HIGHLIGHT / WARC LECTURE SERIES : AHMADOU BAMBA FACE AU CONSEIL PRIVE: GENESE ET SIGNIFICATION HISTORIQUE DE L'ARRESTATION ET DU PROCES DE SEPTEMBRE 1895 (Ahmadou Bamba before the French Colonial Privy Council:Genesis and Historic Significance of the Arrest and Trial of September 1895)

By Dr Cheikh Babou, Assistant Professor of History,
University of Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

As part of its Lecture Series, the West African Research Center (Warc), on Thursday, June 7, 2006, from 4pm to 6:15pm, hosted a lecture on the circumstances of the arrest and trial in 1895, by the french colonial powers, of the founder of the Senegalese Muridyah Moslem brotherhood, Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Mbacké.
The lecture was offered by Dr Cheikh Babou, an alumnus of the Departments of History of University Cheikh Anta Diop (Ucad - Senegal) and Michigan State University (Msu - U.S.A), currently an assistant professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania, and moderated by Professor Ibrahima Thioub, Chair, Department of History, University Cheikh Anta Diop and President of the Association de Recheche Ouest Africaine (Aroa).
After the words of thanks and welcome from the Director of the West African Research Center, Prof Thioub took the floor to introduce the lecturer and outline the historical and religious context and perspectives of the topic. He then invited Dr Babou to begin his talk.
Dr Babou explained that his intention was to examine the internal contradictions of the French colonial administration in Senegal at the end of the 19th century and their consequences leading to the arrest and trial of Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba. According to him, such an approach allowed a new reading and interpretation of archival documents dealing with the issue. Also, he said, the approach was based on mourid internal written and oral sources with the purpose of questioning the hagiographic and historic mourid orthodoxy and putting forward a new interpretation of such a historic landmark in colonial Senegal and in the development of Moslem religious groups in the country.

For Dr Babou, contrary to beliefs commonly held among Mourid followers and other circles, Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba was not a threat to the colonial order and the Bawol province where he was established in the last decade of the 19th century involved no political or economic stakes which might justify his arrest, trial and exile.
Rather, his own research work on the issue tend to prove that the conflict and trial of 1895 were the consequences of the misguided initiatives of a number of colonial administrators motivated by personal political interests and aimed at justifying and validating their own adverse views on the growing Mourid brotherhood in the eyes of the French colonial administrative hierarchy in Senegal.
Dr Babou's presentation was attended by researchers, students and members of the general public interested in Senegal colonial history, and in Mouridism in particular. Very interesting questions were raised and insightful contributions made. The lecturer and the chair of the session expertly fielded all the questions to the satisfaction of the attendance.

After Prof Thioub's closing remarks, the Director of the West African Research Center urged the audience to attend the upcoming lectures to be featured by the Center and invited everybody to enjoy the drinks offered and continue the discussions in the Center's premises.

Ousmane Sene
Warc Director

Some articles and other writings by Dr Cheikh Babou on Cheikh A. Bamba and the Mourid Moslem Brotherhood :

- Babou, Cheikh Anta Mb., "Amadu Bamba and the Founding of the Muridiyya : The History of a Muslim Brotherhood in Senegal, 1853-1913", Ph.D dissertation, Michigan State University, 2002.

- Babou, Cheikh Anta Mb., "Touba, Genèse et Evolution d'une Cité Musulmane au Sénégal." Mémoire de DEA, Université de Dakar, (1992)

- Babou, Cheikh Anta Mb., "Le Mouridisme des Origines à 1912." Mémoire de maîtrise. Université de Dakar, 1991.

- Babou, Cheikh Anta Mb., "Autour de la Genèse du Mouridisme." Islam et Société au Sud du Sahara 11 (1997) : 5-38.

- Babou, Cheikh Anta Mb., "Brotherhood Solidarity, Education and Migration : The role of the dahiras among the Murid Muslim Community of New York" African Affairs 403 (2002) : 151 - 170.

- Babou, Cheikh Anta Mb., "Educating the Murid: Theory and Practices of Education in Amadu Bamba's thought," Journal of Religion in Africa 33 (2003) : 309 - 327

- Babou, Cheikh Anta Mb., "Contesting Space, Shaping Places : Making Room for the Muridiyya in Colonial Senegal" Journal of African History 46 (2005) : 405 - 426.

- Babou, Cheikh Anta Mb., "Education, Généalogie, et Baraka: une exploration de quelques sources de l'autorité spirituelle d'Ahmadou Bamba" Afrique et Histoire (Paris). forthcoming : revise to submit