A West African Sufi Master on the Global Stage

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Cheikh A. Babou investigates the efforts of the late Sufi sheikh, Abdoulaye Dièye, to expand the Muridiyya Muslim tariqa in France and North America.

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Cheikh A. Babou investigates the efforts of the late Sufi sheikh, Abdoulaye Dièye, to expand the Muridiyya Muslim tariqa in France and North America.

Image courtesy of interviewee. March 6, 2024

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This video video discusses the historical context of migration in West Africa during the 1960s and 1970s, particularly focusing on the impacts of national independence and devastating droughts that led to rural exodus. As former British and French colonies achieved independence, agreements facilitated easier migration to Europe, especially France, for West Africans. The author, who has a background in researching migration and identity, reflects on how cultural factors, rather than solely economic concerns, motivate migration.

The narrative emphasizes the role of Amadou Baba, a significant figure in Senegal's Sufi tradition, whose teachings inspire many disciples to aspire for success beyond their immediate circumstances. Migration is framed as a journey not just of necessity but as one of ambition and cultural capital, where migrants often come from relatively stable backgrounds, leveraging their networks and experiences to navigate opportunities abroad.

The author argues that scholarly literature has focused primarily on out-migration from Africa, neglecting the significance of intra-African migration. They illustrate how this interconnected migration is crucial for understanding broader migration patterns, noting that successful migrants often engage in step-migration across multiple countries before reaching their final destination.

In conclusion, the text highlights the importance of understanding the complexities of migration, considering cultural influences and the value of local histories in shaping the experiences of migrants. The author intends for their research to contribute to a nuanced understanding of migration dynamics, emphasizing a method that listens to the voices and experiences of the migrants themselves.

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The context is really the 1960s and 1970s.

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Um, and of course, the 1960s, the years of the independence

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they say in West Africa, where many, former British

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and French colonies actually achieve national independence.

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Um, and many of these countries sign a agreement,

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particularly with France, for mutual settlement of citizens

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of the former colony and citizen of France.

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So that going to Europe, for example, going to France,

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was easier than it is today.

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There were no visa impose and so forths.

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And the other major factor is really

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what happened in West Africa in the 1970s

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and the early 1980s, a devastating drought

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that really make it very difficult for farmers particularly,

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to survive.

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And what we see happening was gradually,

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people moving from the countryside

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to the cities on the Atlantic coast,

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and then from those cities finding their way to Europe,

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which actually many government,

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particularly Senegalese government called Rural Exodus,

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where you have all these farmers actually coming

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to the city, to find way

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of surviving the men families.

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My research, I've always been interested in, in this type

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of research, my first book,

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fighting the Great Jihad was a, intellectual biography,

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Hamad Baba, with the founder of the Maid Order.

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And I've always been interested in tic,

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and tradition and culture and mobility.

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And, after I finished writing my first book, I returned

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to my love to mobility and space building

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and culture and identity.

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And, I felt that I, I really need to pick up this topic

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and to see what I can make of it.

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In fact, when I was, in graduate school,

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the first paper I wrote was on Mood

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migrant in New York City.

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I was then at Michigan State University,

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and I, I was fascinated by the ability of these disciple,

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some of them landing in New York City without a dime,

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knowing nothing English, just finding a way

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to survive and to prosper.

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And, and whenever I ask question about this, they return

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to their own and identity

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and look at Amadou Baba's biography itself.

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And the value of the Meridia is something that really,

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was what made them successful.

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So, when I finished my first book,

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fighting the Great Jihad, I, I, I decided to come back,

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to this topic of migration and, and mobility

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and culture and, and identity.

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Um, so one thing that was really significant, of course,

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there is a literature on all of this, you know,

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migration, African migration, migration itself.

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But it's a literature

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that really focus mostly on out of Africa.

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You know, people leaving the continent,

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they're not very much interested in

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what was going on on the continent first.

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Second, this is a, a scholarship mostly driven

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by the push pull argument.

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You have, you know, pool area and push areas,

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and people tend to migrate from depressed,

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geographical areas to more, wealthy areas and so forth.

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So, and culture was not important.

