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CONTESTING SPACE, SHAPING PLACES: MAKING ROOM FOR THE MURIDIYYA IN COLONIAL SENEGAL, 1912–45

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 December 2005

CHEIKH ANTA BABOU
CHEIKH ANTA BABOU
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
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Abstract

This article offers a cultural approach to Murid migration to eastern Bawol. It argues that Murid settlement of eastern Bawol was part of an effort to transform the land then under French colonial domination into daar al Islam (house of Islam) or daara al Murid (house of the Murids). This endeavor to create Murid sacred space in Bawol was a conscious effort undertaken by sheikhs and disciples under the leadership of Amadu Bamba. The process of building daar al Murid unfolded in three empirically overlapping but analytically distinguishable steps: first, physical occupation of the space; second, its investment with religious meanings; and third, the containment of French cultural influences.

Keywords

SenegalcolonialculturalIslamsacred space
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 46 , Issue 3 , November 2005 , pp. 405 - 426
Copyright
2005 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This article is based partly on materials collected during research carried out in Senegal between 1999 and 2000 for a Ph.D. thesis funded by a Rockefeller Foundation grant. I wish to thank Steven Feierman, Sarah Igo, Ellen Foley and Paul Kaiser at the University of Pennsylvania for their comments and suggestions on earlier drafts. I am also grateful to the anonymous reviewers of the Journal of African History for their observations.