His mother threw him at birth .. A Mauritanian rapper gives his life to his children like him

Salik Zaid-Nouakchott

A family of so-and-so found a child thrown near an abandoned wall in the Mina district of the capital, Nouakchott. She did not hesitate to take the child home, and from that moment considered him as her son, despite the difference in color that began to appear on the child as he grew up.

That kid is none other than rapper Racine Ja, now popular with so-called songs and his unfamiliar social activism.

Today he is thirty years old, during which no family but the family found him as a baby.

"I don't know whether my real parents are alive or dead," he says to Al-Jazeera Net with all sorrow. "All I know is this family, which is my real family."

Because of his wheaty color, different from that of the family that raised him, he was subjected to a lot of harassment when he was young, but Racine surpassed all that and no longer affected him, but decided to work to help found children in Nouakchott.

The shelter of the indigent
Racine Ga's experience made him make an important decision to establish an association to take care of the children abandoned by their families, as well as those whose mothers died, but his effort is still weak due to the lack of financial support.

He adds to Al-Jazeera Net that his organization has not been licensed yet, even though it is following its file with the relevant authorities, considering that he does not know any other association specialized in sponsoring the foundlings.

Since he has neither a headquarters nor a human cadre able to take care of the children to be found, Racine Ja has discovered a distinctive method and is looking for families willing to raise a child or two.

He tells Al Jazeera Net that some families accept raising some children secretly, while families choose to take children without setting conditions, and he and his colleagues organize visits for children and follow their affairs directly.

A serious societal reality
The phenomenon of throwing children in Mauritania is not often talked about, and it is considered one of the "taboos" in society, although Racine Ja confirms that in one month, a hundred children were found abandoned by his family.

Social researcher Hassan Bambari considers that this figure suggests a dangerous reality, and he adds in a statement to Al Jazeera Net that the study of the phenomenon is absent in Mauritania, because it is considered within the framework of the silence, especially as the issue is related to throwing children born outside the framework of marriage.

Hassan Bambari attributes the reason mothers abandon children to the community authority that compels women to abandon their son if he is out of wedlock for fear of the scandal and talk of society that does not accept these children, especially in the absence of the ability to abortion.

Racine Ga views these children as victims who have nothing in common, and should not be abandoned as simple.

He says, "I am one of these children and their matter is very important to me, and it is inconceivable for me to see them throw in the streets and I cannot help them, so I decided to move for them."

Absence of the state
There is no announced plan of action by the state to take care of children who lack social support, and lawyer and human rights activist Aishah Al-Salama Al-Mustafa confirms that there are some centers affiliated with the state but do not embrace children but rather take them and give them to families willing to sponsor them.

The lawyer adds to Al Jazeera Net that the law criminalizes the abandonment of children by families, but he did not explicitly mention the phrase born outside of marriage.

In light of the society’s rejection of these children and the absence of the role of the state and the law, a young man who does not feel ashamed of being abandoned by his mother while he was born to the street, in order to make himself a refuge for those whom he considers part of, to be the first glimmer of hope in Mauritania for children who have lost the bond.