In the house of a marabout*
* marabout: "Today marabouts can be traveling holy men who survive on alms, religious teachers who take in young talibes at koranic schools, or distinguished religious leaders and scholars, both in and out of the sufi brotherhoods which dominate spiritual life in Senegambia" (Wikipedia)
The great mosque of Touba in Senegal.
Last week-end I visited the city of Touba: the holy city of Mouridism, the second-biggest Muslim brotherhood in Senegal and the one with most economic and political power. Since its inception in 1888, and especially during the last decades Touba has grown to be the second most important city in Senegal after Dakar. It has also become independent from the Senegalese government and the city runs itself with the donations given by the Mouride community and with its revenues from vast peanut fields. Every year millions of Senegalese and other nationalities flock to Touba for the yearly pilgrimage, Grand Magal - besides the big one, there are several small pilgrimages during the year.
The founder of mouridism, Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba (1853-1927) began to gather a growing number of followers in the late 19th century. According to oral history, Ibrahima Fall (1855-1930) met with Bamba in 1882, immediately became his most devoted disciple and began to work for him, day and night, to spread the message of Islam and Mouridism all over Senegal. Fall founded the Sufi mystic sub-mouvement of Mouridism called Baye Fall whose members typically grow dreadlocks and wear multi-coloured or ragged clothes, being dedicated to God instead of materialism of this world.
The French colonials became more and more suspicious of Mouridism that gathered quickly thousands of followers, and decided to exile Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba to Gabon for 7 years between 1895 – 1902. Bamba was exiled another time to Mauritania between 1903 - 1907. Meanwhile Cheikh Ibrahima Fall continued to serve Mouridism, establishing new daaras (Islamic learning centres or schools) in Senegal and supervising the finances and concentrating on labour work. Both Bamba and Fall are said to have performed miracles, such as praying on the sea (Bamba).
This short background info is necessary to understand my visit in Touba. I went there with a Baye Fall whom I had got to know in Mboro. He wanted to see his marabout (here in the sense of a spiritual guide) and to see the month of Ramadan in Touba, and asked me to join him. As visiting Touba was something I had thought of, I took the opportunity and off we went, appropriately in a car mouride from Dakar to Touba. Most of the Senegalese public transport is owned by the Mourides, from taxis to big buses.
The green bus going to Touba.
After about four hours of traveling we hopped off in Mbacké, a town 7 kilometers from Touba where one can find things non-existing in Touba, such as Western banks or tobacco. Alcohol and cigarrettes are forbidden in the city of Touba, and when entering the city I noticed big boards saying : OUI A NDIGUEUL – NON A TABAC (yes to divine order – no to tobacco). I also had to wear something to cover my head while in Touba, either a veil or a Senegalese head piece.
The gate between the town of Mbacké and the city of Touba.
Some parts of the town of Mbacké had very strict rules as well, such as the block of ”ñaari baye fall”, (two baye falls). Most people there were baye falls, wearing clothes with varying patterns but only with the colours of light blue and dark blue; men wore traditional loose pants and a belt, whereas women wore dresses with wrap-around skirts. Later on I was told that the colours indicated the disciples of a certain marabout; other colour combinations were blue-white, black-yellow and black-white. The current general caliph of Baye Falls is the one with the colours black-yellow, and we went to listen the typical Baye Fall chanting in his house. Well, next to his house, as I was not able to enter - perhaps due to the fact that I was not wearing a wrap-around skirt, or me not being a Baye Fall.
See a video compilation on the Baye Falls, with music and clothing in YouTube.
When trying to find the way to a small Baye Fall centre with several huts and asking the way to get there in Mbacké, I could see how the behaviour of my Baye Fall friend changed. Whenever greeting people and asking the way, we had to kneel down, keep our eyes low and speak with a polite, soft voice. Or at least he did; I was observing all this while trying cope with my aching feet, unaccustomed to kneeling for several minutes in a row. I was told that the reverence is essential, as ”anyone you meet here might be a member of the Family”, thus meaning the family of Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba or Cheikh Ibrahima Fall.
At the little compound of Baye Fall we discussed on religion (there was a lot of it during the week-end, less surprisingly), drank coffee and ate tiepboudjen (rice with fish) before moving on to the actual city of Touba. Now, my last sentence reveals something quite remarkable on the Baye Falls: we are in the middle of the month of Ramadan, and daytime fasting, but they don’t fast. They don’t pray five times a day either (”because a Baye Fall prays constantly”), and even drinking alcohol is allowed. This non-respect of some of the pillars of Islam is frowned upon by many Muslims even in Senegal. However, the basis for not fasting and conducting the prayers is that they are serving the God and Mourides in other ways: working in the fields, cleaning the mosque, begging for money for their marabouts and serving cafe touba and food for the poor and needy especially during the Ramadan and during the pilgrimages to Touba.
