Staging Touba: the Performance of Piety

Journal of Religion in Africa 48 (2020) 312-346

brill.com/jra

Staging Touba: The Performance of Piety

Kate Kingsbury Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada [email protected]

Abstract

Touba, in Senegal, is the equivalent to Mecca for Sufi Mouride Muslims, who embark on an annual pilgrimage called Le Grand Magal to celebrate the founder of their faith, Cheikh Amadou Bamba. When devotees describe their sacred city they frequently com- pare Touba to heaven, juxtaposing it to the materiality and chaos of other Senegalese cities, as though it was distinct from these lieux. Yet Touba shares many similarities in terms of its economic importance with other metropolises. Mourides despite presenting themselves as a united religious community, have differences of opinion and even praxis. This paper explores the imagination of Touba and the Mouride order by Mourides, positing that the sacred sites of Touba comprise a stage for the performance of piety and the generation of a particular Mouride ontology through which they see Touba, their order and the world.

Keywords

Senegal – Touba – Mourides – Pilgrimage – Magal – Africa – Religion

In 1887, a Senegalese Sufi saint wandering across the arid sands of the Sahelian desert on a mystical retreat to find God, sought respite from the blistering sun, recount hagiographic tales. In the middle of the arid wilderness he came across a lone baobab tree. Reclining against its trunk in the shade of its canopy, it is said that he experienced a hierophanic vision. The angel Gabriel soared down from the heavens to deliver a divine message to the sitting Sufi. Gabriel prophesied that one day that barren spot would comprise an immense sacred centre. That day the Sufi Saint, the founder of the Mouride order known as Cheikh Amadou Bamba, named the lieu Touba. By 1963 Touba boasted the

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2020 | doi:10.1163/15700666-12340150Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 05:16:34PM via free access Staging Touba: The Performance of Piety 313 largest mosque in West Africa and a few decades later the once desolate location became the second largest city in Senegal. In 2019, like every year since Bamba’s death, millions of Senegalese assem- bled to celebrate and venerate the Cheikh. Many, like Bamba, are impelled to visit due to mystical visions, such as Aida and her husband, both originally from Christian families. Aida kept dreaming of Touba and the Sufi saint Bamba. She related that she constantly encountered the Cheikh’s devotees in her home- town of Dakar. They told Aida the tale of Touba. Convinced it was a sign, she and her husband Ousmane journeyed to Touba for the first time in 2001 where they both converted to Mouridiyya. Aida told me ‘I experienced a revelation. I felt that I had found my place at last in this heaven on earth. I felt sanctity, Godliness, and a deep sense of piety. I knew this was a place of God, it was my community and His forever.’ … Touba, located in the Western Sahel, was established as a small village in 1887. It was built to honour Cheikh Amadou Bamba, the religious leader who founded the Mouride faith in 1883 (Guèye 2002:56). The Mourides are a uniquely Senegalese Sufi order who account for approximately a third of the nation’s population1. There are also numerous Mouride migrants living abroad (Bava 2003, Riccio 2006). The city now boasts the largest mosque in West Africa, known as La Grand Mosquée. Inside the edifice is Bamba’s tomb. It is a holy city for disciples, who are known as talibés. Every November, on the 18th day of the Islamic month of Safar, approximately 5 million Senegalese2, travel to Touba to attend le Grand Magal, an annual religious rite honouring the founder of the faith. Talibés circumambulate holy monuments and provide oblations to their religious leaders, in particular the Khalifa General, the head of all Mouride marabouts, in order to receive blessings in their ventures and pay their respects (Coulon 1999). Touba is a bustling globalised metropolis, and as detailed the second largest city in Senegal. It is connected, through trade and through mobile migrant Mourides, to the four corners of the globe. Like any metropolis it can be chaotic, noisy and even dangerous, especially as due to its religious status it benefits from being beyond state legislature, functioning as an autonomous territory run by Mouride leaders (Guèye 2002:186, 313). As such it has become a haven for selling black market goods and refuge for recidi- vists seeking to escape authorities. Yet, Touba is depicted by disciples as a peaceful city, even as paradise on earth. It is said, by talibés, to be distinct and different from other major urban

Journal of Religion in Africa 48 (2020) 312-346 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 05:16:34PM via free access 314 Kingsbury conurbations, such as Dakar or Rufisque. According to this point of view, Touba is characterised by a Durkheim dichotomy contrasting an ‘ideal and transcen- dental world’ far from the secular, profane ‘material world’ (Durkheim 1965:52) of Dakar and the rest of Senegal. Indeed, Touba frequently features in disciples’ accounts as a critique of the secular, materialist, modern world. As Momar told me, the Mouride owner of my local shop, who was keen to educate me on Le Grand Magal before my first Magal in 2007: ‘Touba is a place for communion with God, far from the troubles of Dakar, where you forget greed and envy.’ Le Grand Magal is portrayed by Mourides as a purely religious affair where all Mourides unite in devotion, yet there are many other sides to this rite, and to this city beyond those portrayed in academic articles and disciples accounts as I shall evince. This paper probes below the surface of the city as imagined and portrayed by Mourides, to deconstruct depictions of Touba and evince its complexities. The Mourides and the Mouride faith itself are far less homogeneous than disciples, marabouts or even certain scholars3 describe and Touba, although portrayed by Mourides as far from the chaos of other cities, is hectic and full of the contradictions that are inherent to all large metropolises. Touba is the site of continual controversy and contestation. Marabouts, each with their own perspectives and interests, vie for land, power, resources and followers. Disciples of different orders, known as tariqas, like their leaders, have alternative con- ceptions of what it means to be Mouride. It is not uncommon for talibés of dissimilar orders and branches to feud and even engage in physical fights, each claiming their marabout is prepotent. Yet despite these apparent contradictions, depictions of the city by Mourides always focus on the idea of a unified corpus of devotees in a tranquil haven that is often stated to be heaven on earth. Nevertheless, as Schielke reminds us, to assume that all pious peoples in their endeavours and rites are consistently coherent and that religion itself is practiced in a manner that is perfectly unflawed and free of discrepancies is naïve and short-sighted (2009, 2015). Furthermore, it denies scholars the opportunity to understand the ‘frag- mented nature’ of faith and the faithful who as a rule, rather than an exception, embrace ‘double standards, fractures and shifts’ in their spirituality, morality and religious realities (Schielke 2009:S38). I posit that in the context of these contradictions and inconsistencies, the rites that take place once a year at le Grand Magal serve to veil the disunity and disorder that exists, whilst reifying, reinforcing and coalescing the symbolic Mouride system. Touba’s central mosque, engirded by a plethora of other religious sites, functions as a theatrum sacri. It is a stage for religion to be enacted,

Journal of Religion in DownloadedAfrica 48from (2020) Brill.com09/29/2021 312-346 05:16:34PM via free access Staging Touba: The Performance of Piety 315 belief to be affirmed and a model of the Mouride worldview to be manifested and reified by disciples. It is a façade that conceals the chaos of Touba. These rites allow an impalpable religious ideology to exist in the imagination by being rendered incarnate in mimetic ‘techniques du corps’ (see Mauss 1936). On this stage, religious rites are regularly enacted, physically, materially and psychically generating and regenerating Mouridiyya. Faith ‘must always be ac- tively made and be witnessed being made’ (Gharavi 2011:18). The rites enacted ensure Mourides continue to view Touba and their religious order through the lens of this symbolic system. This explains why disciples and their leaders use a specific spiritual lexicon to describe the metropolis and their pilgrimage experiences, whilst omitting to mention the mundane activities that take place in Touba. Like beauty, ‘holiness exists in the eye of the beholder’ (Verschaffel 2012:36). Mourides envision Touba through the optic of this sacred worldview, having no access to a ‘reality’ independent of that symbolic lexicon. As Turner has expounded in his concept of ‘social drama’, functionally rituals are also vital for resolving potential conflicts (Turner 1974). They act as redressive mechanisms easing societal tensions by allowing for crises to be provisionally resolved through acts that bring about communitas, which he describes as an intense community spirit which functions as a means of ‘binding diversities together and overcoming cleavages’ (Turner 1974:206). Communitas itself becomes a symbol. The devotees physically become part of a sacred dramaturgy that reinforces belief in the religious symbolic system, bolstering their own belief conjointly with that of fellow disciples. The Greek word drama is derived from dromenon which means religious ritual, literally things done (Harrison 1951:49). Religion is these things done and it ‘lives in so far as it is performed’ (Turner 1982:86). Mouride faith is not primarily a cognitive dogma, it stems from ‘meaningful experience and experienced meaning’ (ibid). Hoyt, investigating the etymology of the word religion, has analysed its Latin roots which derive from ‘religare, to bind’ (1912:127). Monteil states that etymologically in Arabic, rabata, from whence derives the word marabout, also means to bind (Monteil 1964:122). Touba is a chaotic city. Opinions frequently contradict on the topic of what it is to be a Mouride. Division and chaos threat- en the order of existence. When Mourides enact their faith in rituals in and around the mosque of Touba, this binds them as a community, allowing them to overcome disunity and disarray. Cicero provides an alternate etymology for the word religion, namely relegere, meaning to reread4. I suggest that the notion of rereading and binding do not clash, nor differ greatly. Rereading implies religion functions as a

Journal of Religion in Africa 48 (2020) 312-346 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 05:16:34PM via free access 316 Kingsbury cultural construction ‘through which we think our world’ (Gharavi 2012:17). Reading and interpreting the world in a similar way, through the lens of a shared discourse, binds meanings to our world and therefore people together through common ideals, as well as collective experiences. Faith is created through acts which in turn create subjects who share a particular cultural reality, simultaneously uniting them in the experience of the performance and in an ontological understanding of their world. I will begin with a short history of the Mouride order, then follow with a brief literature review on Le Grand Magal and the city of Touba from a religious perspective. Subsequently, a review of some of the most important scholarship on memory and imagination will be provided. Following this, my impressions of Touba, in the context of local views of the city will be explored, which as I will detail, jarred with those of Mouride disciples. Afterwards, an exploration of how Mourides imagine Touba through narrative and embodied knowledge via ritual will be proffered. I will demonstrate how rituals enacted in Le Grand Mosque and elsewhere, serve to fuse Mouride adherents together in communal spaces where they enact their creed, creating and reifying a shared cosmological understanding of their world. I will posit that the conceptual, symbolic system that is continually re-generated through ritual allows Mourides to navigate the complexities of life, surmount inherent disunity, organize chaos, and perceive their place on this planet according to an ordering of reality deter- mined by this Mouride metaphysical map.