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It's really about labor migration.

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There is nothing about culture yet ultimately

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that I spoke to and talk about.

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Emphasize culture as a central factor

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in their migration journey.

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And trust is something that was crucial

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that they see in their success.

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And of course, trust here is based on the belief in Amad

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Baba and the fact

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that Amadou Baba himself was actually an immigrant,

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but an involuntary one,

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because he was sent, to, to many places by the,

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by the French as an exile.

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And they saw his travel, his, his tribulations

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and these trials as something

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that was an inspiration for them.

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So I was mostly interested really in, in kind of looking at

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how culture play around in migration.

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What is the foundation of trust,

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which is very political in any kind of migration.

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And how does space in place play a role in

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this Madrid migration?

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And how all of this is tied to the holy city of the Meridia.

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Uh, the city of Touba in Senegal, this is a sheik

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that live in the 19th century.

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He was born, we believe, in the 19, in the 1850s.

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And he died in 1927, as Sufi in general.

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He was a quietest. He was somebody who was

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really kind of proselytizing

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and promoting what he called the Greater Jihad.

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This is the subject of my first book.

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And of course, the Ji The Greater Jihad is the Jihad

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of the Soul, is the jihad that focus on struggling

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with your own, weaknesses, spiritual weaknesses, and,

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and, and working to get closer to God

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by purifying your soul, by education

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and by building relationship with the Prophet Muhammad,

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which make you closer to God.

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That's where the success is to be found,

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and very much against violence,

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and to some, to some extent, a little withdrawn too be.

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But what is interesting with the Meridia,

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and many of these tarika that actually tend to be withdrawn,

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tend to be quite turned to turn their back to material life,

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is that they have very, they have been very successful in,

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generating a disciple in more,

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that traveled the world becomes become,

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quite wealthy and their own holy cities actually became

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quite modern with modern building,

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modern hospital and so forth.

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So this is really what, what the meridia is, is all about.

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In the 1960s and 1970s,

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when the situation was quite difficult, in Senegal,

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these built in an older tradition.

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This is not something new. This is the continuity of

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A tradition, because already in West Central Senegal,

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which is really the heartland of the meridia, a process

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of rural urban migration had started already.

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Many of these me are trained in the d in the Dara.

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These are school, that

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educate people in the tradition of Sufi.

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This is not the classical education where you go to a,

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a madrasa and you get kind of what we call,

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what we can call discursive education.

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Here, what we have is a kind of experiential education that

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whose role is actually to, to teach your body,

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to be faithful to God,

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and to be able to combat Satan in his,

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misleading, people to actually be,

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dominated by the material life.

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So how do you, weaken your biological self so

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that you can strengthen your spirit yourself?

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So in that process, these school

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that actually scholar called walking school are very

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important where young adult go and what do they do?

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They do the zl, the thinking of the spiritual songs,

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meditating on their, shes examples and walking very hard

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because you really have to have your mind, your body,

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and your spirit busy with good work so

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that you could not be distracted in your path to God.

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So in that process, these young men walk in the,

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walking school during the rainy season

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and during dry season, they go to the town to walk.

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Mostly men are walk and,

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and earn a living, which they return back to their sheik,

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and part of it they use in their own, their own school.

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So you have then that process of rural urban migration.

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Now with independence, when mobility was easier

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because the strain

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that the colonial rule actually impose on subjects

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and the colonial subject mobility were removed,

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people now were freer to move around.

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So you see them then traveling within Senegal itself,

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and then within the French Empire in West Africa,

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particularly co dir and later on Gaon.

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So you have this tradition of mobility already started.

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Now in the 1960s with independence,

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and particularly in the 1970s with the drought,

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disciple had accumulated, what you might call,

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cultural capital.

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They have accumulated symbolic capital,

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and now they can invest those capital in new,

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let's say adventures

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or in new ventures actually to move beyond West Africa,

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beyond south west, central Africa, into Europe

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and elsewhere, until they reached the

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United States in the 1980s.

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One thing that I, I discovered with this marine migration is

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that it's not actually the poorest who migrate

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is all about depression and being poor and,

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and searching this.

