Contemporary Campaigns to Spread Islam in Mali
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11 The Fulbe shaykh and the Bambara "pagans": contemporary campaigns to spread Islam in Mali Benjamin F. SOARES1 This essay looks at a high-profile Fulße Muslim religieus leader from Mali and explores his relations with the people of the Mande.2 This Muslfm religious leader or shaykh (Fulfulde, seeku)3, El-Hadj Chcikh Sidy Modibo Kane Diallo4 of Dilly in the circle of Nara, is perhaps one of the most influential religious leaders in present day Mali.5 The essay focuses on this man, considered by many to be a friend of God (wali),6 and examines the devclopment of his "career" as a shaykh 1 The research on which this article is based was generously funded by Fulbright-Hays, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, USIA/Fulbright and the West African Research Association/Center. I am grateful to the many people in Mali who provided information for this article, especially El- Hadj Cheikh Sidy Modibo Kane Diallo (1925-1996), whose recent death deeply saddens me. I dedicate this article to his memory. I would also like to thank Jane E. Goodman, John Harrelson, John O. Hunwick, Robert Launay, and Muhammad Sani Umar for their comments and suggestions, 2 Amselle (1990) argues that thé Ful6e should be included within thé Mande cultural area. I hâve no objections to this but choose in this discussion to use local ideological constructs about who is/is not Mande/Fulße. 3 Seeku (from thé Arabie shaykh) is considered higher in rank than a moodibo (pi. moodibaaBe), another loan word in Fulfulde from thé Arabie, mu'addib, meaning teacher. Moodibo is used to refer to a broad range of Muslim religious spectalists, including scholars, teachers, and diviners. It is équivalent in meaning to ceerno (pi. seernaaße) in the Pulaar dialect of Fulfulde spoken in western Mali and in the Senegal River valley. Like seeku, moodibo can be used as a proper name. 4 Here I follow the orthography used by Sidy himself, for example, on the stamp he puts on his correspondence in French. In the rest of the essay, I will refer to him as Sidy, as many do. 5 "Chef religieux" (Religious leader) is Sidy's self-appellation m French, found, for example, painted on his automobiles. Religious leader is also the most satisfactory translation of seeku/shaykh. 6 Wali is the Arabic word used in Fulfulde (pi. waliyaaoe), I translate wali hère as friend of God rather than saint to avoid confusion with the latter's Christians referents (cf. Denny 1988, Cruise O'Brien 1988). 268 PEULS ET MANDINGUES THE FULBE SHAYKH AND THE BAMBARA "PAGANS" 269 12 and a wali."71 show how this career has been constructed in large part through appeals to Oumou for petitionary prayers and blessings (duwaawu). Soon after ideological oppositions between Fulße and Mande/Bambara, as well as through the her death, her tomb in Dilly became a major pilgrimage site.13 shaykh's interactions with actual Bambara people, particularly his efforts to spread Dilly is presently home to a large concentration of Kane Diallo family members, Islam among the country's non-Muslim ("pagan") rural Bambara population and to including Sidy, whom Oumou designated from among her grandsons as spiritual eradicate the widespread practice of spirit possession. As I suggest, k is in such head of thé family. The présence of thé Kane Diallo family with ils réputation gives conversion campaigns that one can see most clearly how individuals — both Fulße thé town a spécial aura. Indeed, Dilly is commonly referred to as thé town of walis and Mande/Bambara — deploy such ideological oppositions. Ultimately, however, (wuro waliyaaße).14 While not all Kane Diallo family members are considered the results of such campaigns to spread Islam remain rather ambiguous. walis, many, nonetheless, believe that ail descendants of Mohammed Abdoulaye Souad hâve baraka (God's favor orblessing). Although baraka is conceived of as heritable within this family, people frequently point out that such baraka is something that must also be continually The sufi: his life and the making of a career worked for.15 That is, even within a family as blessed as thé Kane Diallo family, heredity is not enough. This is precisely what is said about Sidy. In the past few decades, his réputation has spread throughout Mali, with many active followers or Sidy was born in 1925 into the Kane Diallo family, a Fulße family with a long disciples (taalibaaße) and représentatives (muqaddams) from various ethnie groups, and illustrious réputation as learned and pious Muslims.8 Indeed, several members Bambara, Fulße, Soninke, Moor, etc.16 People stress that his numerous followers of the Kane Diallo family have been considered walis.9 And a considérable amount and his tremendous popularity are an index of baraka. That he has worked for of the family's prestige comes from the réputations of such celebrated ancestors, baraka can be seen in his comportaient and in such personal characteristics as his with two of these undoubtedly the most famous. The first, Mohammed Abdoulaye modesty, generosity, and directness.17 Souad, came from a toorooddo family, originally from the Matam area of the Sidy, being born into a family of walis, has, in a sensé, claimed thé title and Senegal River. He studied with a leading Kunta shaykh in Timbuktu, taking the réputation of wali as his birthright. But this does not accurately describe local Qadiri wird (litany of prayers) from him. He then went on to become the first understandings. What Sidy has claimed is thé title of shaykh, a title in thé Malian prominent shaykh of the sufi order, the Qadiriyya, in the family with many context that is usually reserved for very few Muslims.18 This claim is announced followers (taalibo, pi. taalibaaße), beginning a tradition of sufism and spiritual on all of his vehicles, where he has painted "El-Hadj Cheikh Sidy Modibo Kane, leadership that has continued in the family to the present. After having had very chef religieux à Dilly". To his followers, he deserves this title, which is accorded close ties with the miers of Maasina during Seku Amaadu'syj/zad, Mohammed only to those moodibaaße who enjoy a considérable following. Abdoulaye Souad moved out of the orbit of Maasina.10 He died shortly before the His réputation for being a wali follows from a différent set of understandings. A French conquest in the town of Diina in the Bakounou where his tomb is an wali never openly proclaims himself as such. As elsewhere in thé Muslim world, important pilgrimage site. Malian Muslims generally acknowledge that the state of being a wali is conferred by The second of these famous ancestors is Mohammed Abdoulaye Souad's sole 11 child to live beyond infancy, his daughter, Oumou. Although she developed a 12 Many Malians are named after Oumou of Dilly. Frequently, childless people make an oath réputation as a wali like her father before her, this occurred under considerably (Fulfulde, takke; Bambara, dafale) that if they hâve a child, they agrée to name the child Oumou or changed circumstances. French colonial rule brought improved transportation and Modibo, after her father and her son. Communications, as well as new networks of colonial civil servants and soldiers 13 This is reported by the French colonial administration as early as 1945. See ANM: lE-104,3 from throughout the colonies, all of which contributed to the spread of her (F.R.), "Rapport de la tournée effectuée par le Commandant, cercle de Nioro, 8-13 nov. 1945, subdivision de Nara". réputation and that of her family in the French Sudan and beyond into the other 14 Dilly is even referred to as thé town of walis in a recently recorded song in Fulfulde about Sidy colonies in French West Africa. Until her death in 1942, countless people made by thé Malian singer, Ina Baba Coulibaly. 15 In Dilly, this was also stated by one of Sidy's muqaddams (représentatives) from Jenne over a loudspeaker at the official opening of thé yearly ziyara (Arabie, visit; Fulfulde, juraade, to visit a 71 refer here to the "career of sainthood" used by Triaud (1988). wali) coinciding with thé célébration of the Prophet Muhammad's birthday (Arabie, mawlid al- 8 I have provided more detail«! biographical information about Sidy and his family elsewhere (see nabi) in August 1994. Soares 1995, cf. Marty 1920). 16 The muqaddams appointed by Sidy number literally in thé hundreds. They are his local * Kane is an honorific used among the Toorod&e (sg. loorotfdo) clerisy by those with the pullo représentatives and are authorized to give people thé Qadiri wird. patronym Diallo if they are scholars or members of a scholarly lineage (see Willis 1978). The 11 Similarly, those people who are his followers (taalibaaße) are supposed to work for him as their Kane Diallo family repons that they are Toorod6e. shaykh, by performing physical labor or giving gifts of money and kind. In so doing, they are said 10 See Sanankoua (1990) for a discussion of Maasina and ils successive rulers. to work for baraka. 18 1 ' There is considérable discussion of Oumou in the archives, especially after 1941. See Archives In those areas of Mali (and neighboring Mauritania) where Arabie or Hassaniyya is spoken, the Nationales du Mali, Koulouba (ANM.) 4E-42.4 (Fonds Récents). word shaykh is used more frequently. 270 PEULS ET MANDINGUES THE FULBE SHAYKH AND THE BAMBARA "PAGANS" 271 God (Denny 1988). Although one may be a watt without oneself or others being among non-Muslims in Mali and elsewhere.22 Although by most accounts aware of it, ordinary Muslims may be able to identify a particular watt by certain islamization was one of the unintended conséquences of French colonial raie, there signs.