1 Touba and Le Grand Magal

Before delving into how Touba and Le Grand Magal are imagined, it is important to situate and contextualise the event as well as describe the history of Mouridiyya. The founder of the Mouride faith was born in the Baol region in 1853. His father and other members of the family were marabouts, thus Bamba received a thorough religious education (Robinson 2000). He initially practiced Qadiri Sufism but later switched to Tijani Sufism5, and following that founded his own distinctly Senegalese Sufi order. During the colonial conquest of Senegal, the French dismantled the socio- cultural structures that had organised society, and the Senegalese found themselves with no raison d’être, no livelihood and no respected leaders. This disenfranchised populace was averse to the rule of white men and disenchant- ed by the leadership of puppet rulers (Cruise O’Brien 1971). Cheikh Amadou Bamba emerged as a religious visionary. During this era of unrest, Bamba

Journal of Religion in DownloadedAfrica 48from (2020) Brill.com09/29/2021 312-346 05:16:34PM via free access Staging Touba: The Performance of Piety 317 discerned the need for a new sort of Sufism that would meet Senegalese needs. He founded Mouridiyya in 1883, adding a novel element to Sufi soteriology. Although he encouraged disciples to study the Quran, as was done in Tijani and Qadiri traditions, this was not mandatory for salvation. He suggested that illiterate disciples engage in agricultural labour as a form of worship and guarantee of salvation (Cruise O’Brien 1971, Guèye 2000: 46, 71, Diop 1984:124, Robinson 200:213). As Diop describes, this consisted of ‘solely labour on the land’ (my translation op cit.). Disciples were not remunerated financially but received bed and board. This practice perdures and was part of Bamba’s pedagogy which he developed based on that of Bu Kunta, a Fadiliyya Cheikh who greatly influenced him and whose daughter married one of Bamba’s sons6. Bamba re-envisioned Sufism by emphasising not only learning based on the Quran, tarqiyya, but also by bringing a whole new meaning to tarbiyya (Babou 2007:105, Kingsbury 2014: 94) as ‘adult learning linked to action, work’ (Robinson 2000:213, see also Babou 2002, Ngom 2009). Many Mourides believe that Bamba had received a divine order, from the Prophet Mohammed to reform the way learning took place in Quranic schools. Prior to the Magal in 2008, I went up a few days early. I visited the Hizbut Tarqiyya (HT) offices in Touba. HT is a Mouride organization founded by students from the University of Dakar in 1976 to spread correct knowledge on Mouridiyya. Madické, one of its members, explained to me that Bamba was told by the Prophet Mohammed ‘to no longer teach doctrine but to extend pedagogy to practical labour so as to ameliorate a suffering, gangrened society. This was part of Bamba’s engagement to radically change society, based on his idea of himma7’. To this day, Mouride devotees typically engage more readily in physical labour than those of other Sufi orders, such as the Tijanis who also offer manual labour to their marabouts. Much of Touba was built thanks to physical labour by Mouride disciples. In particular the labour of the Baye Fall8 (Ross 1995), an order of Mourides, who are known for abstaining from prayer, not fasting during Ramadan and being dispensed from other religious activities, instead offering hard work to their marabouts, in exchange for blessings and salvation (Roberts et al. 2003). Although Copans has contested the idea that labour was a substitute for prayer, his view of work is coloured by Marxist and Western views that assume labour is exploitation. This is a misunderstanding of Mouridiyya. During the two years I lived in Senegal, from 2007-2009 and during subsequent visits over the following years, I visited Darou Al Mouhty, Khelcom and other agricultural farms where I witnessed and interacted with many disciples who

Journal of Religion in Africa 48 (2020) 312-346 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 05:16:34PM via free access 318 Kingsbury provided physical labour to their marabouts. Some also engaged in prayer but others, although receiving pedagogic talks based on Bamba’s writings, did not receive religious instruction per se. Especially due to high illiteracy rates in Senegal (42.8% in 2013 according to unesco), studying the Quran and Bamba’s writings, is not always possible for certain segments of the population (see Kingsbury 2014, 2018, Foley and Babou 2010). Also, as Copans himself noted many talibés are farmers, thus ‘it is naturally their principal occupa- tion to tend their own fields’ and those of their marabouts (Copans 1988: 127). But the view of this as exploitative is incorrect. Disciples are content to work for their marabouts and in return receive great spiritual returns. Ousmane, a Mouride devotee who I met on the bus going up to Touba, often came to work on the farms of Khelcom. He explained this attitude to work via the Wolof idiom ‘Liguey diamou Yallah’ which means labour is also a form of adoring Allah. Mourides were proud to be involved either directly, or through generous oblations, in the ‘construction or other sacred projects at Touba such as building or maintaining the Great Mosque or toiling on the farms of Mouride holy men and women. These are joyous times of intense solidarity’ (Roberts and Roberts 2003:70). Furthermore, this aligns with the Mouride ethos as Bava explains, cit- ing various disciples who told her ‘the Mouride must be a worker’, and ‘a good Mouride is a good worker’ (Bava 2013:79). In particular for the Baye Fall, ‘Work the cardinal element of the Baye Fall doctrine, belongs to the spiritual domain. It is transcribed under the concept of “work mysticism”. The talibés find in labour a “door for Allah”. They consider redemption through work as another technique to perfect the self’ (my translation9, Audrain 2004:54). As Ousmane explained: ‘no one exploits us, we are free, we have chosen to work for Allah, no one forces us.’ Madické echoing Ousmane’s statement said: ‘no marabout makes his disciple work to build his house or fix his car, we are always labour- ing for Islam and Bamba’s vision’. Cheikh Amadou Bamba’s new distinctly Senegalese Sufism, his pacifist opposition to colonial domination, renowned deep and quietist piety, together with his many poetic Sufi writings in Arabic, conferred upon him a messianic role in the minds of Senegalese. Furthermore, numerous miracles have been attributed to him which seem to stem from the imagination of his disciples and hagiographers rather than anything he personally attested to (see also Ross 1995). However, one of his prophesies did appear to come true and that concerns the nascence of the city of Touba. Central to all accounts of the inception of Touba is the belief that the founder of Mouridiyya, Cheikh Amadou Bamba, had a divine vision which augured

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Touba. Hamidou, is a disciple who now lives in France but returned to Senegal every three years for Le Grand Magal. We met in the market, where at the same stand we were both purchasing Café Touba10. Many Mourides are keen, when meeting those who are clearly foreigners, to inquire as to their purpose for visiting the Magal, they are furthermore zealous to educate outsiders on their faith. Hamidou told me about Bamba’s vision, explaining:

The Angel Gabriel visited Cheikh Amadou Bamba on multiple occasions throughout his life. He instructed him to seek out a divine place that would become the holy centre for all Mourides and even for the world. One day he was in Diourbel when he felt the hand of God pushing him to seek further north. For 40 days he roamed the arid land. After passing through a stretch of wilderness the angel appeared to Cheikh Amadou Bamba, telling him to retrace his steps. Serigne Touba11 did so, pausing to rest in the shade of a tree when suddenly a blinding light illuminated the spot. He knew at that moment that he had found Touba.

The Cheikh lived in Touba between 1887 and 1895, before his period of exile in Gabon by the French government but it was at that time a modest village lost in the middle of the desert. It was through the concerted efforts of the Mourides to make Bamba’s prophesy a reality that the village mushroomed into a metropolis. The facts attest to this: in 1964 Touba housed 5,000 inhabit- ants. In 2013 the permanent population of Touba was estimated at 750,000. The funds necessary for building Le Grand Mosque and the city itself were collected over the years from Mouride disciples. Spiritual labour of disciples on farms also aided to contribute to this endeavour. As Ross states Mourides ‘would also contribute to Touba’s construction, by donating still further sums to the Mosque fund and fulfilling manual tasks as well’ (Ross 1995:237). Le Grand Magal is one of the most important annual Senegalese events. Thousands of disciples flood into Touba each year, along with non-devotees who come to enjoy festivities, trade or to seek political arrangements. Annually, as many as one to two million people attend the event. Magal, in Wolof, signifies a celebration. In this context it refers to the festivities organized in honour of Cheikh Amadou Bamba. Le Grand Magal, also referred to in Wolof as the Magal gu Mag, not only celebrates the founder but is also a time when disciples receive baraka from the founder as well as from the current Mouride leaders, from whom it is believed to flow out. The founder of a Sufi order is often described as qutb, that is, the source of blessings or baraka which may perme- ate believers even after their demise. It may also be received from powerful

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Mouride leaders, usually in exchange for oblations (see Kingsbury 2018:472). In fact, these are the only ways in which disciples may obtain baraka. In return for their auspices talibés offer their marabouts hadiyya, gifts usually in the form of cash money (Buggenhagen 2012:85), but sometimes victuals, houses, cars, or administrative favours, inter alia. Baraka is indispensable to all ventures. It not only constitutes blessings but also must be understood as a “connection to the Divine through a doorway” (Hill 2007, 333). By circumambulating certain important monuments such as Bamba’s tomb, which are believed to be endowed with spiritual blessings transferable to those in close proximity, baraka may be obtained. Le Grand Magal is the time par excellence for Mourides to acquire baraka and to remind themselves of the importance of Bamba in their lives. Le Berndèèl is also one of the highlights of Le Grand Magal. I was told by Abdou, a member of Hizbut Tarqiyyah, that Le Berndèèl ‘represents Mouride hospitality and sharing all that is good’. Le Berndèèl consists of communal religious meals offered gratis by hosts to their families, friends and neighbours, no matter their religious de- nomination. Dahiras and some marabouts, such as Cheikh Bethio Thioune, who was renowned for purchasing 4000 cows annually to be sacrificed for the event, also celebrate Le Berndèèl offering free fare to attendees. Vast amounts of food and beverages are consumed together by disciples, for some of whom Le Berndèèl is one of the rare occasions where they can eat until their heart’s content.

