WEST AFRICA REVIEW
ISSN: 1525-4488
Issue 8 (2005)
WEST AFRICA REVIEW ISSN: 1525-4488 Issue 8 (2005) |
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MOURIDISM: A LOCAL RE-INVENTION OF THE MODERN SENEGALESE SOCIO-ECONOMIC ORDER |
Boudoul woon yooni geej gui Wolof yep nassarani . . .
If it was not for the exile to the sea all Wolofs would be
Europeanized . . .
These words start the essay, “Jazâ'u sakûr” (The Exile to the Sea), the magnum opus of Serigne Moussa Ka, who can be considered the master of all mouride poets and historians and the pioneer of the commentary of the treatises of Cheikh Amadou Bamba Mbacke (Serigne Touba). Serigne Moussa Ka was Serigne Touba’s disciple. His master named him Cheikh in charge of the exegesis of Mouride Philosophy. For Ka’s ordination, Serigne Touba asked him to translate his philosophy into Wolof and to explain his doctrine to the masses who did not have access to Arabic: “Musa, Leeralal mbir mi talibee yi!” (Mousa, clarify the subject to the Talibees!). Moussa Ka’s essay, “Jazâ'u sakûr'' narrates the exile of Serigne Touba to Gabon and is considered to be the most accurate commentary and explanation of the foundation of Mouridism. Serigne Touba’s exile to Gabon is considered by Mourides, to be a spiritual and physical contest between the colonial Western European organization of society and the Wolof traditional culture. The two first verses of Serigne Moussa Ka’s “Jazâ'u sakûr'' introduce the reader to the importance of Mouridism in the development of a modern Senegalese culture that coexists with the European and Arabic cultures, yet retains its particularities.
More than a religious phenomenon, Mouridism is a social revolution, an uprising against the French colonizer, and a cultural project that aimed at challenging the doctrine of French cultural supremacy imposed by the French colonial system through its policies of assimilation. Mouridism started in 1887, one year after the fall of Lat Dior in Dekhele, which officially marked the end of military resistance in Senegal and two years after the Berlin Conference, where Africa was divided, like a piece of cake, by the European powers of the time. In that context, Serigne Touba, like numerous marabous, decided to oppose the Western social and political organizations proposed by the mighty French colonial apparatus with a new weapon: Islam. In fact, since the military confrontations that resisted the European colonial enterprise were unfruitful, Islam became the next form of resistance against the oppressor in Senegal. However, while using a similar strategy to other Cheikhs’, Serigne Touba avoided the Arab cultural dimensions of Islam. Separating himself from the Arab culture of Islam, he proposed a new way of reading the Koran, based on a Wolof traditional perspective. Mouridism marked the beginning of what Mourides like to call “a black Islam.”
By the late 1880s, centuries of Ceddo violence, wars between neighboring kingdoms, and the French military operations to control the territory, had annihilated most social values and destroyed the traditional social organizations in the “Wolof country.” At the end of the armed resistance, the colonials decided to reorganize the society to fit their program to better exploit the potentialities of the new colony. This context gave birth to Mouridism, which appeared as a new force against French imperialism as it aimed to restore and re-organize the society under the values of an Islam mixed with Wolof tradition and values. Thus, all those who were considered outcasts in the Wolof society and the new colonial system found shelter in the Mouride brotherhood, notably, descendents of royal families, ex ceddos, and low cast members of the society. Mouridism was a refuge for the “wretched of the earth” and a hope for a society administered by a foreign power whose project was to disintegrate all traditional structures. Mouridism became the place where the community was reconstructed and their cultural pride boosted.
Today, while Senegal is experiencing tough economic depression, and an extraordinarily high rate of joblessness, Mouridism is spreading like wildfire. Anytime people’s existence is threatened, anytime their survival is in question, there are mass conversions to Mouridism. As it did at the end of the 19th century, Mouridism functions, today, as an answer to people’s existential questions and a refuge for all those whose survival is endangered by the existing social and economic system. Although during the beginning of the colonial system it was a reaction to an invading power, Mouridism functions as an alternative to the economic and social chaos unleashed by the structural adjustment policies of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the twin heirs of the former colonialists. It should be understood that Mouridism is not only a safe haven, it is also an example of a different socio-economic system that promises a new society.
A century and a half after Serigne Touba’s “exile to the sea,” Mouridism continues to develop, in the margins of the Western political system, as a social organization, which, consistently, succeeds in all the spheres where the Western-inspired Senegalese state has failed. In present day Senegal, the holy city of Touba is the fastest growing city in the county. Constituting one third of the population of Senegal, Mourides (Baol Baols, in particular) own two-thirds of the wealth and monopolize a sizable portion of the economy, despite the fact that they ignore all the Western economic doctrines. Baol Baols have never heard of Adam Smith or Benjamin Franklin since they have never set foot in a Western school. Yet, these graduates of Daaras (Islamic schools) succeed everywhere where alumnae of prestigious Western business schools fail. Mourides exemplify that it is possible to create a system outside of the Western socioeconomic philosophy. Their success is due to the social and political organization of their movement, which made possible the emergence of new “models” for the whole society. The Moodou, as the model of the new “woman” and “man,” challenges the nation state and announces its death.
Mouridism, like any social and cultural project, developed a popular culture, which is changing the topography of the entire Senegalese society. This culture popularized a new literature (Wolofal) and a visual art, which set the basis for a social revolution and proclaimed a new order. Wolofal and Mouride visual art function as violent phenomena directed at the ideals of perfection imposed by a society copied from the French system. Comparable to Frantz Fanon’s idea of the “necessary violence” (1963, 35), the Mouride artistic productions attempt to re-define the modern Senegalese culture, re-shape the entire social structure, and instill, in its members, self-esteem and national pride that is necessary for nation building. Mouridism proposes to the Senegalese subject to forget the ideals offered by the French system and to re-invent a national project based on a different conception of the human. It is a materialization of Fanon’s idea of violence.
If Fanon advocates violence, it is mostly because he understands that the major problem in colonial societies is that the system is not appropriate to the colonized social realities. Violence, for Fanon, sets the conditions of possibility of a completely new dawn, i.e. of a different culture, since “the success lies in a whole social structure being changed from the bottom up” (1963, 35). The conditions for this complete change were realized, in the Senegalese context, by the Mouride art. Its violent relation to the system might not have been physical, as Fanon advocates it, but it was just as revolutionary. Through art, Mourides reject the very conception of truth produced in the realm of a power structure that threatens the very balance and foundation of the society. Their artistic production functions as a direct attack to the French culture and the Western political system.
There are, in the Senegalese context, two major intellectual currents: On the one hand, the Western school, which stems from the French educational tradition, is founded on the very idea of Westernization. On the other, the Islamic school claims the superiority of the civilized Arab culture and the values of the Orient. There were also, for a long time, two major literary productions: one in French, taught and valorized in Western schools and another more religious one, in Arabic. Meanwhile, native literatures were considered pseudo literatures. Wolof and other local cultures were considered trivial by both currents and these cultures' national languages, values, and traditions were reduced to folkloric levels. This conception of education and its treatment of native literatures are still ongoing, even though the development of Mouridism is changing the system.
Mouridism has developed a body of literature in Wolof, which challenges not only the French colonizer but also Arabic imperialism. In fact, traditional literatures, which were formerly not taught in the school system, have recently been incorporated, with the development of Wolofal, into the university curriculum. The expansion of Mouridism and the subsequent development of Wolofal are reversing the traditional tendency, for students, to specialize in French literature. The popular view of Wolof literature and language is changing dramatically so that what was, until recently, considered to be a minor literature, by the regular citizen, is regaining its nobility through the development of Wolofal. From the not-so-distant period, when they were viewed as a pseudo language and literature symptomatic of the Kaw-kaw (derogative term designating people from rural areas), the badoolo (poor uncultured citizen, peasant), and the ghetto, Wolofal and Wolof are progressively spreading to all levels of the population and have gained respectable status in university campuses, Plateaux, and Sicaps, which were, until recently, the cradle of French imperialism.
The existence of Wolofal, the written Wolof literature in Arabic alphabet, was one of the essential moments in the development of Wolof culture and its resistance to French and Arabic imperialisms. The word “wolofal” is formed by the prefix wolof and the suffix al. It means both the action of writing and the written literature in Wolof. According to Cheikh Anta Diop,
on a souvent ignoré l’existence d’une poésie écrite en langue du pays selon les règles bien définies d’un art poétique. Tel est par example la poésie religieuse des wolofs, qui constituent les premiers monuments littéraire de notre langue et par conséquent les premiers fondements de notre culture nationale. (1954, 13)
The existence of a poetry in traditional languages that respects the rules of a well-defined poetic art has been ignored for a long time. Such is the Wolof religious poetry. It constitutes the first literary monuments of our language and in consequence it marks the foundation of our national culture.
Such a statement may be considered an exaggeration. But in fact, the Senegalese national culture has produced works of art long before the development of Wolofal. Still, it is undeniable that Wolofal has played an important role in the recognition and respect of Wolof culture, the demystification of the French and the Arabic civilizations, and the development of national consciousness. Indeed, the language in which it is written (Wolof) and the themes treated (the nobleness of Wolof, the dignity of traditional cultures, the education of the population, and the evil of the western models) function as a celebration of the Wolof culture. It is remarkable that during a period when it was broadly accepted that talking about Islam in national languages was blasphemous, Wolofal challenged and transformed this popular knowledge. The tendency that called for the exclusivity and privileged status of Arabic, in the religious domain, was reversed and a new alphabet, inspired by the existing Arabic one, was created. Wolofalkats (wolofal writers) succeeded in remodeling the Arabic alphabet to fit the needs of the Wolof phonetic.
Wolofal was developed by renowned authors such as Moussa Ka, Mbaye Diakhate, Mor Kayre, and Samba Diarra Mbaye, who are, frequently, compared to the poets of the Pléiade, since they started a similar movement, which could have been called “defense and illustration of the Wolof language,” as prefigured by Moussa Ka when he declared,
Bepp lakk nexx na biy dindi ci nitt xell ma tey tudd ci jamm
ngor la (Faye 1999, 87).
Every language is beautiful when it transports the human out of her or himself, and praises the nobility of humanity. .
And so, as early as the nineteenth century, Mouride Wolofalkats theorized the importance of languages in the process of the maturing of cultures. Wolofals are about Serigne Touba’s hagiography, the superiority of Wolof culture over French culture, moral, and civic education. Lastly, and more importantly, Wolofal is a new way of thinking about Islam which separates the Muslim religion from the Arabic culture. In consequence, Mourides have routinely been criticized for their lack of religiosity, since, to their detractors, they do not respect the universality of Arabic culture and the a-temporality of Allah’s Words. But Mouride wolofalkats reject the a-historicism underpinning these critiques. They insist on the kind of universality that does not negate or demean their identity. For them, the Koran is universal not because everybody can adapt to it and assume an Arabic approach to Islam, but because it can adapt itself to everybody and to the values of all cultures. There are as many Korans as there are cultures, generations, and even persons. For Mouride wolofalkats, the Koran is an open text and its sense can be produced and re-produced every time it is read. Properly interpreted, it cohabits with any culture without calling for its obliteration, this is because being Muslim and being Arab are two completely different things.
While studies of Art more often than not focus on the oeuvre itself, its history, and the artist, critics hardly ever draw attention to the effect and influence of the art or artist on a given people, in a given place and time. But to understand Mouride art, it is necessary to overturn that tendency and point out the relation between the oeuvre and the reception. In other words, it is necessary to find out how Mouride art transforms the masses and makes possible a new conception of the traditional cultures in Senegal.
Modern African Art is one of the aspects of the African culture that Africans themselves know the least. For example, when walking in the streets of Dakar one asks at random, even students of Cheikh Anta Diop University, to cite any Senegalese artist other than singers, dancers, or musicians, an uncomfortable silence is likely to reign. Yet, if the question is about some French painters, the silence will turn into a stream of names. Such an attitude has two major reasons: on one hand, intellectuals and “nouveaux riches” consider African Art as a “pseudo-art,” on the other hand, “Art” itself appears, for the ordinary Senegalese man or woman, as an activity reserved for a rich elite who can afford such a luxury. But, with the development of Mouridism and Mouride Art, a different relation to art and the artwork is established.
