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have defined as child trafficking, but which locals view as an essential way to strengthen the social status of the children involved.

Before embarking on his doctoral studies, Boiro completed a DEA and an MA degree in social anthropology from Université Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal. In the summer of 2009, Boiro met Jónína Einarsdóttir, professor of anthropology, and Geir Gunnlaugsson, paediatrician and now a emeritus professor of Global Health, both at the University of Iceland, when UNICEF invited him to join them to explore child trafficking practices in Guinea-Bissau. Geir and Jónína have worked for decades in Guinea-Bissau and were recently honoured by the Jean Piaget University for their contributions to research in the country. 

In this exploratory study for UNICEF, the situation of Bissau-Guinean Fulbe boys sent to Quranic schools in neighbouring Senegal was particularly in focus. This practice has been going on for a long time. It is controversial due to the boys’ begging to support their studies in Senegal, a practice that has been labelled as child trafficking by international agencies and NGOs.

Over a decade of research

One can say that the idea behind Boiro´s doctoral research was sparked already in his first field trip with Jónína and Geir in the summer of 2009. “The first person we met asked us: ‘Don´t you think that trafficking is a 'heavy word'’, talking about Quran teaching,” Boiro recalls and adds that this response indicated to the team that the issue of child trafficking in Guinea-Bissau was maybe more complex than it initially appeared.

Following this first collaboration project, Boiro, Jónína and Geir decided to look further into this practice. Boiro´s doctoral thesis and numerous other scientific articles and reports are the fruit of this collaboration.

Boiro also recalls that in their first collaboration project in 2009, they went to a restaurant at the end of the day. On a television in the restaurant, there was news about the 2008 economic collapse in Iceland, and they saw the house where Jónína and Geir lived. Boiro thought to himself that he would probably never visit this country far in the north, but that changed quickly because already in December 2009, he was in Reykjavík working with Jónína and Geir on their final report for UNICEF, where the conditions of children from different ethnic groups were examined regarding child-trafficking. Their collaboration has always been very strong, and in 2016, Boiro formally began his doctoral studies, having received a grant from the University of Iceland (UI) to research the Quranic education of boys from Guinea-Bissau in Senegal under Jónína’s supervision.

Researching the responses to child-trafficking and the locals' understanding

The doctoral thesis has two specific aims. One was to explore the actions of the international child protection regime (ICPR), a term encompassing all major international conventions and instruments related to childhood and child rights and implementing these measures. The other is to investigate local understanding of and responses to anti-trafficking measures imposed by the ICPR.

“We wanted to understand really why local communities in Guinea-Bissau choose this way to educate their children and why another group of people, in this case international organizations and NGOs, consider it trafficking, because in the minds of the people in the communities trafficking is a heavy word,” says Boiro and continues: “We who have worked on this research also wanted to know why there was a resistance to change for better rights and protection for the children.”

In the research, Boiro has used various kinds of anthropological research methods in the fieldwork, such as participant observation, interviews and focus groups to get the perspectives of Quranic teachers accused of trafficking, students classified as victims, parents and community members.

The thesis is based on five articles, all published in international scientific journals. The first one examines why parents of the Fulbe boys send them to Quranic schools in Senegal and how anti-trafficking activities impact local communities in Guinea-Bissau. “By sending their boys to Quranic schools, the parents want their sons to have a better future. They want their children to become somebody,” says Boiro. 

A vicious circle benefiting different parties

The second paper focuses on repatriation, the sending of the boys from Senegal back to their homeland, an intervention parents fear most. “That´s what I call the vicious circle, because by sending the boys back home as an anti-trafficking intervention, they think that they are saving the children. Foreign governments and international institutions also obligate the national authorities to implement the ICPR. But the parents are not happy with this,” says Boiro. 

He also points out that this measure serves multiple, sometimes conflicting, interests. NGOs sustain funding streams by showing their strength in protecting the children. At the same time, families and Quranic leaders have started using the repatriation for logistics to facilitate seasonal migration for harvesting, for example, cashew, maize and peanuts. Following the harvest season, the boys return to Senegal and continue their Quranic studies if everything goes right. Boiro, though, has examples of boys who have returned to Senegal, ending up on the street with their dream of a religious education shattered.

The third paper looks at the act of begging by the boys and the view of the Bissau-Guinean Quranic teachers on the accusations of being child traffickers. “In the article, we try to understand why people are begging and why begging is considered trafficking,” says Boiro, adding that the international definition of trafficking is wide and that a lot of African practices can be treated as such. “We have to understand what begging is for them. It is a way to finance the study, to gain knowledge, and knowledge is power.”

