The Passport to Paradise gallery highlights the bold, visual images found all over Dakar by focusing upon the urban visual culture of the Mourides, a Senegalese Sufi movement centered upon the life and teachings of a local saint named Sheikh Amadou Bamba.

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Introduction

Text 2:
Mammadu Njaari Mbeq,
THE TOOROBBE AND THE DEENIYADKOOBE

Mammadu Njaari Mben gave this interview on 23 January 1969, at his home in Horkajeere, a settlement on the southern edge of the floodplain in the eastern region. Horkajeere was the principal court of the Deeniyanke regime in the 18th century. Mbeq, who was born about 1920, comes from a lineage of maabube, griots who in the olden days were attached to the Deeniyaqke and their cousins, the Yaalalbe. From his hereditary occupation and physical location, he has a remarkable vantage point for describing the events around the court.

Mbeu does not, however, represent the perspective of the rulers of the day. Rather, he tells a story which shows the Muslims outwitting the Deeniyanke. This point of view stems in part from the attachment of the Mbea lineage to the toorobhe who settled in Horkajeere in the late 18th century, the family of Ceerno Haymuut mentioned in the text. These toorobbe have been collectively known by their title of Elimaan Lewa and their patronym of Saal. They have been the patrons of the Mbeq for generations and have enjoyed this story repeatedly over the years.

The account is especially instructive about the code of warriors and rulers and new code of literacy of the toorobbe. Note the refrain of wealth and ostentation, related consistently to the court, and poverty and simplicity, applied to the Muslims. The court makes fun of the lack of material goods and "presence" of the Muslims. The Muslim side, or their audience, relish the inability of the powerful to understand the force of Islam and God. Both parties agree, however, on the necessity of finding some human agency to explain the premature death of the courtier Maham. The events and relations described here set the stage for the emergence of the more organized toorobbe movement under Sileymaani Bal.

Sampling from L'Institut Fondemental d'Afrique Noire (IFAN)

Phil Curtin Collection

Collection Boubacar Barry

Collection Charles Becker: Recherches et documents sur le Sida

Photographs from “Passport to Paradise’: Sufi Arts of Senegal and Beyond

Mosques of Bondoukou

Futa Toro, Senegal and Mauritania

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