Ignoring the Western influences, Mouride artwork developed around the mysticism of the Cheikh, the holy city of Touba, and the education and cultural pride of Wolofs. Mouride art contrasts with the traditional conception of art in Africa. It is not a reaction to the Western influence and the artist does not curl up in an imagined African art characterized by masks. It cannot either be confined between “on one hand… the luminous inescapable influence of village life; on the other, the not so neutral gaze and speech of their teachers.” (Mudimbe 1994, 12) Quite the opposite, it develops within the social order, in relation to the needs of the modern Senegalese society. Today, while the economic and cultural depression is thriving and the society, as a whole, needs some points of reference, Mouride artists propose a series of products, which present, to the ordinary citizen of a society in total decrepitude, a success story, the story of Touba, their own story. For the ordinary Mouride, the story of Touba is nothing but the story of the Wolof culture. Mouride Art functions, thus, as a tool to comfort the whole society by telling the masses that the economic crisis is, in reality, due to the failure of the society in which they live but not to their own weaknesses, as opposed to the theories of many afro-pessimist thinkers. Every artistic celebration of Touba, in consequence, functions as a rejuvenation of hope in the heart of the ordinary citizen. The image of Touba contrasts the failure of the Senegalese state and its westernized technocrats with the success story of Touba and its wolofized Baol-Baol Talibees. Identifying with the themes developed, masses, who did not have any interest in art before (the African art being considered too trivial and the European one too expensive) have recently developed a particular interest in the Mouride art. Today, as opposed to the Muslim general conception of representation, Mouride art has taken the place of Marx’s Capital in living rooms, competes with copies of the Mona Lisa in intellectual places, and threatens Eve, 2Pac, and the Notorious B.I.G’s posters hanging on the wall of youngsters’ and teenagers’ rooms.
One of the consequences of Wolofal and Mouride art is the de-colonization of the Senegalese woman and man, which resulted in a total shift of the social ideals. The present model is no longer the Europeanized “boy Dakar” as it used to be until the 1980’s. It is not the intellectual who speaks flawless French “with no accent” either. The new model is a new actor in a new social context: the talibee.
The talibee is the exact opposite of the African intellectual of the 1960’s and the 1970’s. Not only does she or he consider Mouridism as a cultural revolution, but she or he also shakes the foundations of the society in which she or he lives. For the talibee, Mouridism is the outcome of Serigne Touba’s struggle against the French colonizer and, as such, it marks the superiority of the Senegalese culture over the French one. In effect, as a threat to the stability of the French colonial enterprise in Senegal, Serigne Touba was exiled by the French administration. He was sent to Mayomba in Gabon, reputed for its perilous conditions, before he was brought back to Senegal seven years later. The Cheikh’s return was considered by Mourides as a victory of the Senegalese tradition against the French colonizer. For talibees, while all members of the resistance movements against French colonization were either killed or coaxed into collaborating with France, Serigne Touba was the only one who was able to resist the power of the mighty French oppressor and, not only survive, but also propose an alternative to the French social and political projects. Thus, for Mourides, the consequence of Serigne Touba’s exile and triumphant return is the manifestation of the victory of the Wolof tradition and culture over that of the colonizer.
The struggle between the Cheikh and the French is, for Mourides, the competition between two cultures: the Senegalese and the French. As a result of the intrinsic relation between language and culture, speaking French in Mouride milieus is the hallmark of the uncultured. The better one masters Wolof, the more cultivated one is considered since language is the means for conveying history and cultural awareness. This is the reason why, in Senegal, Mourides are easily recognizable by the way they talk. In fact, while non-Mourides speak “Frwolof,” (a Frenchified version of Wolof), Mourides watch their language and are particularly concerned with the quality and the purity of their Wolof. On the streets of Dakar, the response to “hi how are you?” varies depending on whether the speaker is a Mouride or not. For the non Mouride, it is “Wa boy alors ca va?” and for the Mouride it is, “Sa ma serigne na ka mbirr yi?”
In some cases, however, this attitude toward language can be pushed to the limit so that it becomes a threat to the stability of Senegalese society. For example, some years ago a problem occurred in Senegal and Mourides took over the court demanding the liberation of a talibee who disrespected a judge during a court session. The talibee, a witness in a case, answered in Wolof when he was asked to approach the bench. The judge then demanded that he answer all questions in the court's official language, French. The talibee refused to abide by the court’s rules and was arrested on contempt of court charges. When questioned about his irreverent attitude, his reasons were simple: a hundred years earlier the Cheikh won his battle against the French colonizer and he was not going to allow history to be falsified by speaking French. Although such an attitude may seem extreme, it shows the depth of Mourides' commitment to Wolof language and culture. Mourides are far more proud of Wolof culture than most Western educated Wolofs. They are also more nationalist.
