Interior of the Mosque at Jurbel

There is no metal at all in the structure of this huge building. There are lots of clocks on the wall, many of them gifts. At one point I see a mouse scamper across the floor. Only a couple of people see this.

 

 

Caretakers of the Mosque in Jurbel

The one on the left is a specific kind of Sufi Mouride-- a Bai Fall---Dr. Fallou Ngom is something of an expert on this sub-order. They do not fast or pray. Instead they focus on good deeds---building or repairing Mosques and feeding the poorer members of the community when the Ramadan fast ends in the evening. While in the bigger Mosque at Touba, we saw them unloading heavy bags of cement, carrying them on their heads. Many are dreadlocked with interesting costumes. They are unsmiling. Very interesting.

 

Street scene in Jurbel, Senegal.

 

 

 

The honorable Imam of Jurbel Mbaye Ngirane. We spent 2 hours with him in his home and his Mosque. This was a big deal

Imam Ngirane is the head of the Sufi Mouride order in Senegal. He was a warm, funny, and generous man. We sat on the floor in his home and asked questions. He showed us how to sharpen a pen with a knife and gave us an example of Ajami calligraphy. Hopefully more to come on this. He seemed to have a large family. While we were there the phone rang a couple of times--he answered. Fallou explained that he is always on call---as the foremost expert on the Mouride founder(Sheikh Amadou Bamba)---these are often important spiritual questions. At one point his wife enters, points at the scores of pictures on the wall, and indicates a younger picture of him, laughing and saying he was much more handsome then.

 

 

The Mosque at Jurbel, near the holy city of Touba. We had a meeting for about an hour with the Imam.

 

 

 

WednesdayJune 8

I should remind readers that I am attending what is referred to as a seminar---titled: Senegal: Religion and Diversity in West Africa. As someone who teaches business, and who has classes that are increasingly diverse(sometimes 25% Muslim), I felt this was something I could learn from. I've also always been intrigued by Senegal---in my first months in DC, I had a colleague who taught computer science from here.

As I've stated previously, our two leaders are Professors at the African Studies center at Boston University--Fallou Ngom, an anthropologist with a passion for Ajami, Arabic script that is transformed to write in local languages---and Tim Longman, a political scientist who is focused on conflict management in places like Rwanda. The focus of this trip is to get down deep into why Senegal has no real religious violence, despite being 95% Sufi( a type of Sunni) Muslim.

To be brief, there are 4 Sufi brotherhoods here--the Tiganiyya, thought to be the largest, the Quadriyya, the oldest; the Layeniyya, and finally the most intriguing and fastest growing----the Mouridiyya. The Mourides were a brotherhood founded by Sheikh Amadou Bamba, uniquely charismatic figure with a history forged in resistance to colonialism. On Wednesday we actually got to meet the Caliph of the Mosque at Djourbel, Mbaye Ngirane. Amazing experience. Photo of him next. More on this trip soon as well hopefully. They have us running around without a lot of time to reflect or write here.

The family's uncle. An artist and musician....a family of teachers. My kind of people.