Mobility as a contradictory resource: Peripatetic Qur’anic students in Kano, Nigeria

Hoechner, Hannah (2015) Mobility as a contradictory resource: Peripatetic Qur’anic students in Kano, Nigeria. Children’s Geographies, 13 (1). pp. 59-72. ISSN 1473-3285

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Abstract

Mobility is a powerful resource young people can draw on to improve their lives, but it can also entail risks. This paper explores how mobility becomes a contradictory resource for peripatetic Qur'anic students (almajirai) in Kano State in northern Nigeria. Moving to urban areas allows the young almajirai to escape difficult conditions and to access educational and income opportunities absent in their rural homes. It makes it possible for them to adopt self-conceptions as migrants in search of sacred knowledge who were once widely respected. However, economic decline has made survival in the city more difficult. Lacking the economic and cultural resources to participate in displays of status, and without social superiors to speak for them, the almajirai feel they have become fair game for those searching for scapegoats.

Item Type:	Article
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Global Development (formerly School of International Development)
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Global Environmental Justice
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	02 Apr 2019 12:30
Last Modified:	13 May 2023 00:52
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/70444
DOI:	10.1080/14733285.2013.827876

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