Nationalism in the postcolonial African context is necessary if we consider that, as products of the colonial system, natives do not have low self-esteem; they have no self-esteem at all. As says Fanon,
the native represents not only the absence of values, but also the negation of values. He is, let us dare to admit, the enemy of values, and in this sense he is the absolute evil. He is the corrosive element. Destroying all that comes near him; he is the deforming element, disfiguring all that has to do with beauty or morality; he is the depository of maleficent powers, the unconscious and irretrievable instrument of blind forces. (1963, 41)
The native is not a human being. He or she is a beast. At the end of the process of assimilation, he or she ends up believing that he or she really is less than a human. It is almost impossible for the ex-native, who has become the alien or the citizen of a “third world” country, not to have any inferiority complex. History and science are closely connected to power and have, consequently, always presented the native as a minority (in the sense of something that is less than) in order to legitimate the existing power structure. Because slavery, colonization, and imperialism needed to justify, rationalize, and defend themselves, a certain idea of Africa was invented. Today, things may seem different, but in reality, it is exactly the same dichotomy of an “Us” vs. a “Them.” All the meanings and connotations of the savage African have now been shifted to the new barbarian: the poor third world population. In consequence, the question of self-esteem is crucial since Africa is still an “idea” loaded with colonial meanings.
Nowadays, with the supposed transformation of the world into a village, the threats are even bigger and the African subject is, in many cases, blurred by the misuses of the concept of globalization, which, in reality, means Westernization. In fact, globalization, instead of being what it claims to be, the transformation of the world into a village and the erasure of barriers, nations, and cultures, is the exportation and imposition of one identity, one culture, and one nationality to the rest of the world. Globalization is a one-directional movement, from the North to the South. To actively participate in this global world, one needs to have the right passport, since the rules of the game are decided by and for the G-8 nations. The “rendez vous du donner et du recevoir” (the rendez-vous of give and take) that Senghor was dreaming about forty years ago is definitely happening, but not in the way he anticipated. Far from being a forum of equal exchange, there is only one force that commands (the West) and one that responds (the Third World). In this context, the only global subjects, invented by the theories of globalization, are the wealthy Euro-American species.
Under the new colonizing regime of globalization, nationalism functions as a necessity for the survival of the African or “third world species.” Mouridism, with the help of the popular culture it developed (wolofal and art), is the Senegalese tool for resisting this new colonization. In the social sphere, for example, it is the instrument that compels a shift in orientation. In fact, the fast growth of Mouridism in the last ten years corresponds to the actualization of this process. For example, before the mid 1990s, which marks the emergence of Hip Hop in Senegal and corresponds to the Mouride expansion, models of lifestyle for the young generations were still the product of the Western school. During the 1990s, however, a significant change occurred, in which new societal values began to emerge and to underscore a strong feeling of being Senegalese and “proud to be black.” While in the late 1980s it was not rare to see young kids, in white sneakers and striped sweatshirts break-dancing to the rhythm of Public Enemy, New Edition or MC Hammer, today, though break-dance is still popular in the Hip Hop movement, it is nonexistent in Dakar. Although, Nikes and Timberlands are just as popular as they used to be, the new generation became Mouride and, instead of break-dancing, they are singing Serigne Moussa Ka’s Wolofal or Serigne Bethio Thioune’s Zikr. This shift is due to the fact that, while their older brothers were mainly Tidjanes, or unaffiliated to any brotherhood, most of the younger generation is Mouride and willing to be talibees.
This new Mouride culture is reinforced by the expansion of the brotherhood out of the Senegalese borders, and its conquest of the Western world. Nowadays, Touba can be found in every big city (Touba New York, Touba Paris, Touba Rome, Touba Abidjan, etc.), and Mourides are particularly willing to tell everybody who wants to listen about the universality of their doctrine and the increasing numbers of talibees. For the young generation, Mouride expansion mirrors the pride that accompanies any imperialist endeavor and the strong feeling of nationalism that characterizes imperialist societies.
Mouridism in Senegal can, thus, be considered to be the way out of the new colonization that hides behind the current program of globalization that is taking over new territories. A hundred years after it was born in order to oppose French imperialism, Mouridism is at its apex, while the society is, once again, threatened by the new “Western Empire,” a colonization without visible tanks.