Preparing café touba.
One of the Baye Falls also told me about the village of Ndem, perhaps 100 kilometres from Touba and handed me a book written by the founder of the Baye Fall community there, Serigne Babacar. Now I found a BBC article from 2006 telling about the village and its fair trade development projects: hospitals, schools, dozens and dozens of people employed by the Maam Samba company.
When we entered Touba, I dropped my luggage to the marabout’s house and we did our first tour around the big mosque. Then I saw them: dozens of Baye Falls, the light blue-dark blue sect, carrying bowls of food on their heads, chanting and walking to the place where they would serve the ndogou, the break-fasting meal consisting of coffee, bread and something to fill the bread.
Though there were beggars around the mosque, mostly little talibés (Coranic school pupils) and mothers, the atmosphere in general was calm and respectful. Before the sunset, we visited the library with images of Touba showing its evolution during the 20th century and with all the oeuvres of Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba, several mausoleums of the Mouride family, and the graveyard with the tomb of Cheikh Ibrahima Fall.
Inside the building rests Cheikh Ibrahima Fall, the founder of the Baye Fall movement.
The marabout’s house was just a stone-throw away from the mosque – very convenient for visiting, but less for sleeping, as the mosque’s loudspeakers were strong enough to be heard 5 kilometres of distance. The marabout’s son granted me a free room for visitors where I slept – I tried sleeping on the roof as well, but the coolness of the roof was beaten by the amount of mosquitoes, and I returned quickly to the hot room around 1am.
We were constantly being served food: first the ndogou, with just bread, butter and excellent cafe touba. Then two hours later while taking some air on the roof, we were brought a very greasy meal of vermicelli, chicken and meat. And the third time for eating took place when I had barely catched some sleep – rice with meat was really not something I was desperately longing for at 2 am in the morning (but I ate some of the rice the following day for lunch...).
On the first day the marabout was away but I was able to meet two of his sons and some daughters. One of the sons was newly-wed and had a room in the same wing as the guest room and two other rooms; but his room had an air conditioner set to 17 degrees celsius, a TV set, a wooden armoir and a huge bed. Nothing extravagant and with very little space besides the furniture, but the A/C could be considered as a luxury in the hot city of Touba...luckily now the temperature was only around 33 degrees and not nearly 40 as it tends to be during the spring months!
One of the marabout's four wives, Mariama told me that Jesus had said that his believers should follow the Prophet Muhammad who will come after him - I somehow politely replied that this does not exist in the Bible, but maybe it does in the Qur'an.
In the morning we had a proper tour in the mosque – I was not allowed to enter the prayer parts, but I could see most of the extravagant buildings, being renovated again by the Moroccans. A guide from the mosque gave me a tour explaining the history of the mosque and the mourides, always stopping in good places for photoes, clearly wanting me to admire the mosque. I diligently took photos in most places he showed me, even just to be polite.
One of the photo view points showed by the guide at the mosque.
After the mosque tour it was time to meet the marabout.
The marabout had a reception hall with mattresses and plastic carpets where three women were already waiting for him when we entered. We sat on the carpet to wait under the coolish breeze of a fan.
Finally the marabout emerged from his apartment, dressed all in white and wearing a kind of a veil. Two of his wives and one daughter followed – he sat on a wooden chair covered with leather patch-work, whereas the women sat on the ground.
The first woman presented her need: she showed a prescription of medicines to the marabout who had a quick look before asking the next woman what her business was. This one burst into minutes-long explanation on how she had bought some things to sell which, however, turned out to be stolen goods, and that she was even locked up for 20 days last year. This year she had bought again things to sell at the market and thought that everything was fine, until recently, after 10 months of selling without any problems she was again accused of selling stolen goods. After her we presented ourselves, my friend being his disciple and me as the guest.
For the first woman, the marabout digged into his pockets somewhere beneath his big white boubou (West African flowing suit for men, or a dress for women) and swiftly gave the woman 5 000 f CFA (around 8 euros) for her medicines. He also recited a benediction and blessed with prayers and his breath a tiny plastic bottle of water which the women gave him to be fortified this way.
