Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba
Founder of the Mouridiyya (1853 – 1927)
Family : Place of birth : Mbacké-Baol ; Date of birth : 1853 ; Mother : Mame Diarra Bousso ; Father : Mame Mor Anta Saly Mbacké
Education : Entrusted at the age of seven to his uncle Thierno Mboussobé to learn the Qur’an, he continued his studies with Serigne Tafsir Mbacké Ndoumbé, then returned to his father’s school. He composed religious poems very early; his written work, in Arabic, is considerable.
Action : He devoted himself to spiritual guidance and founded the Mouride brotherhood, based on work, prayer and devotion. He founded Touba in 1887, which became the spiritual centre of the Mourides. When his father died in 1881 he took over the family school. In 1919 he received the Légion d’honneur: he accepted the diploma but refused the cross.
Trials : The French colonial authorities, worried about his influence, arrested him on 10 August 1895 and exiled him to Gabon, where he stayed until 11 November 1902. Arrested again in 1903, he was sent to Mauritania for four years. During his exile he spent five years at Mayumba and two at Lambaréné. On his return he lived under surveillance, then settled in Diourbel in 1912–1913.
Spiritual legacy : He was called back to God at Diourbel on 19 July 1927 and rests at Touba, whose Great Mosque was inaugurated in 1963. His son, Serigne Mouhamadou Moustapha Mbacké, succeeded him as the first general caliph of the Mourides. Each year the Grand Magal commemorates his departure into exile in 1895. The first public Magal was held in 1921.
Sources
- Persée — Vincent Monteil, « Une confrérie musulmane, les Mourides du Sénégal » (Archives de sociologie des religions, 1962)
- C. A. Babou, Le Jihad de l’âme : Ahmadou Bamba et la fondation de la Mouridiyya au Sénégal (compte rendu, Journal des africanistes)
- Cairn — « Généalogie, éducation et baraka dans la famille Mbakke » (Afrique et histoire, 2009)
- Persée — D. B. Cruise O’Brien, The Mourides of Senegal (compte rendu)
- Wikipédia — Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba