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2 w The Mbakke The Foundations of Family Traditions The previous chapter discussed the expansion of Islam among the Wolof and the gradual differentiation of the Muslim leadership after the rule of King Lat Sukaabe in the early eighteenth century. It was argued that along with rulers and Muslim warriors, Quranic teachers and holy men played a crucial role in the spread of Islam in the Wolof states. This chapter examines how some of the transformations analyzed earlier affected Amadu Bamba’s forebears and ultimately helped, along with other factors, to foster a Mbakke family ethos. The history of Amadu Bamba, especially after the encounter with the French in the late nineteenth century, is broadly known. However, not much is known about his ancestral heritage; the historical context in which he grew up; and the ideas and practices (political and religious) he was exposed to, which, in my view, were a major influence on his character and personality . This chapter aims to provide critical biographical information that is indispensable in illuminating the past and understanding current relationships . It explores the tradition of education among the Mbakke, their marital alliances and internal conflicts, and their relations with Muslim learned families and the royal courts. In this chapter, I contend that during their peregrinations across the Wolof states of Jolof, Bawol, Saalum, and Kajoor, the Mbakke were guided by a single purpose—the accumulation of the credentials of scholarship, wisdom, and baraka that would earn them a legitimate place among the prominent families of Muslim learned men, or doomi sokhna, in the Wolof states.1 An examination of the family’s genealogical and intellectual trajectories reveals a strategy consciously elaborated to this end, at least since Maaram Mbakke, 33 You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. Amadu Bamba’s great-grandfather. This strategy consisted of two things: first, the acquisition of religious knowledge by frequenting the most renowned schools and teachers in the Wolof and Fulbe countries and, second, the investment of the social, cultural, and symbolic capital conferred by this knowledge to marry into prestigious Muslim families.2 The ultimate goal was to acquire religious authority and prestige through learning and by tapping recognized sources of baraka. from fuuta to jolof The Mbakke originated in Fuuta Tooro in northern Senegal, but they migrated to Jolof, in Wolof country, sometime in the second half of the seventeenth century. It was after their settlement among the Wolof that they earned the reputation of a distinguished family of Muslim learned men and teachers. Sources addressing their life in Fuuta and the causes of their migration are scarce and fragmentary. The scanty information gleaned from oral traditions, however, allows for a partial reconstruction of the family’s history in northern Senegal.3 We learn from historians of the Mbakke family that the village of Abdallah in the Lao province of Fuuta was the cradle of Amadu Bamba’s ancestors . Gollera, another village in the same area, is also often cited as the birthplace of the Mbakke, but this village is actually associated with the ancestors of Maam Jaara Buso, Amadu Bamba’s mother.4 There are varying traditions about the circumstances and motives of the Mbakke migration to Jolof.5 Some sources indicated that they left Fuuta to join family members who were already living in Jolof. Others suggested that the migration was precipitated by a conflict with the “pagan” rulers of Lao, who were hostile to the Muslims. The move to Jolof may also have been prompted by a prolonged drought or a protracted period of unrest in Fuuta. But it is more plausible to assume that the Mbakke were a family of nomad pastoralists in the process of adopting a sedentary lifestyle. Whatever might have happened in Fuuta was an additional incentive to join relatives already installed in Jolof as farmers. Although sources disagree about the causes of the migration, they concur that Usmaan Ba was the first member of the Mbakke clan to move to Jolof with his cattle and family.6 He was welcomed and accommodated by the bergel (the title of the province chief of Mbelekhe).7 The relationship between Usmaan and the bergel’s family were gradually strengthened by marital alliances. In Jolof, the Mbakke adopted a new identity over time, characterized by an abandonment of the nomadic lifestyle, an...

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