The Grand Magal of the Mouride Brotherhood

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Our Senegalese friend and cultural interpreter, Almamy, is a Baye Fall* in the Mouride Brotherhood**.  I invited Almamy to carry our little digital camera to the annual pilgrimage to the holy city of Touba for the Grand Magal, which took place about a week ago.  

Here is a description of Almamy's photos above, followed by a series of footnotes, as context/elaboration:

Photo1:  The Grand Mosque of Touba+.  

Photo2:  A. at the tomb of Ibra Fall, founder of the Baye Fall.

Photo3:  A. serving coffee with his Baye Fall group.

Photos4-6:  A. and his Baye Fall group meeting with his marabout -- spiritual teacher.

Photo7:  A communal meal, a Senegalese tradition.

Photo8:  Reading from the writing of Cheikh Amadou Bamba.

Photo9:  A. explained that all sorts of vehicles are employed to transport the millions of pilgrims to Touba for the Magal.

Photo10-12:  During the ritual of Zhikrullah***, Baye Fall disciplines chant while disciplines strike themselves with a club while in a state of religious ecstasy.  Note the YouTube video of a Zhikrullah performance @ clip1 (not filmed by me).

*  One famous disciple of Bamba, Ibra Fall, was known for his dedication to God, and considered work as a form of adoration. Amadou Bamba finally decided that Ibra Fall should show his dedication to God purely through manual labor. Ibra Fall founded a sub-group of the Mouride brotherhood called the Baye Fall (Baay Faal in Wolof), many of whom substitute hard labor and dedication to their maraboutfor the usual Muslim pieties like prayer and fasting.

Sheikh Ibrahima Fall was one of the first of Amadou Bamba's disciples and one of the most illustrious. He catalysed the Mouride movement and led all the labour work in the Mouride brotherhood. Fall reshaped the relation between Mouride "talibes" (disciples) and their guide, Amadou Bamba. Fall instituted the culture of work among Mourides with his concept of Dieuf Dieul, ("you reap what you sow"). Ibra Fall helped Sheikh Amadou Bamba to expand Mouridism, in particular with Fall's establishment of the Baye Fall movement. For this contribution, Serigne Fallou, the 2nd Caliphafter Amadou Bamba, named him "Lamp Fall" (the light of Mouridism). In addition, Ibrahima Fall earned the title of Babul Mouridina, "the entrance in Mouridism."

The members of the Baye Fall dress in colorful ragged clothes, wear their hair in dreadlocks which are called ndiange or 'strong hair' , carry clubs, and act as security guards in the annual Grand Magalpilgrimages to Touba. In modern times the hard labor is often replaced by members roaming the streets asking for financial donations for their marabout. Several Baye Fall are talented musicians. A prominent member of the Baye Fall is the Senegalese Musician Cheikh Lo.  (from Baye Fall)

**  Touba is the holy city of Mouridism. Aamadu Bàmba Mbàkke, Senegal's most famous Sufi, was more than a spiritual master; he had a social mission as well, that of rescuing society from colonial alienation and returning it to the "Straight Path" of Islam. The city of Touba played a major role in both these endeavors.

Life in Touba is dominated by Muslim practice and Islamic scholarship. A major annual pilgrimage, called the Grand Magal, attracts between one and two million people from all over Senegal and beyond, from as far away as Europe and America. Other, minor pilgrimages occur throughout the year.

For Mourides, Touba is a sacred place. Forbidden in the holy city are all illicit and frivolous pursuits, such as the consumption of alcohol and tobacco, the playing of games, music and dancing. The Mouride order maintains absolute control over its "capital" to the exclusion of usual state-run civil and administrative services. The city constitutes an administratively autonomous zone with special legal status within Senegal. Every aspect of its city’s life and growth is managed by the order independently of the state, including education, health, supply of drinking water, public works, administration of markets, land tenure, and real estate development.  (from Touba)

+ At the heart of the Mouride holy city lies its Great Mosque, purported to be one of the largest in Africa. Since its completion in 1963 it has been continuously enlarged and embellished. The mosque has five minarets and three large domes and is the place where Amadou Bamba, founder of the Mouride brotherhood, lies buried. The mosque's 87-metre (285 ft) high central minaret, called Lamp Fall, is one of Senegal's most famous monuments. The name Lamp Fall is a reference to Sheikh Ibrahima Fall, one of Bamba's most influential disciples.

The immediate vicinity of the mosque houses the mausolea of Aamadu Bàmba's sons, the caliphs of the Mouride order. Other important institutions in the center of the holy city include a library, the Caliph's official audience hall, a sacred "Well of Mercy", and a cemetery. Shaykh Bara Mbacké, the current leader of the Mourides, is the sixth Caliph of Mouridism and the first not be a son of Aamadu Bàmba Mbàkke. Like his predecessors, he resides in a large compound on the main square facing the Mosque. (from Mouride)

++ Shaykh Aḥmadu Bàmba Mbàkke was born in the village of Mbacké (Mbàkke Bawol in Wolof) in the Kingdom of Baol, the son of a marabout from the Xaadir (Qadriyya) brotherhood, the oldest in Senegal.

A religious prayer leader, poet and monk, Ahmadou Bamba founded the Mouride brotherhood in 1883 and the city of Touba. In one of his numerous writings, 'Matlabul Fawzeyni' (the quest for happiness in both worlds), Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba describes the purpose of the city which he founded in 1887. In his concept, Touba should reconcile the spiritual and the temporal. Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba intended to have the spiritual capital of his brotherhood showing all the characteristics of a Muslim city. Reuters translated a notable phrase attributed to him, "Work as if you will live forever and pray as if you will die tomorrow."  (from Bamba)

***  Sometimes the zhikr is in pure a capella, some other times the zhikr is accompanied by drums.

Zhikrullah is the highest form of communication with Allah.  It takes the Murid to the hermetic abode of the divine without having to enter halwa, a solitary retreat for forty days.  Such penetration into the esoteric secrets of the zhikrullah are beyond any attempt to explore for those who have not yet reached the ultimate state of those rightly guided.  Allah dwells in the heart of those who do not have a grain of sand or black marks in their heart, and those are the ones whose eye of the heart are widely opened.  These are the Sufis whose hearts are polished by the remembrance and the love of their sovereign.  A heart in which Allah dwells knows everything that is manifest and hidden.  They do not desire anything in this worldly life, and detached from the vast majority of society, their only joy is to serve Allah and His prophet, through the guidance of the eminent Shaykha.  A handful of gold powder in their right hand is of a same value to them as a handful of sand in their left.

Baye Fall are very often considered as heretics who practice shirk. For most people, not only do they (the Baye Fall) not pray five times a day, but they find an associate to Allah by saying La ilaha ill Allah Fall.   They wear their (hair) as locks, wear patchwork rags, and all sorts of prayer beads and amulets. They use wooden clubs, swords and knives, hitting and stabbing themselves during ceremonies of zhikr.  La ilaha ill Allah Fal, for people with no understanding, condemn it as shirk, not being familiar with Baye Fall.  From a mystic perspective, the two letters Fa and Lam stand for Fadilu ilahi, the Elected of Allah, and Laminu ilahi, the Trustworthy of Allah.   (from Zhikrullah)