The fourth paper is also about the act of begging with a special emphasis on how the COVID-19 Pandemic affected the lives of the Fulbe boys, who begged during a state of emergency and curfew.  In the interviews, the boys describe hunger and trouble focusing on their studies since they didn´t receive any leftovers from restaurants like they were used to. 

The final paper focuses on the Quranic teachers, their role in Bissau-Guinean Fulbe society and why they have not been prosecuted for child trafficking despite international demands found within the ICPR. The study finds that many of the teachers interviewed were descendants of formerly enslaved people who used Quranic education for social mobility. Quranic teachers hold authority among the Fulbe because they serve as spiritual leaders, often hold key roles in society and government, and support marginalised groups. 

The findings challenge dominant international narratives

The findings of Boiro´s doctoral thesis challenge dominant narratives propagated by NGOs and international bodies that poverty and parental ignorance are the main reasons for Fulbe people in Guinea-Bissau sending their sons to Senegal for religious education. The Quranic education is, on the contrary, a way for those within the Fulbe community who are descendants of enslaved people to social mobility, power and liberation. The research shows that attempts by international agencies and NGOs do not strengthen the boys' situation, but quite the opposite.

“This has to do with how Western nations try to influence other nations with an approach related to colonalities,” says Boiro. He also underlines that he does not think that it is good for children to beg in the streets, but points out that they have little possibility to go to school in their homeland. By begging, they have an opportunity to educate themselves and raise money for food. At the same time, the communities have a favourable view of the begging of the Quran studying children, and people who give money to the children are happy to support this education. The students not only learn about the Quran, they also learn Wolof or French, and this can help them achieve better social standing, and even potentially get grants for further studies. 

Asked if there is a chance to change the views of the international organisations and NGOs towards this group of children and their teachers, Boiro points out that the international child protection regime is a global system. The research is highlighting the disconnect between global anti-trafficking initiatives—rooted in Western-centric legal and moral frameworks tinted by coloniality, resulting in the criminalisation of customs and communities—and local perspectives on what is considered a respectable upbringing of children. In his study, Boiro therefore calls for a decolonial rethinking of child protection practices, where both scholars and practitioners need to recognise the plurality of childhoods and educational aspirations, while safeguarding children’s welfare.

The need for respect and trust

Boiro furthermore points out that because the child protection practices are not based on dialogue or consultation, they are thus ineffective and lead to confrontation and resistance within the communities. This is the case in other parts of West Africa. Boiro certainly knows what he is talking about because he has extensive experience working in that area and other African regions regarding conflict management, infectious diseases, gender-based violence, and gender equality, among other things. He worked for the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a social anthropologist in the Ebola epidemics in West Africa in 2015 and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 2018–2020, and in the COVID-19 pandemic response in Guinea-Bissau and the DRC. In all these cases, Boiro says, the results of any action are based on mutual respect and trust.

“My former professor said: If you want to feed milk to a cat, you can´t take his head and oblige him to drink the milk; it will never drink it. The same applies to communities. You have to try to understand their way of life, otherwise you will face resistance,“ he underlines.

Boiro takes an example from the time he was working in the Ebola epidemics, which proved to be dangerous and very deadly. “The people thought at the time that the white people had brought Ebola to kill them. To be able to reach out to the people, the international organisations asked anthropologists like me to go speak to people and listen to them. Then, we came back and put forward our recommendation on mediating information about the epidemic and engaging the community in the fight against the disease. The resistances within the society started petering out,” says Boiro. 

The same applied to the COVID pandemic. “It was the dialogue that made the people accept taking the vaccine. I think the COVID epidemic has shown us that we are human beings and that we need trust. It is the most important thing I have learned during my trips in these different countries.”

Wants to continue to work for the children 

As previously stated, Boiro defended his thesis at the beginning of the week. Asked what is next for him, Boiro replies that he will continue to work at INEP, a national research institute in his homeland. “I also hope to continue to do some research with Jónína and Geir, both in Guinea-Bissau and West Africa, because when you finish research, you always identify further studies you can do. I also want to continue to work to create conditions for all these actors to work together to create a better condition for these children,” says Boiro, referring to the Bissau-Guinean Fulbe boys.

Asked if he will continue visiting Iceland after finishing his doctoral studies, Boiro answers: “Yes, Iceland will always be a part of me. I have experience from other European countries, but the Icelandic people are somehow different, family-oriented and good people. I say it from the bottom of my heart. I will always have ties to this country, and I'm proud to finish my doctoral studies at the University of Iceland.”