Eight Years of Fieldwork in Bamako Reveals the Hidden System Behind Street Children

Behind the term "street children" lies a system of solidarity transformed by urbanization, poverty, and the commodification of social relations. In many West African countries, including Mali, some children spend their days on the streets before returning home at night. Others have been entrusted to relatives in the city and gradually find themselves exposed to exploitation, family breakdown, or begging.

Ethnologist Drahmane Fondo conducted fieldwork in the streets of Bamako between 2017 and 2025, combining semi-structured interviews — conducted day and night, including nighttime patrols — with children encountered on the streets, and prolonged participant observation. It was this combination, particularly the nighttime work, that allowed him to understand this complex reality. Several categories of children cross paths in the same space, without the boundaries between them always being visible at first glance.