Urbanizing mystical Islam: Making Murid space in the cities of Senegal

International Journal of African Historical Studies

Volumn 40, Issue 2, 2007, Pages 197-221

  Babou, Cheikh Anta ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 60949606969     PISSN: 03617882     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (65)

1. The recent works of Allen and Mary N. Roberts on Murid art constitute an exception. See A Saint in the City: Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal (Los Angeles, 2003). The Roberts are primarily interested in Murid visual piety, but their works also emphasize "the refabulation of urban space" through murals and paintings.
2. See Eric Ross (a cultural geographer whose research focuses on Tuubaa, the holy city of the Muridiyya), "Tuubaa, a Spiritual Metropolis in the Modern World," Canadian Journal of African Studies 29 (1995), 222-59;
3. "Tubâ an African Eschatology in Islam," (Ph.D. dissertation, McGill University, 1996);
4. "Marabout Republics Then and Now: Configuring Muslim Towns in Senegal," Islam et Sociétés au Sud du Sahara 16 (2002), 35-65;
5. See also Monika Salzbrunn, "The Occupation of Public Space through Religious and Political Events: How Senegalese Immigrants Became Part of Harlem, New York," Journal of Religion in Africa 34, 4 (2004), 468-91.
6. See, for example, A. Salvatore and D. F. Eickelman, eds., Public Islam and the Common Good (Leiden, 2004);
7. and M. Hoexter, S. N. Eisenstadt and N. Levtzion, eds., The Public Sphere in Muslim Societies (New York, 2002).
8. Jürgen Habermas, "The Public Sphere, an Encyclopedia Article," New German Critique, 3 (1974), 49-55.
9. See Hoexter et al., The Public Sphere, 9.
10. See Salvatore and Eickelman, Public Islam, 7.
11. See L. Epstein and P. Wenbin, "Ganja and Murdo: The Social Construction of Space at Two Pilgrimage Sites in Eastern Tibet," in Toni Huber, ed., Sacred Spaces and Powerful Places in Tibetan Culture (Dharamsala, India: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1999), 323.
12. For more on the maggal of Tuubaa, see Amar Samb, "Touba et son maggal," Bulletin de l'IFAN, series B, 31 (July 1969), 733-53;
13. Christian Coulon, "The Grand Magal in Touba," African Affairs 391(1999), 195-210;
14. Sophie Bava and Cheikh Guèye, "Le grand magal de Touba: Éxil prophétique et pèlerinage au sein du mouridisme," Social Compass 48 (2001), 421-38.
15. See also Cheikh Guèye, Touba, la capitale des Mourides (Paris, 2002).
16. Cheikh Hamala, a Muslim leader of the Tijani order in French Sudan, who was also persecuted and deported by the French, performed the prayer as a form of political protest. See Alioune Traoré, Cheikh Hamahoulahi: Homme de foi et résistant (Paris, 1983).
17. In a recent article I discuss how the Murids managed to create a culturally autonomous sacred space or daar al Islam within the daar al Kufr or house of unbelief that Senegal had become after the establishment of French colonial rule. It is interesting to contrast the Murid strategy of carving out this sacred space in their heartland of Bawol, where they primarily used Islamic architecture and sacred geometry to transform the space, with their strategy in the urban contexts of Dakar and Saint-Louis. See Cheikh Anta Babou "Contesting Space, Shaping Places: Making Room for the Muridiyya in Colonial Bawol," Journal of African History 46 (2005), 405-26.
18. See Pierre Nora, ed., Les Lieux de Mémoire I, La République (Paris, 1984), x.
19. Mamadou Fall relates the trial in the village of Ndiagne of four Murid disciples accused of disorderly conduct and vagrancy. See Laurence Marfaing and Boubacar Barry, eds., Commerce et commerçants au Sénégal (Paris, 1992). During the colonial era, an escale designated a location near a railway station, major road, or river that functioned as a center for economic transactions in rural or semi-rural areas.
20. See Lieutenant Lucien Nekkache, "Le Mouridisme depuis 1912," Rapport au Gouvernement Général de l'AOF, Archives Nationales du Sénégal (henceforth ANS, Saint-Louis) brochure, (1952), 55 p. [no file number provided].
21. The census found that Dakar had 230,887 inhabitants and that Murids living in the city numbered 25,781. See Momar Coumba Diop, "La confrérie mouride: Organization politique et mode d'implantation urbaine," (Thèse de troisième cycle UER de psychologie et sciences sociales [PhD], Lyon 1980), 32;
22. for a discussion of the demographic growth of Dakar and an analysis of the activities of Muslim organizations in the city, see Adriana Piga, Dakar et les ordres soufis (Paris, 2002).
