Jummai frequently alternates between lightly bouncing her baby boy, Hamzat, in her arms, and strapping him on her back with a wrapper. “I want people to understand why we beg,” she explains.
Jummai left Ringim, Kano with her kids three years ago because of an irreconcilable misunderstanding with her husband. According to her, he was not performing his ‘husbandly’ duties in providing for their family. A blind uncle of hers visiting from Lagos would soon convince her that she could have a better life in the city where he had lived for about 10 years. Three years later, and remarried with a 10-month-old son, Jummai is resigned, yet at peace with her life in Lagos. Begging is what she does to take care of her kids, but it does not define her.
Growing up in Kano, Jummai attended an Islamic school, which limited her opportunities to earn a living when she eventually left school. Arriving in Lagos and seeing young children go to school so they can ‘become something’, has changed Jummai’s conceptions about education, but she still doesn’t have the means to send her children to school.
Jummai and her family live on a Lagos State Government property known as the “Home of Destitutes.” The Home mainly houses Northerners with disabilities and deformities. The living conditions at the Home are deplorable as residents are regularly exposed to health hazards, including congested living arrangements, extreme levels of unsanitary conditions, and lack of electricity. Jummai opines that no human being in their right frame of mind can survive there. Yet, they do- particularly because they are not required to remit any charges to the government for living on the property. Although, the ‘people in charge’ of the property demand N10,000 in monthly rent.
Subtracting N10,000 from their alms earnings is a thorn in the flesh of Jummai’s family. It is especially harder these days following the Lagos State Government’s recent directives to Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) to arrest beggars and hawkers on the streets, with bail for violators ranging between N20,000 to N30,000. If a beggar from the Home is caught, the occupants try to contribute to release them, but they are not always successful. In order to avoid arrest, children like Jummai’s girls pretend to offer a sort of service by washing windscreens close to traffic lights while they beg. A service that most vehicle owners detest, but are usually compelled to receive, whether or not they plan to pay for it.
Jummai tells us that on a day when they’re not begging from dusk till dawn, she’s probably washing dirty clothes with the girls and catching up on their various experiences on the streets. Admittedly, the Mohammed family undertake risks on the streets, as they are subject to verbal abuse and chastisement for the most part. Yet, they still choose begging for their daily bread over other menial jobs. When she tried working, Jummai’s employers would pay her around N500 naira for a full day’s work which is simply not enough to cover meals, water for bathing and drinking, rent, and environmental sanitation dues.
Jummai tried to shield her girls from begging once. They kept asking about their father and since they were getting older she felt that it was no longer appropriate to have them on the streets, sometimes without supervision, especially because they are girls. She returned them to their father in Kano, but soon after received news that they were not being treated well and decided that it was better to have them close to her. Because of “how wicked the world is”, she tries to keep them in her sight as much as possible. For Jummai, trying to discipline her girls comes in the form of correcting them whenever she notices that they are misbehaving, and trying to teach them how women should behave. She finds it frustrating that they do not have more time to have casual discussions and just be a family.
Jummai doesn’t harbor any high hopes or dreams for her three children, but she still believes that a knight in shining armour could change their current story. For now, Jummai prays for the gift of life, food on their table, and good husbands for her girls when the time comes.