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Many of these people actually were successful traders in

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Senegal, and it's exactly

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because they were successful traders that they can

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have the money to actually spend,

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because migration is quite expensive to do.

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You know, I'm not only talking by tickets,

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but getting a visa and even having the information itself

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because one of the most critical,

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good you need in migration is

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to having network and connection.

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Where to go, what kind of work to do, and how to get there.

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You can do this only

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because you already have some experience.

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Some, i I was talking earlier about cultural capital,

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but you can also add material capital.

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So one of the things

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that I found is these people are

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not the most depressed people.

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These are people that are quite well off,

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and some of them were working, you know,

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then I interviewed them, I realized

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that they were working in

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Senegal, and they were actually well off.

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And I sometime ask them, why did you decide to migrate?

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So, and, and many of them will tell me, well, you know,

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you have to be ambitious when you are a

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disciple of Amadou Baba.

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Don't limit yourself

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because there is limitless possibility for success for you.

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Uh, and look what Amadou Baba went, underwent himself.

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He was, arrested by the French

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for the first time in 1895,

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and then capped in the house arrest until his death in 1927.

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This is a man who was all his life in jail

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or in exile for 32 years.

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Look at his people right now.

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He has millions of disciple around the world

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that can take care of themself, take care of the,

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of the, of the organization itself.

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So if Baba has been able to achieve this,

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then we can achieve it

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because his prayers have been, answered by God,

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and it's our duty to make that acceptation of God's prayer,

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of his prayers manifest.

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So they have a mission is to make really manifest ahad,

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God's acceptance of Amad Baba's prayers in work.

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The implication my work is, is mostly

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I think from a methodological standpoint, the value of

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what I call history from within

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history from within is a history that really learn

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to listen, to people.

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You don't have to believe everything they say.

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You don't have to take everything they say,

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but there is value in listening.

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And Paul ask history to be good listeners.

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So respect, the subject you study

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and what they think you analyze, you criticize,

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you compare it something, but take it seriously.

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The second thing that I think was was important to us,

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that when you think,

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when you read the literature on migration in Africa,

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it's all about out of Africa, yet for every three African

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that migrate to stay on the continent,

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so enter African migration,

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enter continental African migration is more important,

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more significant than extra continental migration.

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And I think what I also brought in the picture was,

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the kind of connectivity between these two migrations.

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You cannot understand international migration if you don't

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understand intercontinental

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intercontinental African migration.

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In fact, one of the things that I learned from my work is

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when I started my project, first I was thinking

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of writing about mood migrant in France,

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in Italy, and in Spain.

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And when I started my interviews,

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interviewed disciple here in New York City,

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and, interviewed disciple in France and in Italy.

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And what I learned from those disciple was that all

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of them step migrated across Africa before they reach zero.

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They told me, okay, then, you know,

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the drought was very bad.

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Uh, I, I went to Dakar and then I managed to go to Codival.

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Then from Codival I went to Congo,

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and then from Congo I was able

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to collect enough money to go to France.

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So almost it was the same narrative.

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All of them almost told me

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that they step migrated across Europe

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before they migrated actually to Europe, to

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to the United States or to Europe.

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I realized that in order to really do justice

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to my subject, I need to go back.

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So I completely changed my project.

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I returned to the continent.

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I did a chapter in Senegal for that book, that book,

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the Uri on the move, one chapter in Senegal,

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one chapter in Kko Dvo, one chapter in Gabo

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before having two chapters in France

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and two chapters in the United States.

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So these are the three lessons really I learned, from,

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doing research for this book.

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The my latest book, the Meridia on the Move, Islam Migration

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and Placemaking.