23. Pape G. Mbodj characterized this period as marking the second wave of Murid migration out of their heartland of eastern Bawol. See "Le movement des jeunes dans la confrérie religieuse des mourides: Essai d'analyse et d'interprétation" (Mémoire de maîtrise Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines [Masters thesis in Arts and Letters], Department of Philosophy, University of Dakar, 1980), 37.
24. See also Mamadou Diouf, "Commerce et cosmopolitisme: Le cas des diasporas mourides du Sénégal," Bulletìn du Codesria, 1 (2000), 20-29, 23.
25. On the policy of structural adjustment and its impact on Senegalese economy and society, see, D.C. O'Brien, M.C. Diop, and M. Diouf, eds., La construction de l'Etat au Sénégal (Paris, 2002), especially Chapters 3 and 4.
26. For more on Murid international migration, see Donald Carter, "Invisible Cities, from Tuba to Turin: The Senegalese Transnational Migrants in Northern Italy," (Ph.D. thesis, University of Chicago, 1992);
27. Ottavia Schmidt Di-Friedberg, "L'Immigration Africaine en Italie: Le cas sénégalais," Etudes Internationales 24 (1993);
28. Victoria Ebin, "Les commerçants mourides à Marseille et à New York," in Emmanual Grégoire and Pascal Labazée, eds., Grands commerçants d'Afrique de l'Ouest (Paris,1993), 101-23;
29. Scott L. Malcolmson, "West of Eden: The Mouride Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism," Transition, 71 (1996), 24-43;
30. Sylviane Diouf-Camara, with translation from the French by Richard Phicox, "Senegalese in New York: A Model Minority?" Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noire 2 (Summer/Fall, 1997), 95-115;
31. Cheikh Babou, "Brotherhood Solidarity, Education, and Migration: The Role of the Dahiras among the Murid Muslim Community of New York," African Affairs 403 (2002), 151-71;
32. and Sophie Bava, "De la baraka aux affaires: Ethos économico-religieux et transnationalité chez les migrants sénégalais mourides," in Revue Européenne de Migrations Internationales 19 (2003), 69-84.
33. The late Elhaj Babakar Kébé and Jily Mbay, the two first known Senegalese billionaires, contributed hundreds of millions of CFA francs for the realization of his projects in Tuubaa. The fortune of Njuga Kébé was estimated at his death at 50 billion CFA. The current value of a dollar is 514 CFA; in the 1980s the rate was 250. Caliph Abdu Lahad's secretary, Karim Faal, was also a rich transporter and businessman. For more on Murid entrepreneurs and their role in the tariqa, see Momar Coumba Diop, "Les affaires mourides à Dakar," Politique Africaine 1, 4 (November 1981).
34. For a thorough discussion of the origins and development of this Murid urban institution, see Diop, "La confrérie mouride."
35. See Diop, "Les affaires,"
36. and Babou, "Brotherhood Solidarity."
37. See Mouhamed Moustapha Kane, "L'empreinte de l'Islam confrérique dans le paysage commercial sénégalais: Islam et société en Sénégambie," in Islam et sociétés au sud du Sahara, 8 (1994), 17-41;
38. Diouf "Commerce et cosmopolitisme," 23.
39. On the aura of Amadu Bamba and his new emerging identity fostered through art works and songs, see Allen and M.N. Roberts, "The Aura of Amadu Bamba," Anthropologie et Sociétés 22 (1998), 15-38;
40. see also Holland Cotter, "Caught in the Aura of Senegalese Saint," The New York Times (February 16, 2005), E1 and E10. This article is an account of the exhibit "Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal" at the Harn Museum of the University of Florida. The exhibit was first organized at the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History by Allen Roberts and M. N. Roberts.
41. Modu Kara Mbakke, a young Murid Sheikh dubbed "Marabout of the youth" because of his popularity in the city of Thiès and Dakar, has recently founded a political party and has vowed to run for elective office. For more on Modou Kara and his political activities, see Xavier Audrin, "'Du ndigël avorté' au parti de la vérité. Evolution du rapport religion/politique à travers le parcours de Cheikh Modou Kara (1999-2004)," Politique Africaine 96, (2004), 99-118. Young marabouts of the Tijaniyya tariqa have been active in politics for decades, but because of the opposition of the caliph of the Muridiyya, Murid sheikhs have until recently refrained from formally entering the political arena. The late Sheikh A. Dièye, who was the leader of an independent branch of the Murid order founded by a Moorish disciple of Amadu Bamba, constituted the exception.
