Kathryn Hargrave and Anne Ratteree
Students, College of Fine and Applied Arts
Images courtesy of the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History

Events surrounding an award-winning exhibition at the Krannert Art Museum: “A Saint in the City: Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal,” curated by UCLA’s Mary Nooter Roberts and Allen F. Roberts, saw the University of Illinois campus abuzz with energy in fall 2006. The subject matter explored in the exhibition was the visual culture inspired by Sheikh Amadou Bamba, an important Muslim religious leader of Senegal in the early 20th century. Followers of Bamba, known as Mourides, are not only located in Senegal, but across the globe.

The exhibition fostered an environment of understanding and education within the Champaign-Urbana community. A seminar taught by Assistant Professor Dana Rush brought together both undergraduate and graduate students in art history, fine arts, art education, African studies, and anthropology. To introduce the local and the university communities to this unique exhibition and the basic underpinnings of the Mouride way, the students in the seminar focused their energy on preparing for the exhibition opening, giving exhibition tours, and performing outreach trips to local schools. The seminar allowed for the community to explore more fully the life of Sheikh Amadou Bamba, his preaching, the Mouride way, and Senegalese visual culture.

In addition, there was a day-long symposium, which included participation from the Mouride community, to introduce Champaign-Urbana to the arts and interwoven culture that is “A Saint in the City: Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal.”

Through the artifacts and art objects illustrated here, more can be understood about Sheikh Amadou Bamba’s teachings and the visual culture of Senegal’s urban centers.

Historic photo of Sheikh Amadou Bamba
Djourbel, Senegal, 1913
Photo by Don Cole

“It is said that wherever the Holy Man’s image can be found, it instantly changes the environment. It comes directly from the Holy Man. Whenever you enter the room, all you need to do is look at the picture.”

—Mor Gueye, Sengalese Glass Painter

It is unlikely that another image exists, facilitating such a strong visual culture as the infinitely reproduced 1913 photo of Mouride religious leader Sheikh Amadou Bamba. This black and white photograph, the only photograph of the Saint, has been reproduced across nearly every medium because of the Mouride belief that the Saint is found in his image. Representations directly derived from the photograph are visible everywhere in the streets of Senegalese cities such as Touba and Dakar.

Mor Gueye
Noah’s Ark, 1992
Reverse glass painting
Glass, paint, cardboard and tape
57.7 x 71.5 cm
Private Collection
Photo by Don Cole

Familiar to Christians, Jews, and Muslims alike, this reverse glass painting by Senegalese artist Mor Gueye depicts Noah’s Ark, as the Qur’an shares many stories with the Old Testament. While glass paintings like Mor Gueye’s are primarily a tourist trade today, these paintings are derived from banned Islamic prints depicting religious scenes. When prohibited by the French colonialists, Sufi artists copied the images by placing a plate of glass atop the print and copying it.

Gueye considers the act of painting to be a form of prayer, as Sheikh Amadou Bamba believed work to be prayer. Popular with tourists, Gueye finds himself painting many scenes having little to do with Bamba; however, he believes that solely by having images of the Sheikh amongst the souvenir images, he is able to transmit a blessed energy referred to by Mourides as baraka onto passing tourists.

Pape Mamadou Samb
(Papisto Boy)
Painted mural detail showing Reverend Martin Luther King and the Archangel Gabriel in the form of a dove, 1997–1998
Dakar, Senegal
Photograph by Mary Nooter Roberts and Allen F. Roberts, 1999

This image comes from a six hundred-foot mural by Mouride artist Pape Mamadou Samb (better known as “Papisto Boy”), which was painted on the exterior of factory walls in an industrial neighborhood of the port of Dakar. However, the wall was later torn down and the mural was destroyed. Through his devotional works, Papisto educates people about Amadou Bamba. He calls upon a panoply of global freedom fighters, heroes of resistance, revolutionaries, and “messengers”of the Saint. Portraits of Che Guevara, Jimi Hendrix, and Martin Luther King can be discerned among more local personalities.