The Mouride philosophy establishes a standpoint from which it is possible to critique, evaluate, and judge the Senegalese society from a different perspective. As a product of a different intellectual system, the Mouride has the means to evaluate and, if need be, propose an alternative to the postcolonial Western Senegalese system. Educated outside of that system, the Mouride puts to question the production of truth, truth itself, and the way it is presented by the mainstream power structure. Mourides are conscious that the current political system, represented by the state, is imported. Thus, it does not match the social realities of their society. In consequence, Mourides either radically ignore this Western imposition or threaten it in order to install their own socio-political organization. Mourides pioneer a critique of the society based on the knowledge they learnt in the three Daaras: Daara kaamil (first stage of the Mouride school system, pupils focus on studying the Koran), Daara Tarbiyou (second stage, pupils learn the values of modesty and endurance) and Daara ligueey (third and last stage, pupils have a practical training). This is why Ablaye Thiam, interviewed by Malick Ndiaye, affirms:
Un instruit [école française] croit a la loi, le Moodou ne s’en soucie guère!.. Il y a une chose que l’instruction enlève chez l’individu. L’instruction te fait entrer dans le systême . . . (Ndiaye 1998, 238)
The instructed person [French school] believes in the law, the Moodou does not care about it! There is something instruction takes from the individual. It makes them participate in the system.]
Moodous understand that the current system is shaped to fit the interest of a minority of which they are not part. By refusing to pay taxes, they reject the regulation of the state and its market. As a result, they are, frequently, portrayed as responsible for the impoverishment of the state. Yet, in reality, the Moodous are innovators. While intellectuals consider the whole system as a given, which they are willing to transform from the inside, Moodous question the state as such and propose another social organization that does not share common ground with the existing one. For Moodous, the economic, political, and social crises of African countries are neither due to a lack of democracy, nor to the necessity of Africanization. The problem is not the failure of liberalization policies, economic adjustment programs, or the Omega Plan which metamorphosed into the continent-wide NEPAD. For them, the problem is the entire system. In their view, the post-colonial state has failed totally because it is unable to fulfill the basic needs of the masses. Moodous understand that the imported system does not correspond to the natives’ needs and social realities. This is why Pacotille, a Mouride rapper, rapped: “Guemou ma plan alpha walla Omega/ beneen system bou Babilone tekk la/ pour gueuneu meune creer ay degats.” [I do not believe in an alpha or omega plan/ It is just another system that Babylone set/ to create more problems.] The Moodou considers Mouridism as a social and cultural doctrine, which makes possible a different diagnoses of the post-colonial question and sets the basis and the conditions of possibility of a new system based on a different set of principles and values.
It is safe to say that Mouridism goes much further. It is not only a theory, it is also a practice. Mouridism is the concrete example of a society that developed on the margins of the classic Western one, and succeeded in its economic projects, while the state of Senegal is going through its worst political and economic period. In effect, while it is obvious that the Western model has failed everywhere in Africa, and when seminars, colloquiums, structural adjustment plans of the World Bank and IMF, etc., are exponentially organized to find an alternative to the current economic disaster, Touba radiates and thrives economically from one year to another.
Touba is the capital of Mouridism. Created in 1888 by Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Mbacke (Serigne Touba), it is situated in the center of Senegal, in the arid climate of the Diourbel region. Although it is still defined as a village by the Senegalese administration, Touba is the fastest growing city in Senegal with a population growth rate of 15% per year. It is the second largest city in Senegal, with over than one million inhabitants. From a geographical size of 575 hectars in 1970, Touba extended exponentially to over 10,000 hectars in 2000. Touba’s political, economic, and social organizations can be used as an example of an alternative to the existing state system in Senegal in particular, and in Africa in general.
Often considered as an independent state by talibees, Touba has its own organization and is almost sovereign from the central government of Senegal. Although Touba has all the superstructures of any regular rural community, the official Senegalese administrators have very limited authority and are usually no more than advisers to the real administrator, the Khalife General. Touba, in reality, functions as an autonomous state with its own laws and political organization. Until the early 1990s, for example, the Senegalese police did not have the right to step into Touba. The security of the “village” was guaranteed by the “Baay Falls and the Yaay Faals.” Today, even though the Senegalese police is present in Touba, not only is their authority restricted, they also have to work in collaboration with the traditional Mouride Baay Fall corps. All judicial matters are handled by the Cheikhs, except crimes, which are transferred to Diourbel, the capital city of the region. Western schools are still forbidden in the holy city, and until 2000, there was no taxation in Touba. When in the 1990’s the government representative in charge of the “rural community of Touba” proposed the implementation of taxes in the holy city, the whole city rejected the idea as an unacceptable imitation of the Western form of governance, and the law did not pass the first time it was proposed.