42. Wade provides estimates of the growth of the Murid population of Saint-Louis, which jumped from 13,000 in 1960 (the year of Senegal's independence), to 90,000 in 1997, when Murids made up roughly 46 percent of the population of the city (Wade, Le mouridisme à Ndar, 15). Wade does not, however, cite his sources.
43. Non-Murid informants, such as Abdel Qadr Aidara, chief archivist at the local branch of ANS of Saint-Louis, also confirm the rapid growth of the Murid population of the city, but they do not give estimates. Interview with Abdel Qadr Aidara, Saint-Louis, 5 July 2001. What is certain, however, is that the Muridiyya started to grow in Saint-Louis only after the Second World War. The observations made by Elhaji Massourang Sourang (one of the earliest and most important leaders of the Muridiyya in this city) about the difficulties of the nascent Murid constituency of Saint-Louis in the 1950s seems to confirm this assumption. See Cheikh Tidiane Sy, La confrérie sénégalaise des mourides (Paris, 1969), 329.
44. See Oumar Ba, Ahmadou Bamba face aux autorités coloniales (1889-1927) (Dakar, no date), 62-63.
45. See Marc Michel, "'Mémoire officielle,' discours et pratique coloniale le 14 juillet et le 11 novembre au Sénégal entre les deux guerres," Revue Française d'Histoire d'Outre-Mer 77 (1990), 145-58.
46. One of the speakers at the maggal du port in 1997 called the attention of the audience to the symbolism of the date and place where the maggal was being held, referring to the significance of these dates both for the colonial administration of Senegal and the Muridiyya. See the report by Fara Gaye "Magal du port de Dakar ou retour d'éxil de Serigne Touba," Ndigël (Sawtoul Mouride, la voix du mouride [The Voice of the Murid] ) (November-December 1997), 15.
47. For more on the Murids and the political economy of Sufi orders in Dakar, see Cruise O'Brien, ed., Charisma and Brotherhood in African Islam (London, 1988);
48. Victoria Ebin, "A la recherche de nouveaux 'poissons': Stratégies commerciales mourides par temps de crise," Politique Africaine 45 (1992b);
49. For more on the Lébou, see Cécile Laborde, La confrérie Layenne et les Lébous du Sénégal: Islam et culture traditionnelle en Afrique (Bordeaux, 1995).
50. See Musa Ka, Jazaawu Shakuur.
51. See Hippolyte Delehaye, La méthode hagiographique (Brussels, 1934), especially Chapter 1.
52. See Yi-Fu Tuan, "Sacred Space: Exploration of an Idea" in Karl W. Butzer, ed., Dimensions of Human Geography: Essays on Some Familiar and Neglected Themes (Department of Geography Research Paper 186, The University of Chicago, 1978), 84-85.
53. see also Barbara Metcalf, ed., Making Muslim Space in North America and Europe (Berkeley, 1996), 3.
54. Victor Turner, Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society (Ithaca, N.Y. and London, 1974), 195.
55. Nora, Les lieux de mémoire, xi.
56. I use the term "official memory" as defined by Marc Michel: "celebration by the state of moments deemed central for the construction of national ideology." See Michel, "Mémoire officielle," 145.
57. See Oren Baruch Stier and J. Shawn Landres, eds., Religion, Violence, Memory, and Place (Bloomington, 2006), 9.
58. In reality, in 1984 he already had demanded that the governor's palace be renamed Palace of September 5 (date of Amadu Bamba trial by the French Privy Council), and that the Square Faidherbe be renamed after Ahmadou Bamba. See a reproduction of his speech at the maggal of 5 September 1984 in the Murid magazine, Ndigël 3 (1984), 25.
59. See Wade, Le mouridisme à Ndar; and Wade interview, Saint-Louis, 6 July 2001.
60. For an account of the history of Islam in Saint-Louis in the nineteenth century, see David Robinson, Paths of Accommodation (Athens, Ohio, 2000), especially Chapter 6.
61. For more on the Lébous, see Laborde, La confrérie Layenne.
62. See Musa Ka, Jazaahu Shakur, and also my interviews with Njuga Jeng, Dakar, 8 June 2004.
63. See Coulon, "Le grand magal," 9.
64. See Copans, "Les espaces mourides," 5.
65. See, for example, Mamadou Seck, "La RTS refuse de diffuser un film sur la vente des médicaments à Keur "Serigne Bi," L'Observateur (Wednesday, 20 July 2005). In this article, Seck tells the story of a documentary about the illegal selling of prescription drugs at Ker Serigne Bi, which the national broadcasting company owned by the state refused to air.