Saya Mouride

The word Mouride in Indonesia means student. When I heard the word the first time in this country, it was not new to me. It comes from the Arabic word murīd (literally "one who desires"), a term used generally in Sufism to designate a disciple of a spiritual guide. I first heard the word Mouride in Senegal where it is the name of the largest Muslim Brotherhood in the country.

The brotherhood was founded in 1883 by Cheick Amadou Bamba, a “poem writing mystic” whose disciples believed him to be a "renewer" (mujaddid in Arabic) of Islam. In Senegal, you see pictures of Amadou Bamba painted everywhere, like that of Che Guevara in Latin America. His image is based on the sole remaining picture of him taken in 1913, wearing white robes with a piece of cloth draped in front of face exposing only his eyes.

My friend Mokthar, who is a Mouride, told me the legendary story of Amadou Bamba on his forced voyage into exile to Gabon by the French for fear of sparking a rebellion against their occupation. In an act of defiance against his French jailers who prohibited him from praying, he broke out of his chains and jumped into the ocean from the ship. He unfurled a prayer rug on the water and began to pray. When he lifted his head from the prayer rug floating on the water, he had dirt on his forehead.

The image of Mouridism is also linked to the colorfully dressed Baye Falls with long dreadlocks chanting and begging for money in the streets and villages throughout Senegal. The Baye Falls are a subsect of the Mourides who are followers of Ibra Fall, one of the first disciples of Amadou Bamba. A believer in hard work as a way of praising God, Baye Falls are given a dispensation on the Muslim requirements of daily prayer and fasting during Ramadan by the Mouride Caliph, who prays for the Baye Falls. In return give him all that they earn and the Caliph takes responsibility for their well being.

However a recent article discusses how a group of Mourides attacked the Senegalese newspaper Walf Fadjri for running an article that claimed that the Mouride leader was supporting the Senegalese President in return for donations. The group carried iron bars and wooden clubs and destroyed the office. The current Caliph of the Mourides, Cheick Mouhamoudou Lamine Bara Mbacké has renounced the attacks and called on his followers to remember the non-violent and peace ways of Amadou Bamba.

Youssou Ndour’s Song entitled, Ibra Fall, Founder of the Baye Falls

Reference Links:

Industrious Senegal Muslims Run a 'Vatican' By NORIMITSU ONISHI, New York Times Published: May 2, 2002.

"In Harlem's Fabric, Bright Threads of Senegal". New York Times.  SUSAN SACHS, 28 July 2003.