Today around 3 p.m. I was discussing with some of my co-workers how begging appears to become normalized in some parts of Hausa-speaking. Although three of the people I was speaking with are not Hausa, they shared similar observations. They remarked that it is not uncommon to see able-bodied young men or women choosing to beg rather than engage in other forms of work.
Sometimes you see young men and women wandering on streets with children, telling hardship stories to whoever cares to listen to them just to collect money.
As the discussion progressed, I found myself trying hard to defend my people. I argued that it would be unfair to conclude that begging is a matter of personal choice. I suggested that many people may be driven to beg by many factors such as poverty, unemployment, inadequate, displacement and ineffective government policies. I emphasized that the structural challenges may leave people with limited options and that it is important to consider contexts before making generalizations about any community. That feeding influenced my responses during. As I spoke, I could tell from the expressions on co-workers’ faces that they were not convinced. They saw my argument as an attempt to defend my people , rather than an objective assessment of the issue. Whether that expression is accurate or not, it made me reflect on how personal identity can shape the way we respond when our community is criticized.
Not long after our discussion, the call to Zuhr prayer was made. We headed to the mosque, but by the time we arrived, it was full to capacity. As a result, we joined worshippers and performed our prayer within the mosque’s premises. As soon as the prayer ended, I noticed a young woman standing, appealing to worshippers for alms. She narrated that she was sick and both her husband and father passed away. Therefore she needed some money to by medicine
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I honestly don’t know whether she was telling the truth. Her story may have been true or otherwise, but what struck me was the timing. After spending several minutes trying to explain to my co-workers that there were complex social and economic reasons behind the prevalence of begging, we walked out of the mosque only to be met by a young woman asking for alms. The timing really hit me hard. After everything I had said trying to defend this behaviour, that happened right in front of my co-workers.
I was speechless. I buried myself in shame
