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We follow Ibrahimah with our hearts as he dodges rival packs of talibé, escapes black-market organ traders and other criminals, and survives the cruelty of his marabout while student protests mount in the streets.

DAKAR, Senegal — On one wall, the painting of a marabout, a Muslim holy man, peers out from behind a line hung with laundry.

Paru then began to speak of the desert fathers and of marabouts, holy men who, in these parts, had used the desert as a site of spiritual inquiry.

“Sometimes my marabout will take what I collect and sell it,” said Ahmadou, who comes from a small village in Gambia and has not seen his family for years.

In the 2015 presidential election, Jonathan’s national security adviser spent billions of naira employing marabouts – Muslim holy men – from Saudi Arabia and north Africa to pray for his reelection, according to Nigerian media.