Daara

Daara, is the title used in Senegal to designate the traditional Koranic schools that have ensured for centuries religious education was well spread out in all segments of population in the West African countries. These Daraa have permitted to diffused literacy and consequently offer a didactic platform to convey specific ancestral philosophies and customary practices deemed as compatible with the adoption of the Muslim religion. Therefore, while having benefited a royalty of communities as temples of knowledge, these religious schools have subsequently underpinned the intensification of intrusion of foreign cultural practices entrenched in the use of the doctrine in some localities. These Daara have preceded the implementation of the contemporary very influential religious brotherhoods, as they have grounded with the education they provided a selection of teaching derivative mainly of the Sufism form of Islam.