The existence and rapid growth of Touba shows that there is a possibility that a state does not have to abide by the basic rules of the Western system. For example, the tax system might appear to the Western mind as a necessary condition for the survival of the state, but Touba disproves this certainty. Even if the tax system has recently been adopted under pressure from the Senegalese government, most of the talibees refuse to pay what they consider to be foreign tithes. Nevertheless, Touba is still a welfare state and the “village” is growing in an exponential way. Education and health are free. The “state” even provides food and housing for needy families. Until recently, all electric bills were paid by Touba, but the recent rapid growth of the population made it impossible to sustain this financial support in most parts of the city. All this helps to explain the significant migration of people from all parts of Senegal to Touba, the Mouride Promised Land.
The more important question, which we cannot help but asking, is, how is all this possible? How can Touba afford to provide its citizens with all those conveniences? Touba has two essential sources of revenue: addiya and the community’s gigantic peanuts fields. The latter dominate the country's production of peanuts, and the former is a sort of donation given by almost all Mourides to the cheikhs who are supposed to disburse the funds to the community. Mourides believe that the addiya is one of the conditions to be a Mouride. The money collected is directly used to benefit schools, hospitals, and other “municipal” expenses. The idea of the addiya might seem ludicrous and is often criticized by Senegalese intellectuals, but for Mourides, who have benefited from the system, it provides a means to give back to the same system that educated them and to participate in the functioning of an organization that had made them who they are. Mourides give back to Touba through addiya, while their peers, who benefited from the Western system of education, pay taxes to the state and reimburse school loans to banks.
The Mouride relation to addiya is more than a nationalist sentiment, it is devotional. Conscious that the addiya is necessary for the existence of Touba, Mourides from all over the world do not hesitate to give or pay this tithe. For example, in 1986 the Senegalese government started a campaign to support the national soccer team, after it qualified for the African Cup of Nations soccer tournament in Egypt. For a month, the government organized fund raising campaigns which was aired on national television and on all the radio stations. Even the President and the Minister of Sports participated in the campaign. Rallies were organized and special programs were held in almost all schools. The team needed one billion CFA. Yet, after two months of campaigning the target had not been reached. Meanwhile, the Khalif General aired a message to Mourides on the radio, asking for seven billion CFA for construction work on the central mosque in Touba. A week later, he aired a second announcement asking the talibees to stop sending the contributions. The target amount had been met. The social, economical, and political organization of Touba shows that it functions on another system, different from the pre-established colonial one. This system offers a viable alternative to the existing Western Senegalese state. Touba shows that the Western-based system can be replaced completely with a workable one. Touba provides us with the basis for re-thinking the current socio-political organization of Senegal, which is drowning the country in desperation.
Touba does not only offer a political system. It also provides an economic set of guidelines that differ from the Western economic model. Uneducated, under the Western system of education and unaware of the basic Western principles of business, the Baol-Baol, also known as the Moodou, perform the phenomenal feat of taking over segments of Senegal's economic sector. They progressively replaced and undermined the economic power of the French, the Lebanese, and the first generation of Senegalese alumni of European business schools, who benefited from the economic policies of Africanization started by Senghor in the 1970’s.
In colonial Africa, education is a weapon of domination. Schools created French parrots, instead of producing authentic subjects with the abilities to rebuild a new country. The native intellectual, as an invention of the western schools, was taught to mimic “the other” without any spirit of entrepreneurship. The dream of every native graduate of any business school was to hold an office in their local administration. The dream of these native graduates was to be part of the system with the hope to create, in their country, the model of the “civilized world.” Yet, these new African ex/colonial subjects lacked the spirit of initiative. They were not taught to think and create, but rather, to learn and repeat. They were consequently either Marxist or capitalist, either socialist or liberal. They knew all the existing Western economic doctrines, but they ignored that these doctrines are particular to one geographic area, the West—“vérité au dela des Pyrénées, erreur en deça.” (Truth on this side of the Pyrenees, error on the other). To create a system that is adapted to the African cultural values, these ex-colonized subjects needed inventiveness, innovativeness, creativity, spirit of initiative, capacity of adaptation, ingenuity; in other words, everything they lacked and everything the three Daaras taught the Baol-Baol.
