The Great Mosque of Touba
In an earlier article, we noted that amidst the great commotion of Senegal’s capital, Dakar, there is an image of one man nearly everywhere, on doors, on walls, outside and inside, the image of the saint, poet, and mystic named Sheik Amadou Bamba. In this follow-up report, we become acquainted with the sacred city of Touba which Bamba founded, the Great Mosque of Touba whose construction he began, and the annual pilgrimage that his followers make each year to honor his exile from Senegal by the French colonizers. That exile simply caused Sheik Bamba’s following to grow, but more importantly, his exile caused people to find a way, through faith, to restore their dignity.
Back in January, we highlighted an exhibition put on by the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History entitled, “A Saint in the city: Sufi arts of urban Senegal.” We urged our readers to go to the Fowler’s on-line presentation, but we provided a couple examples and just a bit of history. One example is shown here.
In our brief summary, we presented these words drawn from the Fowler’s description of the exhibition:
- “The crowded streets of Senegal’s capital, Dakar, are a study in urban commotion. Amid this bounty of visual stimulation, the image of one man emerges from nearly everywhere. He is saint, poet, and mystic Sheikh Amadou Bamba (1853-1927). Cloaked in white, face hidden in shadow, the image of Sheikh Bamba gives strength to his followers, and his teachings transport the faithful to paradise. An influential Senegalese Sufi (Islamic) movement called the Mouride Way is grounded in Bamba’s lessons about the dignity and sanctity of work. This dynamic exhibition explores his life and teachings as depicted in a striking range of Mouride arts.”
In late April, while paging through the news, we noted that thousands of pilgrims had gone to the Grand Mosque of Touba in Senegal to worship and honor the memory of Sheikh Amadou Bamba and we found two photos that most certainly bore that out. Both photos are credited to Nafi Diouf, AP.
As all too often seems the case, the Grand Mosque at Touba was new to us. As we learned more about it, we became a bit embarrassed that our knowledge was so lacking.
It turns out that Touba, Senegal is one of Senegal’s most sacred cities. The Touba pilgrimage is one of the largest in Africa, and this pilgrimage has a unique West African flavor.
Nafi Diouf wrote for AP:
- “While the Touba pilgrimage can’t replace the costly one to Islam’s holiest city of Mecca, a pillar of Muslim life, for many poverty-stricken but devout Senegalese, it will have to suffice. Nearly a million people traveled from across Senegal to this hometown of 19th-century religious leader Sheikh Amadou Bamba.”
The Great Mosque of Touba is located 170 kms east of Dakar, Senegal’s capital. It’s worth mentioning here that if we had a direct flight to Dakar from Washington or New York, it would not take any longer than does a direct flight from there to Frankfurt, Germany. Our point is that Dakar is not far away.
The mosque was constructed in 1926 to house the tomb of Sheik Amadou Bamba, who lived from 1850 to 1927. This mosque is the most visited Islamic pilgrimage site in West Africa.
Islam came to Senegal in the 11th century, and today is Senegal’s most dominant religion. The style of Islam practiced in Senegal differs from that found in other Islamic regions. It is similar to the mystical Sufi tradition, which is characterized by its reverence of spiritual beings (alive or dead) who are believed to embody extraordinary amounts of baraka, or divine grace.
A word here about the “Sufi tradition.” The original Sufi were basically mystics, people who followed a pious form of Islam and who believed that a direct, personal experience of God could be achieved through meditation and self-discipline. Sufism is important to the development of Islam because it is in this tradition that the more spiritual and mystical aspects were preserved. This stands in contrast to the mainstream of Islam which, through its first centuries, was more concerned with the expansion and organization of the general community.
In Senegal, Islamic practice takes the form of membership in religious brotherhoods that are dedicated to the founders or current spiritual leaders of these brotherhoods. These leaders are known as the marabouts.
There are three main sects in Senegal, one of which is call the Mouride brotherhood. Amadou Bamba founded this sect. “Al Mouride” or more commonly “mourite,” is an Arab word which means follower. In the mystical language, it means a disciple who goes towards God, but in common language, it takes on a meaning more of a student disciple.
