The Contribution of Morocco to Islam in Africa (2/2) -By Dr Mohamed Chtatou

TarîqâhTîjâniyyah in Senegal

Islam arrived in Senegal a thousand years ago. Of the 90% of Senegalese who are Muslim today, most follow one of the Sufi orders – congregations formed around marabouts (spiritual guides) and with their own religious practices – that were established after the seventeenth century. In each case, a hierarchical structure allows Sufi leaders to exercise substantial social influence. Almost all brotherhoods have links across West Africa and into North Africa. Shaykh Ahmed at-Tîjânî (1737-1815) established the Tîjâniyyah in Algeria. He later moved to Morocco, where his mausoleum in Fez became an important place of pilgrimage. A Senegalese member of the brotherhood, Umar Tall (1797-1864), launched a jihad that spread the Tîjâniyyah from Senegal to Segou in Mali.  Malick Sy (1855-1922) created the main (ethnically Wolof) branch of the brotherhood, based in the Senegalese town of Tivouane. Another branch was created by Abdulaye Niass (1850-1922) in Kaolack, Senegal, and spread to the Gambia and as far east as northern Nigeria (Mbacke, 2005).

Ahmadou Bamba (1850-1927) created the Murîdiyyah (Mulago, 2005). ^[i] This brotherhood, typically Senegalese, emphasizes work, success, discipline, and absolute obedience to marabouts. Less numerous than the Tîjânîs, the Murîds nevertheless boast superior organization, discipline, and economic commitment, which gives them enormous influence. And they have a special affinity with the largest ethnic group, the Wolof. Based in Touba, the Murîds dominated peanut production – a major source of income for the French – during the colonial period. One of its branches, Baay Fal, reflects the diversity of West African Islam (its dreadlocked followers drink alcohol, dance, and are known for their art).

Originating in Baghdad, the Qâdiriyyah was the first Sufi brotherhood to settle in Senegal as part of a series of reforms imposed by Moctar al Kabir Kounta, an XVIII^th century Islamic leader in Timbuktu, Mali. Several branches were created, notably, in the city of Ndiassane, the center of the Kounta Qâdiriyyah in Senegal is still deeply linked to northern Mauritania, Mali, and eastern Niger. Finally, the Layene is the smallest of the brotherhoods and is popular among the Lebou ethnic group. Centered in Yoff, it probably represents about 1% of the Muslim population (Ryan, 2000).

Despite early resistance to the French incursion into Senegal – which began in the late XVII^th century and culminated in the creation of French West Africa in 1895 – the leaders of the brotherhoods developed a close relationship with the colonial state and its successor after independence. By 1910, brotherhood leaders and the French saw the political and economic benefits of a more cooperative relationship (Grandhomme, 2004). In exchange for the religious leaders’ pacification of the population and acceptance of colonial rule, the French allowed them to reap immense benefits from trade, particularly from the production of peanuts, which remains one of Senegal’s most important exports (Nobili, 2021). The brotherhoods became guardians between the population and the state, and conferred legitimacy on the latter. Thus this state of affairs has become a symbiotic relationship that has built peace and security in Senegal, as well as economic growth. ^[ii]

Relations between the State and religion did not undermine the deep attachment of the leaders of Senegal’s independence to secularism. As president, Léopold Senghor (1960-80) reinforced the dividing line between the secular and the sacred, as did a strong tradition of left-wing intellectualism. Yet Senegal’s international ties have also been marked by a certain duality (Cooper, 2010). History links him to Europe and its former colonizer. The sense of independence and belonging to the global Muslim community has led it to play an active role in multilateral international organizations (it hosted the United Nations General Assembly twice), in multilateral Islamic organizations (it twice hosted the OIC summit) and to cultivate ties with the Arab world (Cellar, 1995).

Indeed, over the past decades more Salafist organizations have funded mosques and Islamic institutes. The latter are generally located in peripheral urban areas, such as Koloba, in Dakar. The NGOs funding these religious and educational institutions have recruited teachers from Togo, Benin, Guinea, and elsewhere in the region, and have been described as working like “sects”, supporting a range of other services, including health, well construction, burials and cemeteries.

The Salafists have asserted themselves more in Sufi homes (Østebø, 2015). In Tivouane, the heart of the tîjâniyyah, a Salafist mosque was recently built. Salafist influence has also increased in Touba, home of the Murîdiyyah. Many people in Senegal are concerned that funding for Salafist influence comes from Arab Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar. A prominent Murîdiyyah figure said his brotherhood was fighting an “uphill battle” against the Salafists.

However, the separation between Sufis and Salafis is not always clear. Some Salafist imams come from Sufi backgrounds. Some Sufi leaders, rather than resisting Gulf-trained imams, adopt Salafists, (Meservey, 2021) such as crossing their arms when praying instead of keeping them to one side or ending prayers with “Amin. Allahu Akbar!” “. And the discourse of the “neo-brotherhood” organizations (new brotherhood), which ensure the security of the brotherhoods, may closely resemble that of the Salafists. This is the case of the Mustarshidîns(for the Tijâniyyah) and the Thiantacuns (for the Mourîdiyya).