The Baol Baol is the product of what Malick Ndiaye calls “société d’accaparement” (1998, 1). The “société d’accaparement” or a “monopolistic society” was the political and social system of Senegal from the 1960’s to the 1980’s. For Malick Ndiaye, that society is characterized by two different classes: on one hand the ruling class, constituted by the first post-colonial intellectuals representing a new bourgeoisie that monopolized the country’s wealth, and on the other, a second class constituted by all those who never had access to the spheres of power and decision making and who should never have it. In this form of social organization, the Baol-Baol was the principal loser. But his or her spirit of initiative enabled him or her to reject the power system in place and to substitute the image of the talibee to the one of the intellectual. Once this substitution was done, a whole new ethics emerged, and soon, thanks to the Baol-Baol ethic and the spirit of Mouridism, the Moodou began to control the national economy.
The Moodou odyssey starts when he or she unveils the myth of the Western school system and rethinks its notion of knowledge. As says Malick Ndiaye, as soon as former “nittou all” started saying “Nun jangu nu tubaab waaye jang nanu al Quran. . . . ” (We did not go to the Western school but we went to Koranic schools) or “Menu maa jang waaye loo ma laacc ma wax la ko.” (I do not know how to read [French] but I can answer any of your questions) (Ndiaye, 205), they were ready to challenge the French businessmen and the Senegalese graduates of Western business schools because they understood that,
Il y a des choses que l’on ne peut pas apprendre sur le papier . . . toutes les banques du Senegal sont en faillite. . . . Pourquoi? Pour moi c’est une mauvaise gestion. Il y a des savoirs qui ne sont pas operationnels Malgré notre manque d’instruction, nous avons réalisé dans le pays ce que des agrégés ne peuvent pas gérer.
Some things cannot be theorized . . . all banks in Senegal are going bankrupt. . . . Why? For me that’s due to bad management. Some knowledges are not really useful. Despite our illiteracy, we have realized, in this country, things that doctors cannot even handle.
Baol-Baols criticize and despise the weaknesses of the intellectual and the corruption of the system. Instead, they propose the sense of business and the instinct of survival that they developed in Daaras. The day, in Daaras, starts at 4:00 AM and finishes at 10:00 PM. Education in these schools is not only based on the theory of the Koran, lessons of philosophy, logic, and accounting, it also involves practical work, such as working in the fields for twelve hours a day, six days a week. Consequently, when Baol-Baols graduate from Daaras, they have a different conception of the notion of work than intellectuals who have the habit of working only forty hours a week or less. A Moodou interviewed by Malick Ndiaye says in relation to this,
Nous [Moodous] sommes convaincus que pour le commerce et l’argent c’est une affaire d’énergie. . . . Seules la fréquentation du Daara et la soumission . . . peuvent donner ce caractère à l’individu. Elles enlèvent douze défauts chez l’individu: L’indiscipline, l’impatience, ne pas supporter la faim, la couardise. . . . Travailler debout dans la rue pendant douze heure de temps seule une personne soumise peut le faire . . . (Ndiaye, 245)
We [Moodous] are convinced that to succeed in business and make money one must have a lot of energy. . . . Only Daaras and submission [to mouridism] can teach those qualities to the individual. Daaras take twelve defaults away from the individual: Indiscipline, impatience, not being able to support hunger, cowardice . . . Only a Mouride can work on the street for twelve hours in a row . . .
In fact, considered to be one of the most important teachings of Serigne Touba, work ethics is one of the essential aspects of Mouride philosophy. Following this logic, Baay Faals do not fulfill the second pillar of Islam, (prayers) to which they substitute work as an act of devotion. Mouride intellectuals, for that reason, compare Mouridism to the protestant ethic.
Mourides, through their philosophy and their socio-economic system, announce the end of the Western social and political order and propose a new organization of the modern Senegalese society. They offer a modern organization, which is neither an imitation of the West nor a will to go back to a lost traditional society. Since they are not only the former kow-kow, but also, the descendents of all those who were rejected by the traditional society: ex warriors, former slaves, neenos (lower cast) or baadoolos, Mourides are neither nostalgic of a lost past, nor appreciative of the Western society. The system that they announce is a modern social order that aims at correcting the errors caused by the inaccuracy of the current Western society and the limits of the traditional pre-colonial one. Moreover, it is interesting that in today’s Senegal, the “boy Dakar,” who, snubbing the poor Kaw-Kaw, used to dream of being a doctor or a lawyer, has a new dream: to become a Moodou. The Moodou, the model of the Mouride socio-economic subject, has succeeded in re-inventing the modes of definition of the human imposed by the Western colonial system.
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Citation Format:
Cheikh Thiam. “Mouridism: A Local Re-Invention of the Modern Senegalese Socio-Economic Order,” West Africa Review: Issue 8, 2005.
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