A Friday Evening Performance of the Mouride Zikrullah & Bamba Qasida

Almamy is a Baye Fall. He is a disciple of Iba Fall, who was a disciple and contemporary of Chiekh Amadou Bamba, founder of the Mouride Brotherhood here in Senegal.

Almamy has often referred to his Baye Fall parties on Thursday nights, though these parties involve chanting and prayer rather than beer and nuts.

He invited me to attend a gathering at his marabout’s home in Mermoz Friday night. (The marabout is Almamy’s spiritual teacher, along with thousand of others talibes, or students, some Baye Fall, most simply Mourides.) A group would be performing the zikrullah and a series of Bamba’s poems, called Qasida. The marabout had granted permission for my recording the event as I wanted, so I came armed with both video and audio-recording gear.

The performance began outside the marabout’s home, the group sang the zikrullah, continued into a small living room, lined with couches (we all sat on the floor), then settled in the round, in the center of the room, around eight little stands supporting copies of the Qasida. The group sang a variety of Bamba’s poetry over about 90 minutes. Around midnight, the marabout joined us, and addressed to the group.

Almamy later admonished me for not videotaping the event and, in particular, his marabout’s speech to the group. He was not sympathetic to my felt need to be respectful and not intrude. I had permission, and that was enough.

I found the audio to be very moving, and asked Almamy if he would offer a commentary to accompany a short movie. He deferred to the leader of the performing group, Amadou, and explained that he would offer a better commentary and would be happy to help. So, this we did lat night, here in Ouakam. Amadou spoke about performing the zikrullah and the Qasida, with Almamy’s translation.

You’ll find edited recordings of the zikrullah and Qasida with commentary at

Zikrullah

Qasida1

Qasida2

Abdul N'Diaye comments on zikrullah1 2