2 Studies of Touba and Le Grand Magal

Numerous studies of the city have been published. Diouf and Leichtman note that between 1988 and 1989 Touba grew by 19% (2009). The city’s exponential growth, a sign of Mouride economic success, has frequently been of interest to various authors (Guèye 2002, Ross 2005 and 2011, Buggenhagen 2012). The activity of Mouride transnational traders has been surveyed (Bava 2003, Ebin 1995, Riccio 2006). Numerous studies describe the role of the many migrants who, despite their diffusion across the globe, continue to contribute to the city financially and ideologically, maintaining a strong Mouride identity and reifying religious mythologies (Bava and Guèye 2001, Ross 2011, Riccio 2006). For the purposes of this article, those texts which explore Touba and Le Grand Magal in terms of religious activities will be reviewed, as it is beyond the scope of this paper to consider those sources that do not directly relate to the topic.

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Le Grand Magal, has been scrutinized in terms of the rituals and ceremo- nies that tie the religious to the political sphere (Coulon 1999). Indubitably, these studies contain compelling information. Yet there will remain lacunae in the understanding of this metropolis if one omits the complexities and contradictions, and chaos which all contribute to the palimpsest of the city, and indeed the Mouride faith itself, which remains far less homogeneous than disciples, marabouts or even certain scholars12 would have us believe. Nor can Touba’s consecrated monuments be conceived of as solely seman- tic emblems that transmit information, as inferred by some authors (see Ross 1995). Although they do this, as I will explain, their efficacy largely derives from Mouride performances in these locales that perpetually reinvest them with symbolic meaning, co-aligning the latter with changing times and needs. Cruise O’Brien, an Irish political scientist, was one of the world’s leading experts on the Mouride. He was one of the first academics to publish compre- hensively on the Mourides. O’Brien has presented the mosque as a ‘towering symbol of Mouride unity and strength, a proof of the devotion of talibés and their capacity for hard work’ (O’Brien 1970:137). He describes how attending the annual Magal is a sine qua non for most Mourides, some of whom even consider pilgrimage to Mecca at this time superfluous (ibid:138). Cruise O’Brien details the most important events, such as talibés’ visits to the Khalifa-General, who he states is ‘greatly enriched by donations’ during the event (ibid:138- 139). The author outlines the political and economic power of the leader of the Mourides, which he notes is particularly evident during the pilgrimage. He analyses the symbolic importance of attendance by the Senegalese President and senior ministers in strengthening the ‘state as an institution with a place in the citizen’s imagination’ (2003:27). Cruise O’Brien also notes the importance for urban talibés of the event for meeting their marabout, who may be rural-based and thus whom they may see rarely. He details the role of various orders during the event, observing for example how the Bay Fall used to over- see security ‘with much whirling of clubs about the head and sudden charg- es at the crowd’ but were later replaced by police guards (ibid:156). Many of Cruise O’Brien’s observations, as a political scientist, hinge on the importance of the ‘political theatre’ and the interplay between the ‘religious symbol’ and the ‘implicitly political … message’ (2003:26). Although this work is of central importance, my focus, as an anthropologist of religion, as I have detailed, is not on the ‘political theatre’ (ibid) but on the theatrum sacri and how Mourides imagine Touba, and their order, through the rites that take place, as well as through narrative.

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Coulon also a political scientist, focuses on the Magal as a popular religious festival but equally an important event for politicians to gain influence (1999). He breaks the event down into three distinct categories. The first category consists of strictly religious rituals which reflect or celebrate the life and work of Bamba. Secondly, he describes the political activities of those who have come merely in their capacity as representative of the State or other public institu- tions. The third category he lists as entertainment opportunities for the crowds such as meeting friends, and general jovial carousing. Coulon describes the central features of the Magal for Mourides as visiting Bamba’s mausoleum and paying respects to one’s marabout. Coulon affirms that the rites ensure communitas, and believes that ‘pilgrims, whatever their ethnic origin or social status, mix with one another in a collective enterprise, in the celebration and ven- eration of a saint’ (1999:206). This is an accurate description, but once again I suggest that Coulon too keenly presents the idea that ‘the holy city of Touba stands in contrast, in the way it is governed and organized, to the disorder … of the country’s other towns and cities, and most notably of Dakar’ (ibid:207) asserting that the event is entirely pervaded by ‘solidarity and single-mindedness’ in a ‘ritual space of a peripheral nature’ (ibid:207-208). Nevertheless, the Magal is neither peripheral and nor does only single-mindedness prevail. For Ross, Touba is a ‘spiritual metropolis in a modern world’ (1995). As a geographer he analyzes the city spatially, expatiating how Touba was constructed according to Mouride eschatology, symbology and principles of Islamic design (Ross 1995). Ross’s architectural study of Touba focuses upon the metropolis as a ‘cosmological symbol’ and the ‘locus of eschatological desire’ (Ross 1995:229) for Mourides. He discusses the many monuments, from the mosque to the mbeb -the tree underneath which some say Bamba had his prophetic vision of the future city- arguing for the geographic and theological importance of each for Mourides. He also describes the historical development of the city, in terms of the gradual construction of each edifice. He views the monuments not as active elements in the enactment of faith but as signs that convey information. He does not consider the Magal in great detail, only alluding to its historic importance for Mourides to display ‘a very public show of cohesion and strength’ (1995:237). Ross depicts Touba as ‘an ideal city’ and although he readily acknowledges that the ‘glaring social inequities that prevail elsewhere in the world are also present’ (1995:256), the text does not give further details. In a later paper, Ross expands on his original work examining how Touba is increasingly connected to the world. His aim is to assess the ‘extent of the city’s globalness’ (Ross 2011: 2935). This work counters Coulon’s. Ross does not directly challenge Coulon’s vision of Touba as a peripheral space. Nevertheless,

Journal of Religion in DownloadedAfrica 48from (2020) Brill.com09/29/2021 312-346 05:16:34PM via free access Staging Touba: The Performance of Piety 323 his description of the city as an interconnected space that thanks to mobility and the ever-expanding geographic reach of talibés, is now a global metropolis, counterpoises Coulon’s perspective. Ross believes Touba’s importance as a ‘fixed’ site of reference is accruing, although he does not discuss the Grand Magal’s central role in how Mourides imagine Touba or their order, and impor- tantly does not address how this fixity has been created through the intangible interplay of rites, imagination and memory. Bava and Guèye describe how Touba and Le Grand Magal are changing due to the effects of modernity and the fact that many Mourides have migrated to overseas countries. This entails new rituals emerging, such as the mini Magal they describe that is organised by Mourides in Marseilles who are unable to attend the festivities in Senegal. Nevertheless, Bava and Guèye focus on the uniform nature of such events stating that ‘the religious project remains ho- mogenous13’ (my translation 2001:435). They describe the Magal as a moment of individual re-appropriation, when individuals willingly re-imbibe all the prescriptions and liturgies, reliving and rearticulating the founding myths thereby reproducing and reactivating the Mouride ethos. Bava and Guèye posit that le Grand Magal is a moment when Mourides re-imagine their city through ritual, albeit the authors do not delve into the exact manner in which memory and imagination are utilized to do this. Nor do they mention the fact, that as I will demonstrate, there is routinely dissension and conflict amongst disciples and how, as previously mentioned in reference to Turner (1976) ritual serves to quell such unrest. Guèye, like Ross is a geographer. He expands upon the work, summarised above, in his book named after the city of Touba (2002). As a Mouride, he has observed first-hand the development of the metropolis over the years. Much like Ross, his primary approach is geographic, examining the territorialisation of space by the Mouride order, from rural to urban expansion. He looks at the political aspects of the religious order arguing that marabouts undertake specific strategies via land usage in Touba, and in relationship to the Senegalese nation state. This aspect of his work recalls that of Cruise O’Brien’s. Guèye’s approach, however is nuanced, as he readily admits, given that his points of view often oscillate between believer -he is a Mouride- and critical observer. He acknowledges two contiguous aspects of Touba, firstly the important sym- bolism of the city as a religious metropolis, and secondly its economic importance and prowess which is thanks to its extra-territorial status as a city run by Mouride religious leaders to their own advantage (2002:12). Touba, he suggests, so ardently yearned for by Bamba, represents for all Mourides the ‘ideal city’ one which reflects terrestrially the ‘power and beauty’ of their founder’s vision;

Journal of Religion in Africa 48 (2020) 312-346 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 05:16:34PM via free access 324 Kingsbury it is an earthly prelude ‘to his promise of paradise’14 (my translation ibid:18). Yet he also acknowledges how due to the unwieldy urbanisation of Touba ‘le rêve de Cheikh Amadou Bamba … à été á la fois réalisé et trahi15’ (Guèye 2002:491). For Guèye, Touba is inextricably linked to memory. He describes it as ‘lieu de mémoire’, a place of memory (2002:89). It is a city where potent ‘memory is concentrated’16 (my translation ibid:23) and ‘memory is organised17’ spatially (ibid:394). The latter argument echoes Ross’ work. Guèye, although recognis- ing that the land has become sacred in Touba thanks its associations with the founder, does so without examining how such memories are social constructions that demonstrate the ‘invention of tradition’ (Hobsbawm and Ranger 1983). For Guèye, Le Grand Magal is an important moment of rejoicing, consisting of ‘prayers, communal feasts and commercial exchanges18’ (ibid:204).

3 The Mouride Imaginaire

Eliade19 (1957) echoing Durkheim’s conception (1912:551-584), has argued that a sacred space is a centre that, unlike an urban metropolis detaches itself from its environs, which are viewed as profane. Eliade states that a religious locale does not connect to other places horizontally as an urban city does, but rather connects vertically to heavenly realms. Replicating this disquisition, Touba has been depicted by some authors, such as Coulon, and Mourides themselves as far from the urban chaos of Dakar, a place where time almost seems to stand still. Yet as Ross reminds us, Touba is a modern globalised metropolis of major economic importance (2011). Le Grand Magal has a far-reaching, significant economic impact not only on Senegal, but even worldwide. During festivities imports increased in volume by 115% in 201320. The importance of materiality in Touba, evinces how the relation between religion and things should never be ‘conceived in antagonistic terms’ (Houtman and Meyer 2012:1). Indeed, many events such as le Béerndeel, a huge feast that takes place, celebrate the abundance of earthly goods. Thus, we need to understand that Touba is viewed as sacred due to the memories associated with the city. I argue that these are a ‘collective memory’ (Halbwachs 1992), a version of history that has been created and used as a ‘legitimator of action and cement of group cohesion’ (Hobsbawm and Ranger 1983:12). This memory should not be considered ‘genuine’ nor ‘spurious’ but a process of symbolic interpretation and creation through performance. We must understand the rites at Le Grand Magal ‘as a symbolic process that both presupposes past symbolisms and creatively rein- terprets them’ (Handler and Linnekin 1984:287).

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Much as Touba is often idealised, so are the Mourides who have often been depicted as an isomorphic and coherent group in academia21, as well as by the Mourides themselves. Nevertheless, it is vital to disentangle the ways in which the order imagines itself and is imagined to fully comprehend it. Within the order itself there are variations in the ways in which Mourides imagine themselves. These differences may be intergenerational, gender-based, geographic as well as order-specific. The way in which Mourides, for example who live in Touba, or those in the diaspora perceive themselves as a devotee of Bamba, and how they practice their Mouridiyya are often dissimilar. I would suggest, as Anderson has done for nationality, that there is no such thing as a homogeneous Mouride community (Anderson 1983). As an example of this, before spending two years residing in Senegal, I spent 6 months conducting fieldwork in Brussels, Belgium. In the African section of the neighbourhood of Ixelles, I made contact with two Mouride brothers who had set up a private organisation for their faith in Brussels. They published Mouride magazines and set up events for disciples of Bamba living in Belgium, and to liaise with those in France, Holland and across Europe. I was often invited to formal and informal events. These ranged from an event organised in conjunction with Mourides from France to commemorate Bamba’s death, to dinners while watching Senegalese folk wrestling known as laamb on satellite TV at members’ houses. During this time, I learnt about the Brussels community’s approach to Mouridiyya. They were keenly focused on sticking to doctrinal knowledge, studying Bamba’s poetry and strict about their prayer schedules. They considered many Mourides who resided in Senegal as idolatrous, even pagan. For example, they told me that those Mourides who worked for their marabouts without praying were embracing feudal behaviour. They also vituperated Mourides who consulted their marabouts for magical favours, such as request- ing gris-gris, apotropaic amulets. Whereas in Senegal, many Mourides did not question such praxes. For example, when my computer got stolen in Dakar, my Mouride neighbor immediately contacted his marabout and arranged for me to consult him. We went together to the marabout’s house. I was given a gris-gris that I was told I had to put in a piece of meat, and feed to a dog while reciting prayers to get my laptop back22. One Mouride whom I met in Brussels, told me he used to abide by ‘idolatrous ways’, but had reformed since he had come to Brussels, when he learnt from other members of the community, that such practices were not true Mouridiyya and he no longer adhered to them. This is just one example of the heteropraxy and heterodoxy that characterizes the Mouride community. Homogeneity is an illusion, for disciples continually

Journal of Religion in Africa 48 (2020) 312-346 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 05:16:34PM via free access 326 Kingsbury renegotiate what it means to be Mouride. Nevertheless, the Mourides consider themselves a unified community and I believe that it is above all during le Grand Magal, through rituals that the idea of unity is achieved, as will be evinced. The Mourides, like many religious communities, have conceived of themselves as homogeneous and conjoined via an imaginaire. The latter is a concept created by the Africanist anthropologist Jean-François Bayart (2005). Bayart follows on from Anderson’s celebrated work on imagined communities (Anderson 1984) and Hobsbawm and Ranger’s work on the invention of tradition (1983). He eschews reified concepts of unified cultures and identities, arguing for an analysis of the importance of the social imaginary in the construction of the latter. Bayart uses the term imaginaire in order to describe how states and groups of people are imagined and imagine themselves as unfluc- tuating and stable with fixed immutable identities, despite being ‘infinite and ungovernable’, and consisting of ‘heterogeneous, constantly changing figures’ (2005:233). His work primarily focuses on the ‘political imaginary’ as a crucial element in the formation of the African state, and the production of politics, but also looks at religious identities. The concept of the imaginaire is useful for looking at the Mourides, especially given that Touba is a Mouride state within the Senegalese state. The Mouride order, like the nation-state as Bayart describes, is a protean, ever-shift- ing group, whose leaders, and disciples, are constantly changing over time. For example, since the death of Bamba, the order has been headed by 8 different Khalifa Generals. Bayart acknowledges that identities (whether religious and/ or political) are cultural, ideological and historical constructs and urges us to look at performances of identities. He notes that within one supposedly ho- mogenous group there are always multiple, hybrid and diverging identities. By focusing on the social imaginary and the performances that construct it, we can better understand the usage and function of a belief system and the rituals that extol it, comprehending how these enable people to coalesce together, despite differences, through shared productions of meaning, in this case the production of the Mouride religion on the stage of Touba. As Dejong and Rowlands emphasise in their work on memory in Africa, to comprehend the social imaginary we need to analyse ‘what Derrida refers to as the “testimony of memory”’ so as to understand how ‘memory-work’ functions through ‘narrations of heritage that focus on monumental, material heritage’ and the ‘performativity of memory’ (2016:32). Performances, such as those religious rituals enacted at the Grand Magal, allow scholars to witness the creation of collective memory, and the imagining of communities by the members within them in spaces that ‘go beyond tangible/intangible binaries’ (ibid).

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This is why an analysis of Touba’s monuments as sites (not just sights) for religious performances that engrain memory through ritual is vital. Such an analysis allows us to comprehend how they function as a locus for the enactment of ‘collective memory’ (Halbwachs 1992). Halbwachs urges us to understand community-held memories as collective representations, as social phenome- na, that have no substance outside the social context in which they are created. By doing so, we may probe into how specific communities, whether religious or otherwise, reproduce through time ‘the continuity of representations …despite dramatic changes’ (Berliner 2010:84). The images that create the ideal of Touba to Mourides in the collective memory of the faithful, and the idea of a coherent Mouride community are ‘like the raw materials of a dream’ (Gedi and Elam 1996). They have ‘no reality and no fixity’, they should not be perceived as true ‘recollections’ as they do not draw from clear perceptions formed by individuals but have been created through specific rituals in a social environment (Halbwachs 1992: 167-169), that promote a specific Mouride imaginaire. Mouride spirituality today, continually references an imagined past. An imaginaire conjoins all Mourides regardless of intergenerational, geographic- location, order-related or other differences through collective memories. This consists of a sacred mythology defining land, people, texts, symbols and actions as sancrosanct in the present day through their historical connections to Cheikh Amadou Bamba (Guèye 2002). This mythology, as I will argue, is enacted on the theatrum sacri of Touba. Such ideas have allowed for the coherence and successful imagining of a Mouride community.

4 Visiting Touba

The first time I went to Touba was over a decade ago. I lived in Dakar, Senegal for two years conducting research on the Mourides, and returned later for briefer stays. I went to Touba many times, during Le Grand Magal and also throughout the year when festivities were not taking place. My methodology consisted of participant observation, and informal interviews where I asked open-ended questions that did not bias answers, such as: ‘how are you finding this years’ Grand Magal?’. By participating in rituals and sharing conversations on a daily basis with Mourides both in Dakar and in Touba I was able to acquire a lot of firsthand information which I generally recorded in notebooks, especially since, as I detailed my computer got stolen one year, I found it safer to resort to paper. What I realised, going over my notes, was that the recorded statements from Mourides clashed with my impressions of Touba, this was the impetus of this article.

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Unsure what I would encounter, before I left my dwellings in Dakar, I asked Mourides to describe Touba and the Magal to me. I wanted to know what to expect. This was usually in the context of casual conversation. Afterall, leading up to the event the topic is de rigueur and any Mouride will garrulously speak of their plans. Even non-Mourides may inquire if their friends, family, neighbours are going: if so, with whom, where will they stay? For how long will they go? These and other questions become commonplace. Thus, it was not difficult to elicit information, sometimes I need not even ask. Given it was my first Magal, many of my Mouride acquaintances were vicariously excited for me and zealously told me of their first pilgrimage without my prompting them. Additionally, because I was primarily doing my fieldwork on two new Mouride movements in Dakar, I was continually surrounded by Mourides of all ages and genders. Furthermore, my neighbours were Mourides, my local shop was run by a Mouride, as was one of the waiters who worked at one of my favourite restaurants serving traditional dishes. I had no shortage of people therefore to talk to prior to my trip. ‘You will feel it, when you arrive’, Mbaye one of my Mouride neighbours told me, ‘it is the realm of God’. Mbaye continued ‘Touba signifies everything for us, it was created by Cheikh Amadou Bamba. All Mourides feel peace in his presence’. Alassane, the Mouride boyfriend of my good friend Fanta (a non- Mouride woman of around my age) described: ‘When I arrive on this sacred soil I feel nothing but the closeness of God’. When I asked about the pilgrimage, I was told by Alassane, that ‘I would find heaven on earth, be with Bamba, with God’. Out of a sample group of 50 disciples, 48 told me: ‘Touba is paradise’ and spoke only of the numinous aspects of the city. The city was often com- pared to Dakar, with the latter being described as a bastion of chaos, anodyne materiality and even a source of difficulties. I honestly did not question such interpretations of the city, and still do not dispute that for the Mourides Touba is heaven on earth. For talibés the city is viewed, as I will describe, through the lore associated with their founder, Bamba, and as they enact the rituals, they create what, as I have described, Halbwachs called ‘collective memory’ (1992). This colours their perception of the city. However, my experience upon entering the city was most different from that of Mourides. My first impressions of Touba was that it was a highly chaotic, commer- cialised city and I was shocked by the large, putrid piles of rubbish on main thoroughfares which day in and day out, did not seem to get collected. But Laming, the cousin of my host Fatou, a Mouride woman of my age who had invited me to stay with her and her family in their lodgings told me on our jour- ney up to the city: ‘You will experience inexplicable feelings in Touba, firstly immense peace in your soul and when you set foot in the sacred city, you will

Journal of Religion in DownloadedAfrica 48from (2020) Brill.com09/29/2021 312-346 05:16:34PM via free access Staging Touba: The Performance of Piety 329 feel close to God, you will experience the sensation of nothing else but Allah the Almighty the Creator’. To accommodate the pods of people and their many needs, goods gushed into the city day and night, from animals to victuals to spiritual artefacts to electronics. As I witnessed these incessant flux, to my outsider’s eye, it cer- tainly did not lend a tranquil feel to the city. People bustled about bringing with them news, capital to spend, as well as a plethora of other items, includ- ing beasts for sacrifice and cloth for exchange. Vukonic (1998) has attested that the economic impact of religious tourism is incontestable, yet Le Grand Magal has scarce been recognised in academic literature as an economic driver, even if Ross argues that it is globalised metropolis (2011). It is vital thus for academic records to note that Le Grand Magal is an important global economic stimulus. In the West African continent, amongst those who benefit are: livestock producers; fruit, rice23 and vegetable farmers; telecommunication companies; construction firms; fmcg businesses; smes; banks; taxi companies; transportation firms as well as numerous others. As such the event boosts employment opportunities as well, offering thousands of jobs. Globally, the pilgrimage benefits numerous companies. Airlines make profits from the thousands of migrants who arrive, the petroleum industry benefits from the manifold vehicles that disciples use to travel in. Banks; the garment and textile industry; money transfer and money order companies also capitalise. According to Matlaboul Fawzaini, a local dahira that analysed the economic impact of religious festivities, customs officers noted that imports rose by 115% in 2015 during the Magal time period. A study by Guèye (not the author of the book on Touba)24 states that Le Magal had at minimum an impact of 452,000,000 USD on the global economy in 2017. Coulon has exploited Turner’s argument (1974:197) on the ‘peripheral’ character of most places of pilgrimage, applying it to Touba and Le Grand Magal but this is clearly not the case and much as Mourides view the city as far from the materiality of Dakar, the city is clearly vibrant economically. My host, Fatou, insisted we go to Marché Ocass, where people spent hours bartering, often for black market goods which are traded at the lowest prices in the country. As a Mouride territory that is overseen by the Khalifa General and other Mouride leaders, the city functions akin to an autonomous state within the state of Senegal. It is exempt from state control, therefore it is a tax-free, duty-free zone. As it is not beholden to government laws, Touba, and its neigh- boring satellites, it is a hub for the sale of contraband. I was surprised when we entered the market to find an entire section selling counterfeit and expired medications from antibiotics to opiates.

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I was also startled by a visit from our neighbour one evening. Yacine warned us: ‘make sure to lock your door, close the windows, do not wander the streets after dark’. His family had heard that a felon and his accomplices were lurk- ing and had already perpetrated several crimes. As explained, since Touba and its environs operate as an autonomous territory, it is not subject to state law enforcement. Fugitives from across Africa seek refuge in the region, thereby evading the police. Touba’s religious regulations proscribed the sale of alcohol and tobacco, unless purchased under the table. Nevertheless, in Mbacké, a satellite city eponymously named after the founder’s family lineage, alcohol, drugs, women, gambling are always in ready supply a short drive away and there are always those who willingly partake during the pilgrimage, despite its immediate air of spirituality. Fatou, as described, was my host in Touba. Her family owned a compound used for religious visits. Apart from her circumambulations of the religious sites, Fatou spent many hours engaged in non-religious activities. She relayed rumours to friends in Dakar and it became apparent that for her Le Grand Magal was an occasion to seek eligible men. She spent substantial time on her toilette. Buggenhagen has detailed that female Mouride disciples practice ‘sañse’ (Buggenhagen 2012b: 96). This involves dressing in a manner that dem- onstrates that they ‘honor their spiritual leader’, are pious and righteous. They seek to present their body in a manner that conveys ‘wealth, social rank, and honor’ (Buggenhagen 2012b:87). Fatou sought to create the perfect counterpoise in her garb: alluring enough that she would be deemed seductive but modest enough to evince that she up- held spiritual values. When she left the house to attend religious events or go to the market, she was expressly motivated by the desire to meet a rich young man who would make her his first wife. Failing that, she also sought an affluent boyfriend, or two, who would wine and dine her, as well as finance some of her more expensive habits, such as her constantly changing hair-pieces. She took advantage of chance encounters and arranged meetings ensuring she was in- troduced by her contacts to their eligible brothers, uncles, cousins and friends and engaged in light flirting with those who took her fancy. Over the course of 48 hours Fatou compiled a list of phone numbers belonging to potential suit- ors. Albeit, when I asked her in the evenings her impressions of day at Le Grand Magal, her amorous activities were entirely omitted, perhaps for my benefit as an anthropologist. She told me that Touba was a ‘lieu saint’ (a sacred site). She added that ‘Le Grand Magal’ fills you with pride, joy and causes you to examine yourself. Nevertheless, perhaps it was I who was at fault for assuming that all activities should be spiritual and my surprise at encountering activities I did not

Journal of Religion in DownloadedAfrica 48from (2020) Brill.com09/29/2021 312-346 05:16:34PM via free access Staging Touba: The Performance of Piety 331 characterise as religious said more about my prejudices than anything else. As Schielke (2009, 2015) points out in his study of Ramadan in Egypt, working with young men who seemingly contradictorily played football during the holy time of the year, that Muslims, like most of humankind have a fluid sense of morality. They are at times pious, and at other times may appear to act perversely. People are ‘complex’, and not ‘consistent’ (Schielke 2009:S26) and practice their piety ambivalently, experiencing ‘profound contradictions of different urges and wishes’ which force them to negotiate morality (ibid:s36). What may appear as hypocrisy is a way of navigating the complexity of existence. ‘Morality in this sense is not only situational, unsystematic, and ambigu- ous; it also does not have clear boundaries’ (Schielke 2015: 56).

5 Divine Discord

Another thing that struck me, whenever I went to Touba, was the disagree- ments between those of different orders and branches as to whose marabout was superior, as well as doctrinal discussions of how certain Mourides were not proper Mourides, as I will describe. I frequently overheard gossip in Touba, especially since ensconced in my host’s large family group, visitors and those who bumped into us at Le Grand Magal often tended to forget I was there. I had already encountered such hearsay in Dakar but erroneously expected such discourse to be muted in the context of Le Grand Magal. Once again, this forced me to examine the complexity, inconsistency and spaces of tension during religious ritual and to examine how these were overcome. This was particularly poignantly experienced, when as we were walking towards the market one day, we encountered two young men at blows with one another, apparently over differences of opinion on a marabout who one asserted was a fraud, and the other stated was his marabout! The Mouride order has long experienced dissolution. It bisected upon Bamba’s death in 1927. Disciples and marabouts bickered over who would suc- ceed Bamba and become the first Khalifa General, the leader of all Mourides. According to Wolof tradition, inheritance passes to the oldest living brother, in this case denoting Cheikh Anta. Notwithstanding, it was common knowledge that Bamba bequeathed the role to his eldest son Mouhamadou Moustapha Mbacké. The two marabouts argued behind closed doors. On the streets of Touba and Dakar, violent confrontations took place between their talibés, even after Mouhamadou Moustapha was named Khalifa General. Ab initio, the very first Grand Magal was organised not only to commemorate Bamba but to unite divided factions and cool tensions. As such it seems clear as alluded to in

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Turner’s theory (1974), that rituals allow for crises to be provisionally resolved, is highly applicable to the Mourides. In 1946, following Mouhamadou Moustapha’s death, a new heated rivalry erupted. Serigne Falilou, son of Bamba, was named Khalifa General much to Mouhamadou Moustapha’s eldest son, Serigne Cheikh’s disgust. He hoped to inherit his father’s title. The two adversaries aligned themselves with political leaders, Serigne Cheikh with the mayor of Dakar and leader of the Senegalese Party of Socialist Action, Lamine Guèye, and Serigne Falilou with Leopold Senghor, the President-elect. Once again tensions escalated and in 1952, numerous talibés were injured in a violent fracas (Guèye 2002:160-162). Aside from ongoing turmoils between different Mbacké lineages, multiple personages in each marabouts’ retinue jockey for power and position. Since influential marabouts possess riches and bestow favours, their patronage entails access to a cornucopia of capital and connections. The Khalifa General possesses a substantial cortège. He is surrounded by: matrilineal kin who may be numerous due to the practice of polygamy; diawrigne, his representatives who relay his messages to the public; political leaders from both the provincial and national levels who seek alliance due to the Khalifa’s ability to sway the vox populi, for example through electoral edicts known as ndiggel, although as Villalon has pointed out the extent to which all disciples mechanically follow this is disputable (1995). The Khalifa General’s attention is also frequently sought by the presidents of groupings of talibés who assemble to promote social and religious causes. Additionally, he possesses a beuk nekk, spawned from the role of valet typical in the pre-colonial Wolof kingdoms. Beuk nekk now function as aides and advi- sors but are said to have the ear of the Khalifa. During my third Grand Magal, in 2009, various rumours circulated amongst marabouts, regarding a beuk nekk who had manipulated a certain Khalifa for his own ends, to the detriment of Mbacké family members. On a smaller scale, but following the same schemata, all the above-described personages have those who contend for their atten- tions and access to resources due to their connections to the Khalifa General. It is hardly surprising that dissension is rife in the ranks. A marabout’s wife, who cannot be named for privacy reasons25, complained to me that her brother-in-law received more favours from the Khalifa than her husband did. She stated that her brother-in-law was much less capable. She claimed sycophantic behaviour and elaborate gifts had won the Khalifa’s fa- vour. Different groups also joust for the Khalifa’s attention and resources. For example, under Serigne Saliou, the fifth Khalifa General, the dahira known as Hizbut Tarqiyyah managed to obtain power and funding. Its membership

Journal of Religion in DownloadedAfrica 48from (2020) Brill.com09/29/2021 312-346 05:16:34PM via free access Staging Touba: The Performance of Piety 333 consists of students, and former students, who are well-educated and from affluent milieu, unlike the majority of the population. They are known for col- lating, translating Bamba’s œuvres, penned in Arabic, into French and then publishing them. The members of this dahira organised an exhibit on Bamba’s life. I was told by talibés in 2007 that Serigne Saliou was charmed by their impressive work and knowledge. Under his aegis they were put in contact with influential figures, allotted significant funds and conferred the honour of organising Le Grand Magal. The dahira subsequently became more powerful than any other. Other dahiras were affronted by this decision, and in fact certain members of an irate dahira26 were keen to lament the situation to me, an apparently sympathetic anthropologist. Many deemed Hizbut Tarqiyyah to be an elitist organisation which had little need for the funds and did not represent the typical Mouride demographic, many of whom are urban poor. This led to confrontations between members of the dahiras that spread as far as Dakar. Disciples of different marabouts also regularly verbally and even physically spar. There have sporadically been altercations between the marabouts as well as the disciples of their orders concerning liturgy. More recently this has often concerned more modern Mouride leaders. A new style of marabouts has emerged. They have differentiated themselves by eschewing traditional praxis for entirely innovatory practices (Kingsbury 2014, 2018). Marabouts together with talibés who extol more customary modes of worship, such as regular prayer 5 times daily, have accused inventive marabouts of perverting the Mouride faith. Cheikh Modou Kara, known as the ‘marabout of bandits’, is popular amongst the younger generation. He is renowned for proselytising young felons and drug addicts, offering them opportunities for reintegrating into society and a soteriology which is more lax than that of the older generation of marabouts (Kingsbury 2018). Some Mourides vindicate the marabout. Mamor, Fatou’s second cousin came over for dinner one night. Although not Kara’s disciple, Mamor applauded him: ‘he is a powerful marabout, who is very close to Allah; through him God’s hand touches those who need it most’. Yet many are scathing, especially due to the ignominious behaviour of some of his talibés. I met Idrissa at Le Grand Magal through Fatou’s brother, with whom he was good friends. He had come to visit our lodgings. He informed me that he was the disciple of Serigne Bassirou27, a traditional marabout. Since I was working primarily at that time on new religious movements in Dakar, I asked Idrissa what he thought of Cheikh Modou Kara. Idrissa explained ‘Serigne Bassirou is truly holy. You look at him, you see God. Kara does not act like a proper

Journal of Religion in Africa 48 (2020) 312-346 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 05:16:34PM via free access 334 Kingsbury marabout, he openly talks of politics, when he should speak of God and his disciples are scum.’ Over the last decade there have been numerous incidents, especially in Touba’s satellite-villages. Kara’s disciples, amongst others, have been known to taunt talibés of other orders, boasting of their marabout’s prepotency or arguing about the proper way of ‘being Mouride’. This had led on various occasions to brawling28 between, often inebriated or otherwise intoxicated, disciples. Occasionally disputes even occur within the same order. My neighbour, Mamadou, who came up to Touba for the Magal in 2008, at a later date also expressed similar points of view, this time vituperating the marabout Cheikh Bethio Thioune29, who was a highly unique character in the Mouride order, given he was not born into it, but made an honorary Cheikh by Serigne Saliou. This horrified Mamadou who accused Thioune and his disciples of practising zandaqa30. The Mourides are purportedly the most puissant Islamic order in Senegal. Their leaders possess considerable influence, wealth and large land holdings. Yet, as this paper has detailed, far from presenting a homogeneous grouping, Mourides comprise a diversified plethora of individuals whose beliefs and practices are not immutable but polymorphic and dynamic. Infighting, tension and dissension are widespread but it is clear that this does not directly contradict the experience of unity and transcendence at Le Grand Magal, after all it is the pilgrimage which establishes the stakes worth fighting over. Marabouts and other individuals vie for power, inducing disunity in the order. Disciples of different orders dispute the supremacy of their marabout or the ‘proper’ way to be Mouride. Notwithstanding, these disparate Mouride groupings, and individuals also fuse together, thereby maintaining the strength of the Mouride order. This ensures that Mouride leaders ‘avoid subordination’ to the state or other powerful groups, whilst maintaining the ‘symbolic reality of the Mouride enclosure, a space within which the brotherhood enjoys an independent existence’ (Cruise O’Brien 2003:7). Principally, it is when enacting religious rites, especially during Le Grand Magal, that Mourides coalesce. Through the performance of rites, communitas reinforces group solidarity (Turner 1969), uniting Mourides, and thereby ren- dering obsolete individual religious preferences, differences of opinions and other disparities, as well as resolving conflicts and assuaging tensions.

6 The Performance of Piety

Le Grand Mosque at Touba’s center was completed in 1963. The mosque’s lav- ish decor includes bejewelled monuments, marmoreal flooring and ceilings

Journal of Religion in DownloadedAfrica 48from (2020) Brill.com09/29/2021 312-346 05:16:34PM via free access Staging Touba: The Performance of Piety 335 embellished with intricate geometric designs. The structure is oriented towards Mecca. Its central minaret dominates the city’s skyline. It is 87 metres high. A vespertine illuminated star at its apex entails it is discernible over 20 km away on a clear night. Like other vertical objects, such as church towers or obelisks, the minaret symbolises the axis mundi (Mekking 2009:23-49), the qutb al-âlam (Ross 1995:227). Mourides perceive it as connecting the heavens with the earthly plane. As Turner points out ‘ritual symbols are multivocal’ (Turner 1974:55). Lamp Fall, as the minaret is known, named after Ibrahima Fall, is also said by some disciples to manifest the rapport between Allah and man. Many talibés further told me during my visits that the light visible at night represented the way in which Mouridiyya enlightened their lives. Recalling the etymology of religion, religare, I believe that Le Grand Mosque, as part of the theatrum sacri, symbolically acts as a visual cue. It binds a particular religious discourse to the land and to disciples creating a collective memory. Talibés engage in rites that take the form of a drama that draws from the imagined story of their founder’s life, within the stage of the mosque’s walls, the cemetery and in the musallâ, the open-air prayer-ground that is situ- ated in front of the mosque. In religion’s sense of relegere, within this setting, Mourides re-read their surroundings, their own selves as they perform their piety. Schieffelin evinces that symbols work not so much to present an argument or description but to construct a ‘situation in which the participants experience symbolic meanings as part of the process of what they are already doing’ (Schieffelin 2013:109). The mosque, cemetery and prayer-ground are efficacious as symbols not so much because they communicate meaning, although they do this as well. Rather their primary effectiveness is revealed in and through performances which take place in a social space whereby ‘participants are engaged with the symbols in the interactional creation of …reality, rather than being merely informed by them as knowers’ (Schieffelin 2013:107) thereby reifying and inscribing meaning on these spaces. The mosque and other symbols are construed as and create an imagined Mouride past that informs the Mouride imaginaire. This is preserved in hagiographic texts and myths which do not reflect the ontic, but rather contribute to an ontology that creates a Mouride identity and a vision of the past, the present and the future. Through narratives, the social imaginary and collective memory is inscribed into the minds of Mourides. This is particularly evident when parents recount tales to their children, or to an apparently ignorant anthropologist (me) who must be made aware of their history. Many accounts recounted during Le Grand Magal, such as that of Bamba’s discovery of Touba, feature improbable events. During festivities, I was frequently told about Bamba’s vision by the many talibés I encountered. A

Journal of Religion in Africa 48 (2020) 312-346 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 05:16:34PM via free access 336 Kingsbury common version of the innumerable iterations was that Bamba had been visited by the Angel Gabriel and told to look for a divine spot which would one day be the site of a huge mosque and a vital sacred space for all Mourides. I was often told that Bamba searched for Touba for 30 years, given his age at the time of its discovery this would entail Bamba was four years old when his quest commenced (Guèye 2002:77). Many Mourides recounted that Bamba went north from Diourbel, however colonial records confirm that Bamba did not set foot in Diourbel until 1912, viz. 25 years after he founded Touba (Ba 1982). Narratives differed according to who was recounting the tale, some Mourides insisted that Bamba’s hierophany was not of the Angel Gabriel but of Allah. Nevertheless, the veracity and consistency of these narratives is not important, and indeed to seek a ‘true’ account would be misguided. Rather we must consider such tales as performances, that continually perpetuate the presence of the past in the present, inventing tradition (Hobsbawn and Ranger 1983). Narratives are multitudinous, contradictory and consist of ‘never-ending sto- ries’ that constantly create a mythology defining people, places and actions as sacrosanct in the present day, through their connections to Bamba. This discourse re-appropriates and reifies dichotomies used by the colonialists, such as those of modernity and tradition. The Mourides have adopted and adapted these paradigms so as to create a metaphysical distance between themselves and the colonialists, casting Bamba as a figure who strived to preserve traditional Wolof identity and culture and fought against the French. Nevertheless, an examination of Senegalese history reveals Bamba nolens volens, became an important colonial ally, contrary to hagiographic accounts. Bamba was exiled by the French for numerous years, which has indelibly cast Bamba as a spiritual hero in the eyes of the Mouride. Yet disciples barely, if ever, mention that Bamba, and in particular his entourage, eventually colluded with the French colonialists, providing them with favours in an échange de services that has been well-documented (Cruise O’Brien 2003). Hastrup remarked: ‘the story of the past is a selective account of the actual sequence of events but it is no random selection’ (Hastrup 1992:9). In and around the mosque are various important lieux related to the imagined past which devotees circumambulate, especially during Le Grand Magal. One of these is the Guy Texe, a baobab that rises from the centre of the grave- yard and below which Bamba’s first wife was buried. The cynosure is Cheikh Amadou Bamba’s gilded, jewel-stippled sepulchre. Every day disciples can be seen static as statues as they kneel, before the mausoleum, bare-footed and freshly-washed in their boubous on the cool marble tiles. These varied religious spaces are produced and governed by different modi of enacting the numinous. In the sepulchre silence and motionlessness are imposed, whilst in the

Journal of Religion in DownloadedAfrica 48from (2020) Brill.com09/29/2021 312-346 05:16:34PM via free access Staging Touba: The Performance of Piety 337 prayer-ground piety is produced through techniques du corps which involve movement and sound, such as chanting and specific corporeal motions. Heads bowed, disciples lower themselves onto their knees, then bow their heads to the ground, after which they raise them again. These visceral, visual, tactile, aural experiences are integral to the performance of piety and generation of belief. As Merleau-Ponty has argued our bodies comprise our way of being in the phenomenal field. We are a corps vécu, or a lived body (2002:113). Merleau- Ponty writes: ‘I am conscious of the world through the medium of my body’ describing the inseparability of action and thought (2002:82). Merleau-Ponty evinces how bodies retain identities through movements, they also simultaneously produce these. We ‘learn’ our world through incarnated experiences whereby knowledge is not primarily obtained through the mind sealed off from the world, but ‘from the body’s involvement in and transactional deal- ings’ within the world (Merleau-Ponty 2002:34). In these spaces one may witness disciples engaging in the tripartite rites of passage (van Gennep 1908) and re-reading (relegere) their place in the world as they choreograph their actions and orient their beliefs according to a Mouride construction of the sacred. For example, prior to entry into Le Grand Mosque, male disciples don their best boubou and perform wudu, whereby they cleanse their hands, feet and faces of dirt with soap and water. Ablutions in a ritual context, as Mary Douglas has detailed, hold symbolic value (1966), and are not conceived of as necessary for bacterial decontamination but rather are actions undertaken by believers to enact their expurgation of cosmological grime. According to van Gennep’s tripartite structure, cleansing and initial entry into the mosque should be conceived of as separation, since disciples detach themselves from the familiarity of their daily activities which are deemed, by them, as profane. Disciples enter into the mosque, conceived of as a holy space. Clothed and cleansed alike disciples now appear to form a homogeneous mass as they genuflect before Bamba’s tomb. Sartorial uniformity, Turner explains, levels devotees and destroys signs of their preliminal status (Turner 1982:26). Many Mourides told me that once in the mosque ‘all are equal in the eyes of God’. Enacting their submission through specific sartorial styles and mimetic movements, they are ‘stripped of their former identities’ (Schechner 2002:57), thereby entering into a liminal phase. This liminal phase has a binal telos. It binds disciples together in communitas as an ‘undifferentiated, egalitarian’ group (see Turner 1974:46), in the sense of religere. Moreover it causes disciples to re-read themselves and their surroundings in the sense of relegere. Turner details how during the liminal phase people are ‘fashioned anew’ (ibid). Schechner expounds that these new identities derive from ‘new powers’ (2002:58). As disciples silently shuffle through

Journal of Religion in Africa 48 (2020) 312-346 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 05:16:34PM via free access 338 Kingsbury the mosque and the other sanctified locales, they believe that they imbibe the baraka that they purport emanates from the sacred objects therein. The baraka issuing from Bamba’s sepulchre is said to be particularly puissant. Baraka is understood to be a divine blessing that flows out of holy figures and the objects associated with them. Bassirou told me, with regards to Bamba’s mausoleum ‘when you are close to it you are closer to God, you feel and know what it means to be a Mouride. You feel the holiness. This makes your faith even stronger and you know that you are protected’. As Meyer has expounded ‘social practices of acting and looking’ reveal that ‘things … may impress themselves on their beholders, instilling sensations’ (Meyer 2012: 297-298) or what Geertz terms ‘moods and motivations’ (1973:90). Immersed in this symbolic construction of the sacred, disciples enact their affirmed allegiance to Mourdiyya and its founding father, reifying their religious ontology through rites that involve ad hoc corporeal techniques. As mentioned, in the mosque quietude and stasis predominate, whilst in the prayer-ground movements and sounds prevail. Once Mourides leave the con- secrate spaces, they are incorporated back into society, changed, as per the final stage of van Gennep’s tripartite conceptualisation. The ‘mental self-models’ that are the ‘little red arrows’ (Metzinger 2004:331) that allow disciples to phenomenologically navigate their map of reality, are now restructured, whilst the map—which as Baudrillard noted precedes the territory (Baudrillard 1981:1)- is itself redrawn afresh. Disciples testimonies demonstrated this to me. They detailed how following their pilgrimage, their faith was renewed, and how they could subsequently envision a more pellucid path. Bassirou, whom I met on a bus leaving Touba in 2008 told me ‘I know my mind better when I leave Touba. I know that as a Mouride I must work hard, pray and honour Khadimou Rassoul31.’ Abdou his friend chimed in: ‘I am different when I leave Touba, I have been with God and Bamba. I have the blessings of my marabout and Bamba and I feel their power will guide me.’ In 2007, on our last day Coumba, a friend of my host’s, came to say her good-byes. I asked her how she had enjoyed the year’s festivities, and clarity seemed to be at the fulcrum of her narrative. She told me: ‘I see the world around me more clearly, I understand why Allah has made it so.’ Merleau-Ponty believed that the body of the other ‘is the very first of all cultural objects’ (2002:348). Our experience of other bodies affects our physical and metaphysical perceptions of the world. This became evident to me as I watched disciples performing their piety together. Disciples never worshipped alone. Especially during Le Grand Magal, millions merged together in ritual activities. In this context, disciples not only enacted and reified their faith, but also reinforced the faith of those around them. Conjoined they became active

Journal of Religion in DownloadedAfrica 48from (2020) Brill.com09/29/2021 312-346 05:16:34PM via free access Staging Touba: The Performance of Piety 339 agents in a dramaturgical cosmological construction of reality. Turner elabo- rates that the ‘pilgrim himself becomes a total symbol, indeed a symbol of to- tality’ (Turner 1974:208). Žižek’s insist that faith does not primarily stem from inner belief. Nor are religious acts derived from beliefs that foreshadow them. Rather it is the act that produces faith through self-referential causality. The performance of piety is an embodied enactment. Pascal reportedly asserted ‘Kneel down, move your lips in prayer, and you will believe’ (Althusser 1971:114). Žižek explains this statement, relating that religion is an autopoetic system. Kneeling down generates belief as an effect: ‘the external ritual performatively generates its own ideological foundation’ (Žižek 1994: 12-13). Disciples, as cosmological symbols and performers in a cosmological drama (Turner 1974:208), are not only models of, but models for reality and not only instigate moods and motivations (Geertz 1973), but also impel social action (Turner 1974:131- 132) in each other. Devotees generate particular modes of reality that imbue other devotees with those specific cosmological constructions of reality. Žižek notes: ‘belief is displaced onto another, onto a subject supposed to believe’, so that the true logic is: ‘kneel down and you will thereby make someone else believe!’ (1994: 12-13). As Mourides enact these rituals in union in holy lieux, Touba is imagined according to a model that Coulon states is of ‘a society which exists in perfect form … the pilgrimage can be considered as a festival of Utopia, the celebration of a model of social and urban organization which is sharply distinguished from the harsh realities of daily life in Senegal’ (Coulon 1999:206-207). Coulon states that for the Mourides that Touba ‘in the way it is governed and organized’ stands in sharp contrast to ‘the disorder’ of Dakar and other cities (ibid). However, although Mouride testimonies support this ideal, as we have seen Touba is in actuality, like any other metropolis: chaotic, characterised by crime and other activities that are diametrically opposed to the notions of sanctity and order. Le Grand Magal has been lauded by Mourides as the example par excellence of superlative Mouride organisation, in that the city and its hosts ostensibly manage to cater to the needs of millions of disciples that attend. Yet during my various trips to Touba to attend the pilgrimage, there were oftentimes issues with security, lack of sanitation, electricity supply, distribution of water and other logistical quandaries which could not, after numerous years of such pre- dicaments, be dismissed as teething problems. In the last 6 years, intra muros, the Mourides have relied upon the Government’s aid to guarantee safety, water and electricity supply in Touba. Cruise O’Brien’s reveals how Mourides engage in symbolic confrontations with the state, juxtaposing their religious purity with the satanic devil beyond, viz., the state (Cruise O’Brien 2003). Touba is

