CAIRO/N'DJAMENA — Mamadou Safaiou Barry was determined to study Islamic theology at an elite school. Unable to afford a flight to Egpyt from Guinea, he drew a map of Africa in his spiral notebook and set off on a second-hand mountain bike.
Four months and seven countries later, he is in Cairo with a full scholarship to Al-Azhar University, one of the world's oldest and most renowned Sunni Muslim learning institutions.Thousands of West Africans like Barry undertake risky journeys across the Sahara desert each year, searching for a better life.
He said he had already been detained three times — twice in insurgency-plagued Burkina Faso and once in Togo, where security forces held him for nine days without charge before releasing him in exchange for 35,000 CFA francs ."I often slept in the bush because I was afraid of people in the cities," Barry said. "I thought they would take my bike and hurt me."
Barry arrived in Cairo on Sept 5 and days later secured a full scholarship to Al-Azhar. A photo shared widely on social media shows him meeting a beaming university representative.
Source: Education Headlines (educationheadlines.net)