In this section, we see the lion of courage gazing at the Reverend Martin Luther King. The Archangel Gabriel, a popular icon within Mouride art, brings Dr. King the Holy Bible as a gift from God, in the form of a dove. According to Papisto “Martin Luther King fought against oppression and evil. He didn’t fight for Senegal, but he fought for the whole world. He is like Amadou Bamba who blesses our hearts because he has endured sadness in order to encourage us and to give us freedom.”

Viye Diba
Musical Materiality, 1998
Wood, cloth, paint and cordage
156.6 x 168 cm
UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History
Photo by Don Cole

Viye Diba was trained in art education at the National School of Fine Arts in Dakar, where he also has worked as a professor. His education continued at the Teachers’ College for Art Education in Dakar. Diba remains interested in the environment and considers himself a researcher as he continues to teach and make art.

Musical Materiality is a departure into freestanding sculpture from Diba’s more two-dimensional work. The pendant pieces of distressed wood wrapped in cloth make several references at once: to the keys of balaphones (marimbas), a Senegalese instrument, hence the materialization of their music; to the space of Senegalese dance and theatricality; and to the clubs and patchwork clothing of Baye Falls, who live Amadou Bamba’s phenomenology of work and the sense of “unity in diversity” one gains from the Saint’s teaching.

Restaurant Doors depicting Sheikh Amadou Bamba
Artist unknown
Dakar, Senegal
Mid to late 20th Century
Paint on metal
205 x 65.5 cm, each
UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History
Photo by Don Cole

A representation of the visual culture of Senegal, these bakery doors have meticulously beautiful representations of Sheikh Amadou Bamba and his first and most ardent disciple, Sheikh Ibra Fall. From the capital city of Senegal, these doors are only one sample of many places of work in Dakar with images of the Saint. Ibra Fall is often shown in the workplace because he led a life of constant work.

Similar to the photograph of Bamba, there is merely one photograph of Ibra Fall, and all representations are derivatives of the photograph. An anonymous Mouride told Mary and Allen Roberts, “Work becomes a privileged instrument for reinforcing faith, a powerful tool for controlling passions and appetites, a source of spiritual elevation.”

Elimane Fall
Le Travail (Work), 1999
Paint, Linen, wood, and nails
40”x 28”
UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History
Photo by Don Cole

“Work as if you’ll never die.”

—Sheikh Amadou Bamba

In conjunction with the exhibition, Senegalese artist Elimane Fall visited the University of Illinois campus to discuss his painting and its connections to the teachings of both Amadou Bamba and Ibra Fall. Elimane paints followers of Ibra Fall in a movement by the name of Baye Fall; hard working, simple living, devout followers of both Ibra Fall and Amadou Bamba sacrifice their belongings and live a life of work and prayer.

Incorporated in Le Travail (Work) is Arabic calligraphy and Mouride Iconography depicted in Elimane’s highly graphic paint handling. The text states, “In the Name of God, most Gracious, most Merciful” and “Blessedness for a servant of God, a faithful seeker.” Amadou Bamba is said to have written seven metric tons during his lifetime despite being illiterate. Represented here alongside the Saint’s verse are images of Bamba, Ibra Fall, a Baye Fall disciple, and the largest pilgrimage site of Senegal, the burial ground of Bamba: Touba.

Image of Amadou Bamba on a sidewalk shop selling hubcaps near the Great Mosque of Dakar
Photo by Mary Nooter Roberts and Allen F. Roberts, 1994

Passersby are assured that Mourides run the shop, and that the Saint will bless them should they decide to purchase something there.

This shop is a small example of the many ways Bamba is represented in Senegalese visual culture. Mourides believe that imagery of Bamba holds baraka, a term closely related to divine grace. According to Mary and Allen Roberts “baraka bestows physical superabundance and prosperity, and psychological happiness.” Therefore, when looking at this particular sidewalk shop, according to the Mourides, one is receiving baraka. In Dakar, visual culture can help people address and resolve everyday problems.