The problem of the second woman, however, took a longer time to be solved. For me, being tired after two nights of bad sleep, it seemed like hours of talking, but probably the whole affair was finished after half an hour. The marabout promised to speak with the other party to see what the problem was about and how it could be solved peacefully.
When it came to us, he asked me the usual questions: where I was from, how long I had been in Senegal and so on. He exchanged a few words with his disciple before he went again inside to make a phone call. I excused myself at this point, willing to have a little nap after this interesting social experience to regain my strength while my friend stayed to wait the marabout's return.
In a way I was disappointed after seeing the marabout: to me he was just like any other religious authority who knows his status well. Then again, I was able to testify how the charity donated by Mourides to their marabouts works in practice, and the breadth of the areas in which people want to have advice from their marabouts, ranging from health to love or business affairs. A BBC article recounts quite well the impact and responsibility of marabouts, or cheikhs in Senegal. I was also surprised to see how actively the wives of marabout participated in these reception sessions. The one I had met the night before, Mariama, also has her own Islamic institute in Touba where she teaches.
New extensions to the mosque; more marble floor for praying - 15 000 people are said to gather to the mosque every Friday for prayer.
I did not really know what to expect from Touba: I had been told that mosque is impressive, but that otherwise there is little to see. As much as I appreciated the beauty of the mosque, the other experiences – seeing the Baye Fall communities in Mbacké, or staying at the marabout’s house and testifying the acts of charity first-hand were just as, or even more, interesting for me. Thus, my advice for anyone wanting to visit Touba is: do it with someone who knows the city and its people, and preferably stay overnight if you’re not afraid of heat and mosquitoes. The experience is something that is hard to find anywhere else, and it definitely shows another side of Senegal.
An interview of Carlou D, one of the many Baye Fall musicians whose concert I managed to catch in Dakar.
Musical homage to Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba, Cheikh Ibrahima Fall and the city of Touba can be found in YouTube:
Youssou N'Dour: Cheikh Ibra Fall (Youssou's whole album "Egypt" was dedicated to the Islamic brotherhoods in Senegal)
Madelayne Mbaye: Saliou Mbacké (an incredibly catchy song by Yaye Falls, the female versions of Baye Fall, praising the son of Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba)
Alpha Blondy: Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba (reggae warning :), but thought it would be interesting to have a non-Senegalese singer as well)
The great mosque of Touba in Senegal.
Last week-end I visited the city of Touba: the holy city of Mouridism, the second-biggest Muslim brotherhood in Senegal and the one with most economic and political power. Since its inception in 1888, and especially during the last decades Touba has grown to be the second most important city in Senegal after Dakar. It has also become independent from the Senegalese government and the city runs itself with the donations given by the Mouride community and with its revenues from vast peanut fields. Every year millions of Senegalese and other nationalities flock to Touba for the yearly pilgrimage, Grand Magal - besides the big one, there are several small pilgrimages during the year.
The founder of mouridism, Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba (1853-1927) began to gather a growing number of followers in the late 19th century. According to oral history, Ibrahima Fall (1855-1930) met with Bamba in 1882, immediately became his most devoted disciple and began to work for him, day and night, to spread the message of Islam and Mouridism all over Senegal. Fall founded the Sufi mystic sub-mouvement of Mouridism called Baye Fall whose members typically grow dreadlocks and wear multi-coloured or ragged clothes, being dedicated to God instead of materialism of this world.
The French colonials became more and more suspicious of Mouridism that gathered quickly thousands of followers, and decided to exile Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba to Gabon for 7 years between 1895 – 1902. Bamba was exiled another time to Mauritania between 1903 - 1907. Meanwhile Cheikh Ibrahima Fall continued to serve Mouridism, establishing new daaras (Islamic learning centres or schools) in Senegal and supervising the finances and concentrating on labour work. Both Bamba and Fall are said to have performed miracles, such as praying on the sea (Bamba).
This short background info is necessary to understand my visit in Touba. I went there with a Baye Fall whom I had got to know in Mboro. He wanted to see his marabout (here in the sense of a spiritual guide) and to see the month of Ramadan in Touba, and asked me to join him. As visiting Touba was something I had thought of, I took the opportunity and off we went, appropriately in a car mouride from Dakar to Touba. Most of the Senegalese public transport is owned by the Mourides, from taxis to big buses.
The green bus going to Touba.
