Cheikh Bou Kounta
Founder of Ndiassane (called back to God in 1914)
Family : Place of birth : Ndankh Naar, near Ngaye Mékhé ; Date of birth : 1840 ; Father : Cheikh al Bunama Kounta
Education : He received a demanding religious education very early. In 1847 he was sent to Sira, in Mauritania, to the Qur’anic master Ahmadou Dawga. At sixteen he began travelling through various regions to teach and transmit the Qur’an.
Action : In the early 1880s he founded Ndiassane, in Cayor, which became the main centre of the Qadiriyya (Khadre path) in Senegal. Bounama Mbaye was his first disciple. He gave one of his daughters in marriage to Serigne Babacar Sy, first caliph of the Sy family of Tivaouane, and another to Serigne Modou Moustapha Mbacké, first caliph of Touba: ties that bring great religious families of the country closer together.
Spiritual legacy : He was called back to God in 1914. Each year the Gamou of Ndiassane gathers his disciples. He was called back to God on 13 July 1914.
Sources
- Thèse (HAL) — L’Islam au Sénégal, le poids des confréries
- P. Marty, Études sur l’Islam au Sénégal (Google Books)
- Wikipédia — Cheikh Bou Kounta
- Maria Grosz-Ngaté, « Islam and Modernity » (Bou Kounta), Arabic Online Digital Library
- RTS — « Cheikh Bou Mouhamed Kounta : aux origines de la puissance spirituelle de Ndiassane »