Ahmadou Bamba, Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Mbacké (1853-1927) (Aamadu Bàmba Mbàkke in Wolof, Shaykh Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥabīb Allāh in Arabic, also known as Khadīmu 'l-Rasūl or "The Servant of the Prophet" in Arabic, and as Sëriñ Tuubaa or "Cheikh of Tuubaa" in Wolof), muslim Sufi religious leader in Senegal, founder of the large Mouride Brotherhood (the Muridiyya). See Muslim brotherhoods of Senegal. Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba was a mystic and religious leader who produced a prodigious quantity of poems and tracts on meditation, rituals, work, and Qur'anic study. Politically, Ahmadou Bamba led a pacifist struggle against French colonialism while not waging outright war on the French as several prominent Tijaan marabouts had done.
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Biography
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. Reuters translated a notable phrase attributed to him, "Pray as if you will die tomorrow and work as if you will live forever."
Facing Colonial Rule
As his fame spread, the French colonial government worried about Bamba's growing power and potential to wage war against them. He had converted a number of traditional kings and their followers and no doubt could have raised a huge military force, as muslim leaders like Umar Tall and Samory Touré had before him. The French sentenced him to exile in Gabon (1895-1902) and later in Mauritania (1903-1907). However, these exiles fired stories of Bamba's miraculous survival of torture, deprivation, and attempted executions, and thousands more flocked to his organization. On the ship to Gabon, forbidden from praying, Bamba is said to have broke his leg-irons, leapt overboard into the ocean and prayed on a prayer rug that appeared on the surface of the water, so devout was he. Or, when the French put him in a furnace, he simply sat down in it and drank tea with Muhammad. In a den of hungry lions, the lions slept beside him, etc. By 1910, the French realized that Bamba was not interested in waging war against them, and was in fact quite cooperative, eventually releasing him to return to his expanded community. In 1918, he won the French Legion of Honor for enlisting his followers in the First World War and the French allowed him to establish his community in Touba, believing in part that his doctrine of hard work could be made to serve French economic interests. His movement was allowed to grow, and in 1926 he began work for the great mosque at Touba where he is buried. After his death in 1927, he has been succeeded by his descendants as hereditary leaders of the brotherhood with absolute authority over the followers.
Importance to Islam and Anticolonialism
As the founder of Mouridism, Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba is considered one of the greatest spiritual leaders in Senegalese history. Mouridism is today one of Senegal’s four Sufi movements, with 4 million devotees in Senegal alone and thousands more abroad. Followers of the Mouridism movement, an offshoot of traditional Sufi philosophy, aspire to live closer to God, in emmulation of the Prophet Muhammad's example. Amadou Bamba's teachings emphasized the virtues of pacifism and the importance of hard work, became in the 20th century one of the biggest influence on contemporary Senegalese life and culture. As an ascetic marabout who wrote tracts on meditation, rituals, work, and Qur'anic study, he is perhaps best known for his emphasis on work, and his disciples are known for their industriousness. In the political sphere, Ahmadou Bamba led a pacifist struggle against French colonialism while trying to restore a purer practice of Islam insulated from French colonial influence. In a period when successful armed resistance was impossible, Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba led a spiritual struggle against colonial culture and politics. Although he did not wage outright war on them as several prominent Tijaan marabouts had done, he taught, what he called the jihād al-'akbar or "greater struggle," which fought not through weapons but through learning and fear of God.
Venerated by Mourides
Bamba's followers call him a "renewer" (mujaddid in Arabic) of Islam, citing a hadith that implies that God will send renewers of the faith every 100 years (the members of all the Senegalese brotherhoods claim that their founders were such renewers). Bamba's fame spread through his followers, and people joined him to receive the salvation that he promised. Salvation, he said, comes through submission to the marabout and hard work, a departure from conventional Islamic teaching. Amadou Bamba has only one surviving photograph, in which he wears a flowing white robe and his face is mostly covered by a scarf. This picture is venerated and reproduced in paintings on walls, buses, taxis, etc. all over Senegal. Every year, hundreds of thousands of Muslims make a pelgrimage to Touba ('Magal'), worshipping at the mosque and honouring the memory of Sheikh Amadou Bamba. [1]
References
- [2] in English.
- Mouride.com
- Jamiatou.com
- htcom
- daaramouride.asso.ulaval.ca
- Majalis.org
- La Non Violence de Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba
- International Sufi School Khidmatul Khadim
- Article on Shaykh Ahmadou Bamba as Peacemaker
- Official Home Page of the Muridiyya Khidmatul Khadim School
- A modest tribute from Tidjani Négadi (Oran University, Algeria)
- Sect follows different brand of Islamic law. Reuters, May 22, 2007.
- Timeline of the events of Amadou Bamba's life from touba-internet.com.
- Le Mouridisme by Pape N'Diaye, on afrology.com
- David Robinson: French 'Islamic' Policy and Practice in Late Nineteenth-Century Senegal in The Journal of African History, Vol. 29, No. 3 (1988), pp. 415-435
- Passport to Paradise: Sufi Arts of Senegal and Beyond: exhibition and educational program from the Fowler Museum of Cultural History of the University of California at Los Angeles.
