Inoussa is 10 years old and will stay back this year in CE2 (4th grade of primary school in the Spanish system). Of the almost 500 children in the School Scholarship Program, he is the only one who was left back to whom we will give a second chance this year. His case merits it…
One of the school scholarship beneficiary
The requirements for renewing a school scholarship year after year are simple: (1) pass the course, (2) bring in the grades every trimester so we can bring any children with difficulties in for extra help; and (3) the parents’ payment of 10% of the scholarship (wise advice that Brother Salvador Ajagüiz gave us some time ago to involve the parents in their children’s education). The theory, as always, is clear. But in practice, we look fondly at each and every case that fails to complete the requirements, because every single year we have run into cases of “force majeure” that reasonably deserve a second chance. What would have become of me in school without those second chances?
Inoussa is one the FAR’s almost 500 school scholarship recipients.
An african “healer”. Photo: yvespia.perso.neuf.fr/afriquesud.htm
This was his fourth year with a scholarship, always with good grades. This year was going well for him: a 7.2/10, and 15th in a class of 58 students. But he had to leave school because, according to his mother, he began to behave strangely. He talked to himself, he was “out of it,” and he ran frightened from home several times escaping from “someone” who was running after him…
Tradition is one of the principal values in Africa and holds great weight in society. Within tradition, “la sorcellerie” (witchcraft) is sometimes an option in people’s lives, and the only solution Inoussa’s mother could find. She left the boy in a town with a “curer” to “free him from bad spirits.” Three months later Inoussa was “cured.”
Africa is a continent where “the occult” is very socially relevant. It’s a complicated and controversial subject that I don’t dare delve into. Since I’ve been here I’ve heard a million cases of “evil eye” and “possessions” –inexplicable to me, but in this culture perfectly understandable within the context of witchcraft. In Europe, too, and in Spain itself until relatively recently – if not still today – there are places where witchcraft is more or less present.
Inoussa’s case is just one more, yet it is the first we have come up against close hand. I have spoken with him. I didn’t want to ask him about what happened to him, nor have I asked his mother for details. But I can assure you that the boy wants to go back to school and start over, and that of course we are going to give him a second chance!