Migration Patterns in West Africa's Independence Era

00:00:00 - The context is really the 1960s and 1970s. and of course, the 1960s, the years of the independence they say in West Africa, where many, former British and French colonies actually achieve national independence. and many of these countries sign a agreement, particularly with France, for mutual settlement of citizens of the former colony and citizen of France. So that going to Europe, for example, going to France,
00:00:35 - There were no visa impose and so forths. And the other major factor is really what happened in West Africa in the 1970s and the early 1980s, a devastating drought that really make it very difficult for farmers particularly, to survive. And what we see happening was gradually, people moving from the countryside to the cities on the Atlantic coast, and then from those cities finding their way to Europe,
00:01:06 - particularly Senegalese government called Rural Exodus, where you have all these farmers actually coming to the city, to find way of surviving the men families. My research, I've always been interested in, in this type of research, my first book, fighting the Great Jihad was a, intellectual biography, Hamad Baba, with the founder of the Maid Order. And I've always been interested in tic,
00:01:40 - And, after I finished writing my first book, I returned to my love to mobility and space building and culture and identity. And, I felt that I, I really need to pick up this topic and to see what I can make of it. In fact, when I was, in graduate school, the first paper I wrote was on Mood migrant in New York City. I was then at Michigan State University,
00:02:11 - some of them landing in New York City without a dime, knowing nothing English, just finding a way to survive and to prosper. And, and whenever I ask question about this, they return to their own and identity and look at Amadou Baba's biography itself. And the value of the Meridia is something that really, was what made them successful. So, when I finished my first book, fighting the Great Jihad, I, I, I decided to come back,
00:02:44 - and culture and, and identity. so one thing that was really significant, of course, there is a literature on all of this, you know, migration, African migration, migration itself. But it's a literature that really focus mostly on out of Africa. You know, people leaving the continent, they're not very much interested in what was going on on the continent first. Second, this is a, a scholarship mostly driven

Cultural Influences in Migration Dynamics

00:03:14 - You have, you know, pool area and push areas, and people tend to migrate from depressed, geographical areas to more, wealthy areas and so forth. So, and culture was not important. It's really about labor migration. There is nothing about culture yet ultimately that I spoke to and talk about. Emphasize culture as a central factor in their migration journey. And trust is something that was crucial
00:03:45 - And of course, trust here is based on the belief in Amad Baba and the fact that Amadou Baba himself was actually an immigrant, but an involuntary one, because he was sent, to, to many places by the, by the French as an exile. And they saw his travel, his, his tribulations and these trials as something that was an inspiration for them. So I was mostly interested really in, in kind of looking at how culture play around in migration. What is the foundation of trust,
00:04:17 - And how does space in place play a role in this Madrid migration? And how all of this is tied to the holy city of the Meridia. the city of Touba in Senegal, this is a sheik that live in the 19th century. He was born, we believe, in the 19, in the 1850s. And he died in 1927, as Sufi in general. He was a quietest. He was somebody who was really kind of proselytizing and promoting what he called the Greater Jihad.
00:04:48 - And of course, the Ji The Greater Jihad is the Jihad of the Soul, is the jihad that focus on struggling with your own, weaknesses, spiritual weaknesses, and, and, and working to get closer to God by purifying your soul, by education and by building relationship with the Prophet Muhammad, which make you closer to God. That's where the success is to be found, and very much against violence, and to some, to some extent, a little withdrawn too be. But what is interesting with the Meridia,
00:05:21 - tend to be quite turned to turn their back to material life, is that they have very, they have been very successful in, generating a disciple in more, that traveled the world becomes become, quite wealthy and their own holy cities actually became quite modern with modern building, modern hospital and so forth. So this is really what, what the meridia is, is all about. In the 1960s and 1970s,
00:05:51 - these built in an older tradition. This is not something new. This is the continuity of A tradition, because already in West Central Senegal, which is really the heartland of the meridia, a process of rural urban migration had started already. Many of these me are trained in the d in the Dara. These are school, that educate people in the tradition of Sufi.