After about four hours of traveling we hopped off in Mbacké, a town 7 kilometers from Touba where one can find things non-existing in Touba, such as Western banks or tobacco. Alcohol and cigarrettes are forbidden in the city of Touba, and when entering the city I noticed big boards saying : OUI A NDIGUEUL – NON A TABAC (yes to divine order – no to tobacco). I also had to wear something to cover my head while in Touba, either a veil or a Senegalese head piece.
The gate between the town of Mbacké and the city of Touba.
Some parts of the town of Mbacké had very strict rules as well, such as the block of ”ñaari baye fall”, (two baye falls). Most people there were baye falls, wearing clothes with varying patterns but only with the colours of light blue and dark blue; men wore traditional loose pants and a belt, whereas women wore dresses with wrap-around skirts. Later on I was told that the colours indicated the disciples of a certain marabout; other colour combinations were blue-white, black-yellow and black-white. The current general caliph of Baye Falls is the one with the colours black-yellow, and we went to listen the typical Baye Fall chanting in his house. Well, next to his house, as I was not able to enter - perhaps due to the fact that I was not wearing a wrap-around skirt, or me not being a Baye Fall.
See a video compilation on the Baye Falls, with music and clothing in YouTube.
When trying to find the way to a small Baye Fall centre with several huts and asking the way to get there in Mbacké, I could see how the behaviour of my Baye Fall friend changed. Whenever greeting people and asking the way, we had to kneel down, keep our eyes low and speak with a polite, soft voice. Or at least he did; I was observing all this while trying cope with my aching feet, unaccustomed to kneeling for several minutes in a row. I was told that the reverence is essential, as ”anyone you meet here might be a member of the Family”, thus meaning the family of Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba or Cheikh Ibrahima Fall.
At the little compound of Baye Fall we discussed on religion (there was a lot of it during the week-end, less surprisingly), drank coffee and ate tiepboudjen (rice with fish) before moving on to the actual city of Touba. Now, my last sentence reveals something quite remarkable on the Baye Falls: we are in the middle of the month of Ramadan, and daytime fasting, but they don’t fast. They don’t pray five times a day either (”because a Baye Fall prays constantly”), and even drinking alcohol is allowed. This non-respect of some of the pillars of Islam is frowned upon by many Muslims even in Senegal. However, the basis for not fasting and conducting the prayers is that they are serving the God and Mourides in other ways: working in the fields, cleaning the mosque, begging for money for their marabouts and serving cafe touba and food for the poor and needy especially during the Ramadan and during the pilgrimages to Touba.
Preparing café touba.
One of the Baye Falls also told me about the village of Ndem, perhaps 100 kilometres from Touba and handed me a book written by the founder of the Baye Fall community there, Serigne Babacar. Now I found a BBC article from 2006 telling about the village and its fair trade development projects: hospitals, schools, dozens and dozens of people employed by the Maam Samba company.
When we entered Touba, I dropped my luggage to the marabout’s house and we did our first tour around the big mosque. Then I saw them: dozens of Baye Falls, the light blue-dark blue sect, carrying bowls of food on their heads, chanting and walking to the place where they would serve the ndogou, the break-fasting meal consisting of coffee, bread and something to fill the bread.
Though there were beggars around the mosque, mostly little talibés (Coranic school pupils) and mothers, the atmosphere in general was calm and respectful. Before the sunset, we visited the library with images of Touba showing its evolution during the 20th century and with all the oeuvres of Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba, several mausoleums of the Mouride family, and the graveyard with the tomb of Cheikh Ibrahima Fall.
Inside the building rests Cheikh Ibrahima Fall, the founder of the Baye Fall movement.
The marabout’s house was just a stone-throw away from the mosque – very convenient for visiting, but less for sleeping, as the mosque’s loudspeakers were strong enough to be heard 5 kilometres of distance. The marabout’s son granted me a free room for visitors where I slept – I tried sleeping on the roof as well, but the coolness of the roof was beaten by the amount of mosquitoes, and I returned quickly to the hot room around 1am.
We were constantly being served food: first the ndogou, with just bread, butter and excellent cafe touba. Then two hours later while taking some air on the roof, we were brought a very greasy meal of vermicelli, chicken and meat. And the third time for eating took place when I had barely catched some sleep – rice with meat was really not something I was desperately longing for at 2 am in the morning (but I ate some of the rice the following day for lunch...).