Journal of Religion in Africa 48 (2020) 312-346 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 05:16:34PM via free access 340 Kingsbury thus imagined as an intemerate space differentiated from the nation-state. But in reality Mourides rely upon the Government’s aid for the successful organisation of Le Grand Magal, as well as the resources that derive from Dakar and further afield. If Mourides view Touba as an ordered paradise this is because performances have reified a particular reading or understanding of the city according to a metaphysical map, creating it as holy and sacralising the space. It has been cast in opposition to Dakar and other cities, and portrayed as a peripheral space linked to the divine. Yet as has been demonstrated, Touba is not an isolated milieu but an important nexus in a global lattice of financial, commercial, political and human flows. Touba’s Mouride leaders, although defined in contradistinc- tion to the political figures who govern the country from Dakar, are entangled in intimate business relationships with politicians. Yet when Mourides assemble to celebrate Bamba’s exile, they enact a drama that re-writes another reality, one in which religion is defined in opposition to the state, when in fact it is integral to the state (Cruise O’Brien 2003:129). One of the reasons that security has become requisite at Le Grand Magal is the frequent mêlées between disciples. When one adds to this the infighting behind closed doors amongst marabouts and their entourage, it becomes clear that segmentation is a perpetual problem amongst the Mourides. Disorder amongst the rank and file, as well as the leaders, is ubiquitous, despite Mouride assertions to the contrary. For example, Coumba told me ‘the Mourides are the strongest order in Senegal because we are entirely unified through our faith and love for Cheikh Amadou Bamba.’ As explained it is not only common for individuals to vie for power and resources from the Khalifa General, but additionally individual Mouride leaders tend to split from the main body of Sufi saints, forming their own orders to gain the allegiance of devoted disciples and the power this inheres (Kingsbury 2014). Yet Mourides continue to imagine themselves as conjoined as one. During rites at Le Grand Magal, disciples coadunate in what Maffesoli terms ‘syntony’ (1988:113). As Coulon expounds, this consists of a form of empathy which causes ‘individuals in contact with one another to fuse their individual- ity into a strong sentiment of their belonging to a collective Us’ (1999:206). It is during these ritualistic activities that fusion occurs. Turner writes that in the ritual process devotees are infused with a sensation of sanctity. This has a chastening effect: ‘something of the sacredness of that transient humility … tempers the pride’ (Turner 1969:97). By momentarily engaging in rites together, disciples divest themselves of their structural positions and differing opinions. They enact and externalise the identity of a powerful unified Mouride movement. Even if, after the rites, Mourides ‘return to structure’ they are ‘revitalised

Journal of Religion in DownloadedAfrica 48from (2020) Brill.com09/29/2021 312-346 05:16:34PM via free access Staging Touba: The Performance of Piety 341 by their experience’ (Turner 1969:129) and conflicts have been momentarily resolved. They have performed their piety, enacted their allegiance to the Mouride movement, regenerating their pious paradigm. Furthermore, through the medium of the media, which only focuses on activities within the pentch, which is the stage where the sacred dramaturgy unfolds, this performance is disseminated to the entire globe, manifesting to all viewers Mouride power and pride.

7 Conclusion

Mourides, and even scholars of Mouridiyya, have depicted Touba as a sacred sphere of unison far from the profane, mundane world beyond, in particular Dakar. Touba has been presented as a peripheral place that is connected to the heavens through vertical ties. The Mourides have imagined their city as the manifestation of their founder’s vision of paradise on earth. Although Mourides do perceive the city as such, when analysed it is clear that Touba is a global metropolis that has deep horizontal ties with the rest of the world. It is involved in economic, political, and social flows. It divagates dramatically from the dream of its founder. Far from being a heavenly haven, it is marked by disorder, chaos and turmoil. Yet the Mouride order is imagined as a strong, unified corpus despite the disarray. I suggest that rites enacted on the Toubian stage, which is comprised of religious venues in the central pentch, comprise enactments that involve bodily techniques that are mimetic and ad hoc. These incarnated experiences generate a particular Mouride ontology, a collective memory and an ordered vision of the universe is imagined and manifested creating a specific way of apprehending and living in reality. Returning to the ideas evoked at the beginning of this paper with regards to the etymology of religion, the rites enacted serve to religare, in that they bind disciples to one another and to a particular religious discourse, memory, history and identity. In religion understood as relegere, through rites of passage within the pentch, Mourides emerge changed as they re-read their surroundings, their selves according to values and ideas they have experienced corporeally in the performance of piety.

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Notes

1 Accurate references on exact figures are hard to obtain as there has not been a government census since 1990, in which 31% of respondents identified as Mouride. 2 Both Mourides and non-Mourides attend. Many non-Mourides come to enjoy the festivities, or to make the most of economic, political and other opportunities. 3 For example, Bava and Guèye state : ‘le projet religieux de la confrérie tend à rester ho- mogène’ (2001:435). 4 See Retraciones, in De Natura Deorum originally published in 45 BC. 5 It is to be noted that a change of membership was commonplace. It merely entailed the addition of a particular prayer formula (wird or dhikr) to the worshipper`s habitual prayers (Kingsbury 2014:89). 6 In 1913, Bu Kunta offered one of his daughters in marriage to Mamadu Mustapha, the oldest son of Bamba, this further forged their friendship. Furthermore, vast numbers of the Bu Kunta community moved to rejoin Bamba’s Mouride community on the death of their leader in 1913 (See Toba Haidara/Diagne, “La confrérie Kuntiyu de Njaasaan.” 7 Intense spiritual resolve. 8 Their theology revolves around the worship of Ibrahima Fall, one of Bamba’s first disciples. 9 The original French statement is ‘Le travail (liggey en wolof), élément cardinal de la doctrine baay-fall, relève du domaine spirituel. Il est transcrit sous le concept de « mys- tique du travail ». Les taalibe trouvent en elle une « porte pour Allah ». Ils considèrent la rédemption par le travail comme une autre technique de soi pour se perfectionner.’ 10 Café Touba is a form of coffee mixed with a spice known in Wolof as jar or jarré, its bo- tanical name is xylophia aethiopica. The spice gives the coffee a particular flavour which is claimed to have medicinal properties. It is believed by Mourides to be a sacred coffee that cures all ailments, as it is said to be blessed. Mourides state that the making of the coffee is a form of prayer of gratitude. The Mouride legend is that when Cheikh Amadou Bamba was in Gabon, in an attempt to assassinate him, the colonisers offered him poi- soned coffee to drink.When the Cheikh was about to drink it, Allah sent the Archangel Gabriel (or Jibril in Wolof) to warn him not to drink the coffee. Cheikh Amadou Bamba told the Archangel to tell Allah that he would drink the coffee as He is hisprotector. As result of his faith, Allah told the Cheikh that He would bless this coffee forever with His compassion, His guidance and His support. The Cheikh is purported to have said of the coffee: ‘Inani Shifa’I min kulli da’I’ which means ‘it is a remedy against all imbalances.’ 11 Serigne Touba is another of Bamba’s epithets, meaning the marabout of Touba. 12 For example see (2001:435-436). 13 The original text states ‘le projet religieux de la confrérie tend à rester homogène’.

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14 ‘La cité tant souhaitée par Bamba est représentée par les Mourides comme la ville idéale, celle qui doit refléter la puissance et la beauté de son œuvre terrestre, tout en préfigurant ses promesses de paradis’. 15 Cheikh Amadou Bamba’s dream has been both fulfilled and forsaken, my translation. 16 ‘Touba où se concentrent la mémoire’. 17 ‘Touba est une mémoire organisée.’ 18 ‘Le Grand Magal de Touba est une importante réjouissance faite de prières, d’exaltation collective, de festins communiels et d’échanges commerciaux’. 19 There are many other authors who share this view, see also Pierre Vidal-Naquet 1960. 20 Rewmi, Tuesday December 24th 2013. 21 Especially in the earlier work on the order by Cruise O’Brien et al. 22 Incidentally, I never got my laptop back, even though I completed the act at my neighbour’s insistence, who would have thought me very rude should I have not followed his marabout’s instructions. 23 Specifically the rice farmers of the region of Walo. 24 Professor Lamine Guèye of the University of Alioune Diop in a study entitled ‘Étude des impacts économique du Grand Magal de Touba’ 2017. 25 Nor can I detail the context of our meeting, as it could compromise her identity. 26 I prefer not to state which dahira as this could create trouble for those members. 27 Serigne Bassirou Mbacké is the grandson of Serigne Bara Mbacké, the sixth Khalifa General, and son of the deceased elder brother of the current Khalifa General Serigne Cheikh Maty Léy. 28 For example, fighting erupted in September this year see newspaper clip from Dakaractu, 22nd September 2017: ‘Serigne Modou Kara et ses talibés échangent des coups de poing avec Mouqadimatoul Khidma … 15 blessés déclarés’. Serigne Modou Kara and his disciples trade punches with Mouqadimatoul Khidma, 15 wounded. 29 Cheikh Bethio Thioune died in May 2019, according to the press. 30 A heretical form of Islam. 31 Epiphet for Bamba meaning the servant of the prophet.

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