Experiential Education and Migration in Senegal

00:06:21 - a madrasa and you get kind of what we call, what we can call discursive education. Here, what we have is a kind of experiential education that whose role is actually to, to teach your body, to be faithful to God, and to be able to combat Satan in his, misleading, people to actually be, dominated by the material life. So how do you, weaken your biological self so
00:06:52 - So in that process, these school that actually scholar called walking school are very important where young adult go and what do they do? They do the zl, the thinking of the spiritual songs, meditating on their, shes examples and walking very hard because you really have to have your mind, your body, and your spirit busy with good work so that you could not be distracted in your path to God. So in that process, these young men walk in the,
00:07:23 - and during dry season, they go to the town to walk. Mostly men are walk and, and earn a living, which they return back to their sheik, and part of it they use in their own, their own school. So you have then that process of rural urban migration. Now with independence, when mobility was easier because the strain that the colonial rule actually impose on subjects and the colonial subject mobility were removed, people now were freer to move around. So you see them then traveling within Senegal itself,
00:07:55 - particularly co dir and later on Gaon. So you have this tradition of mobility already started. Now in the 1960s with independence, and particularly in the 1970s with the drought, disciple had accumulated, what you might call, cultural capital. They have accumulated symbolic capital, and now they can invest those capital in new, let's say adventures or in new ventures actually to move beyond West Africa,
00:08:26 - and elsewhere, until they reached the United States in the 1980s. One thing that I, I discovered with this marine migration is that it's not actually the poorest who migrate is all about depression and being poor and, and searching this. Many of these people actually were successful traders in Senegal, and it's exactly because they were successful traders that they can have the money to actually spend, because migration is quite expensive to do. You know, I'm not only talking by tickets,
00:08:58 - because one of the most critical, good you need in migration is to having network and connection. Where to go, what kind of work to do, and how to get there. You can do this only because you already have some experience. Some, i I was talking earlier about cultural capital, but you can also add material capital. So one of the things that I found is these people are not the most depressed people. These are people that are quite well off, and some of them were working, you know, then I interviewed them, I realized

Ambition and Migration Among Amadou Baba's Disciples

00:09:26 - Senegal, and they were actually well off. And I sometime ask them, why did you decide to migrate? So, and, and many of them will tell me, well, you know, you have to be ambitious when you are a disciple of Amadou Baba. Don't limit yourself because there is limitless possibility for success for you. and look what Amadou Baba went, underwent himself. He was, arrested by the French for the first time in 1895, and then capped in the house arrest until his death in 1927. This is a man who was all his life in jail
00:09:58 - Look at his people right now. He has millions of disciple around the world that can take care of themself, take care of the, of the, of the organization itself. So if Baba has been able to achieve this, then we can achieve it because his prayers have been, answered by God, and it's our duty to make that acceptation of God's prayer, of his prayers manifest. So they have a mission is to make really manifest ahad, God's acceptance of Amad Baba's prayers in work. The implication my work is, is mostly
00:10:34 - what I call history from within history from within is a history that really learn to listen, to people. You don't have to believe everything they say. You don't have to take everything they say, but there is value in listening. And Paul ask history to be good listeners. So respect, the subject you study and what they think you analyze, you criticize, you compare it something, but take it seriously.
00:11:06 - that when you think, when you read the literature on migration in Africa, it's all about out of Africa, yet for every three African that migrate to stay on the continent, so enter African migration, enter continental African migration is more important, more significant than extra continental migration. And I think what I also brought in the picture was,
00:11:36 - You cannot understand international migration if you don't understand intercontinental intercontinental African migration. In fact, one of the things that I learned from my work is when I started my project, first I was thinking of writing about mood migrant in France, in Italy, and in Spain. And when I started my interviews, interviewed disciple here in New York City, and, interviewed disciple in France and in Italy. And what I learned from those disciple was that all
00:12:09 - They told me, okay, then, you know, the drought was very bad. I, I went to Dakar and then I managed to go to Codival. Then from Codival I went to Congo, and then from Congo I was able to collect enough money to go to France. So almost it was the same narrative. All of them almost told me that they step migrated across Europe before they migrated actually to Europe, to to the United States or to Europe. I realized that in order to really do justice

Lessons from My Research in Migration

00:13:04 - So I completely changed my project. I returned to the continent. I did a chapter in Senegal for that book, that book, the Uri on the move, one chapter in Senegal, one chapter in Kko Dvo, one chapter in Gabo before having two chapters in France and two chapters in the United States. So these are the three lessons really I learned, from, doing research for this book. The my latest book, the Meridia on the Move, Islam Migration and Placemaking.

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