On the first day the marabout was away but I was able to meet two of his sons and some daughters. One of the sons was newly-wed and had a room in the same wing as the guest room and two other rooms; but his room had an air conditioner set to 17 degrees celsius, a TV set, a wooden armoir and a huge bed. Nothing extravagant and with very little space besides the furniture, but the A/C could be considered as a luxury in the hot city of Touba...luckily now the temperature was only around 33 degrees and not nearly 40 as it tends to be during the spring months!
One of the marabout's four wives, Mariama told me that Jesus had said that his believers should follow the Prophet Muhammad who will come after him - I somehow politely replied that this does not exist in the Bible, but maybe it does in the Qur'an.
In the morning we had a proper tour in the mosque – I was not allowed to enter the prayer parts, but I could see most of the extravagant buildings, being renovated again by the Moroccans. A guide from the mosque gave me a tour explaining the history of the mosque and the mourides, always stopping in good places for photoes, clearly wanting me to admire the mosque. I diligently took photos in most places he showed me, even just to be polite.
One of the photo view points showed by the guide at the mosque.
After the mosque tour it was time to meet the marabout.
The marabout had a reception hall with mattresses and plastic carpets where three women were already waiting for him when we entered. We sat on the carpet to wait under the coolish breeze of a fan.
Finally the marabout emerged from his apartment, dressed all in white and wearing a kind of a veil. Two of his wives and one daughter followed – he sat on a wooden chair covered with leather patch-work, whereas the women sat on the ground.
The first woman presented her need: she showed a prescription of medicines to the marabout who had a quick look before asking the next woman what her business was. This one burst into minutes-long explanation on how she had bought some things to sell which, however, turned out to be stolen goods, and that she was even locked up for 20 days last year. This year she had bought again things to sell at the market and thought that everything was fine, until recently, after 10 months of selling without any problems she was again accused of selling stolen goods. After her we presented ourselves, my friend being his disciple and me as the guest.
For the first woman, the marabout digged into his pockets somewhere beneath his big white boubou (West African flowing suit for men, or a dress for women) and swiftly gave the woman 5 000 f CFA (around 8 euros) for her medicines. He also recited a benediction and blessed with prayers and his breath a tiny plastic bottle of water which the women gave him to be fortified this way.
The problem of the second woman, however, took a longer time to be solved. For me, being tired after two nights of bad sleep, it seemed like hours of talking, but probably the whole affair was finished after half an hour. The marabout promised to speak with the other party to see what the problem was about and how it could be solved peacefully.
When it came to us, he asked me the usual questions: where I was from, how long I had been in Senegal and so on. He exchanged a few words with his disciple before he went again inside to make a phone call. I excused myself at this point, willing to have a little nap after this interesting social experience to regain my strength while my friend stayed to wait the marabout's return.
In a way I was disappointed after seeing the marabout: to me he was just like any other religious authority who knows his status well. Then again, I was able to testify how the charity donated by Mourides to their marabouts works in practice, and the breadth of the areas in which people want to have advice from their marabouts, ranging from health to love or business affairs. A BBC article recounts quite well the impact and responsibility of marabouts, or cheikhs in Senegal. I was also surprised to see how actively the wives of marabout participated in these reception sessions. The one I had met the night before, Mariama, also has her own Islamic institute in Touba where she teaches.
New extensions to the mosque; more marble floor for praying - 15 000 people are said to gather to the mosque every Friday for prayer.
I did not really know what to expect from Touba: I had been told that mosque is impressive, but that otherwise there is little to see. As much as I appreciated the beauty of the mosque, the other experiences – seeing the Baye Fall communities in Mbacké, or staying at the marabout’s house and testifying the acts of charity first-hand were just as, or even more, interesting for me. Thus, my advice for anyone wanting to visit Touba is: do it with someone who knows the city and its people, and preferably stay overnight if you’re not afraid of heat and mosquitoes. The experience is something that is hard to find anywhere else, and it definitely shows another side of Senegal.
An interview of Carlou D, one of the many Baye Fall musicians whose concert I managed to catch in Dakar.
Musical homage to Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba, Cheikh Ibrahima Fall and the city of Touba can be found in YouTube:
Youssou N'Dour: Cheikh Ibra Fall (Youssou's whole album "Egypt" was dedicated to the Islamic brotherhoods in Senegal)
Madelayne Mbaye: Saliou Mbacké (an incredibly catchy song by Yaye Falls, the female versions of Baye Fall, praising the son of Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba)
Alpha Blondy: Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba (reggae warning :), but thought it would be interesting to have a non-Senegalese singer as well)
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