As a founder of this sect, Bamba is a marabout to whom members of this brotherhood vow obedience. Those spiritual leaders who followed him are the stewards or inheritors of the divine grace of Sheik Bamba. Most marabouts inherit their position and their disciples from their fathers. The marabouts of the Mouride brotherhood devote a great deal of their time to organizing their disciples’ work and developing spiritual readings for their disciples.
It has long been a tradition for marabouts to teach, but Sheik Bamba found that most of the people coming to him wanted to benefit from his divine grace and serve him rather than study and be taught. As a result, his fame grew rapidly and people flocked to him. He placed great emphasis on salvation through hard work.
The French ruled this section of the world at the time, in what was known as French West Africa. The French, of course, feared Bamba’s rising popularity. Even though he was averse to war, and was indeed a pacifist, the French feared he would raise an army and wage war against them. As was frequently the case with French colonial rule, Bamba was exiled to Gabon from 1895 to 1902 and then to Mauritania from 1903 to 1907, without charge. This strategy did not work. The exiles only made Bamba more famous in the minds of his followers, and legends cropped up everywhere about his survival. These legends simply brought more and more people to his community.
He finally returned from exile in 1907 and his following by then was enormous. The French came to understand that he could do them a lot of good by transmitting and enforcing French policies and indeed the French awarded him the Legion of Honor in 1918 for enlisting hundreds of followers to fight in World War I against Germany. The French then allowed him to found his holy city of Touba and start on his great mosque.
Mourides are completely devoted to Sheik Bamba. In candor, their devotion is so great that it irritates other Muslims who are, of course, completely devoted to Muhammad. Mourides are also very much devoted to the lineage of marabouts who followed him. The male descendants of Bamba are considered great religious authorities in Senegal, and the current father of the Mourides is one of his descendants.
One of the interesting aspects of Sheik Bamba’s legacy is that while in exile, he rekindled Islamic faith and the local people reacquired their dignity, lost in the colonial era, all without shedding blood through violence. This notion of regaining dignity is very important for Americans to understand during this time when we have gone to war twice against Iraq.
The matter is so important; we’ll digress for just a moment, and introduce you to Kazuo Inamori, the 71-year-old founder and chairman emeritus of Kyocera, a Japanese information and communications technology company of some considerable size. Inamori became a Buddhist priest at 65 and was interviewed recently by Del Jones of USA TODAY, just before the war began with Iraq. He was asked to comment on the global anti-American sentiment that had shown its colors prior to the war. Amongst other things, he said this:
- “I don’t think extreme religious thinking is driving anti-American sentiment. Anti-American sentiment comes mostly from impoverished countries. Those countries were left behind by modernization and industrial prosperity. Struggling daily with poverty and hardship, people in those nations want to find some hope. Religion is all they have. It is easy to jump to the conclusion that religion is the cause of anti-American sentiment, but it’s not the case. It is poverty, not religion … Humble behavior or humility is required (of Americans). They should show sincere efforts to serve all people of the world — to do something for the betterment of mankind.”
There is an inference in his statement that Americans do not do things for the betterment of mankind. Nelson Mandela said the same thing. That is an idea with which we strongly disagree, but let’s set that aside. The point to be made here for our purposes is that Islam in the region of Senegal grew so rapidly because people wanted their dignity in the French colonial era, and they found it in Sheik Bamba and his Mourides brotherhood. Christians will recall that Christianity also grew from among the impoverished, among people who were simply looking for hope. What Americans need to do, in our view, is continue giving people cause for hope. That’s a very good role for Americans, in our view.
This concludes or brief overview. Perhaps you can better understand why so many people flock to Touba each year, and you can watch for it next year. Nafi Diouf, writing for AP, said this:
- “Mourides from across the country, and from throughout the diaspora of economic emigrants from impoverished Senegal, travel to Touba once a year to remember Bamba’s exile. While exact numbers aren’t known, about a tenth of Senegal’s 11 million citizens are said to be Mourides. They include Abdoulaye Wade, the democratically elected president of secular Senegal, which won independence from France in 1960. Typical of Senegalese Islam, which differs from the main branches practiced across the Arab world, Bamba blended African and Muslim influences. Senegalese believe that the so-called Marabouts, or brotherhood leaders, can act as an intermediary between them and Allah. The Marabouts can also bridge Islamic and African ways. They serve as community chiefs, while providing protective, magical charms for their followers.”
Islam with an African flavor. That’s neat!