On the silent clash of concepts between African Sufism and Salafism (Meservey, 2021) writes:

‘’For centuries, most African Muslims observed their faith according to Sufi practices. Syncretic, mystical, and emphasizing experiencing God, Sufism was well suited to thrive on a continent where traditional religions often had a flexible cosmology that emphasized the supernatural. The fact that illiteracy or a lack of formal theological training was no barrier to fully participating in, or even leading, Sufi rites likely contributed to the practice’s popularity as well.

With its insistence on adherence to the written precepts of certain Islamic holy texts, its ultra-exclusivist worldview, and its strong association with foreign cultures and traditions, Salafism appears as ill-suited for the African context as Sufism is well-suited. Yet today, Salafism dominates the practice of Islam in parts of the continent. In some cases, it has displaced the centuries-long observance of Sufi rites in the span of a few decades.

A confluence of local dynamics that made parts of Africa amenable to Salafi appeals, and the rise of a global Salafi movement supported by wealthy Arab benefactors, explains much of the phenomenon. Those dynamics remain largely the same today, suggesting that Salafism will continue to grow, often at the expense of Sufism. Its expansion will likely follow the same pattern it has followed so far: irregular, falling well short of dominance in many areas, and at times taking on the flavor of the surrounding culture even while the core ideology remains exclusivist and Islamist.’’

Tijâniyya in Mali

There have been Muslims in West Africa since the XI^th century, if not earlier. The region that is now Mali was the center of several famous Islamic empires, notably the Ghana Empire (VIII^th-XI^thcentury) (Dieterlen & Sylla, 1992) the Songhai Empire (1464-1591) (Cissoko, 1996), and states established by a succession of jihads led by various Muslim armies. In towns and villages bordering the Sahara – including famous centers of worship and learning such as Djenné, Gao, and Timbuktu – Sunni Islam, often associated with the Qâdirî Sufi brotherhood, was predominant. The XIX^th century jihads brought the Tîjânî Sufi brotherhood in force to Mali (although not all of them were led by Tîjânîs), introducing a tradition marked by avowed attempts to reform and renew Islamic practice while helping to create states that claimed to govern according to Islamic law, the sharî^cah. However, since Mali was far from being uniformly Muslim at this time, jihad states clashed with those oriented towards traditional religious practices, as well as with each other (Clarck, 1999).

France began its gradual colonization of the region that is now Mali in the mid-nineteenth century and largely completed the project by the early twentieth century. Although French officials initially worked with their favorite Muslim leaders, particularly in Senegal, France eventually adopted a policy of limiting the spread of Islam. French military and administrative officials were constantly wary of potential uprisings by Muslim groups.

Yet the popularity of Islam spread rapidly in Mali during this period, as did debates over the proper forms of religious practice and leadership. In the early twentieth century, a breakaway strain of the Tîjâniyyah emerged in a region that spanned present-day Mauritania and Mali, led by a man known as AhmedouHamahoullah (1881-1943), also known as Sheikh Hamallah, the Marabout of Nioro or the Sheriff of Nioro. (Hames, 1983). He tried to settle in Nioro du Sahel (then a trading town), but French officials deported him several times for opposing their authority. He died in France in 1943. One of his sons, now called the Sheriff of Nioro, now heads the branch of the Tîjâniyyah founded by his father,hasg helped expand the group’s political and economic power in Mali (Soares, 2005).

The 1930s and 1940s saw the growth of another tradition of Islamic thought and practice, partly influenced by developments in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as in the Muslim world in general. This tradition was characterized by a strong desire to reform educational and religious practices, to spread the teaching of Arabic, and to return Islamic practice to its roots in the Qur’ân and Sunnah – the teachings and sayings attributed to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and his companions, the Salaf as-Sâlih (pious ancestors). Various groups of Salafist or otherwise reformist Muslims in Mali adopted this tradition beginning in the mid-1940s (Soares, 2004). While followers of different traditions and French authorities have often called them “Wahhabists” (referring to the religious practice that originated in the eighteenth century in what is now Saudi Arabia), these Muslims most often describe themselves as “Sunnis” (Creevey, 1985).

At the same time, other reformers emerged within the Sufi brotherhoods, notably the Tîjâniyyah. One of these figures, Saad Oumar Touré, established a modernized Islamic school in the city of Ségou in 1946 (Bourdarias, 2009). This school focused on teaching Arabic and religion without breaking with Sufism – a tradition that the Salafist community largely rejected (Lebovich, November 1, 2019).

Shaykh Ibrahima Niasse and the Education of Tîjânî Women

The prevalence of Sufism throughout West Africa has allowed women to take on leadership roles not usually afforded to them by their societies or other more orthodox forms of Islam. Specifically, the Tîjâniyyah order, primarily located in Senegal and Nigeria, has played a key role in expanding women’s access to the practices of this religious movement (Ahmed, 1992).

One of the main characteristics of Sufi teachings is the master-student relationship, in which the master is known as the muqaddam (ah), or spiritual guide. For most of history, this position was reserved for men, but with the teachings of Shaykh Ibrahima Niasse (1900-1975) (Mokhtar Ba, 1983) many women were appointed to serve as muqaddamah within the Tîjâniyyah order.  However, in assuming these leadership roles, women must adopt characteristics that keep them inherently subordinate to their male counterparts (Badran, 2004).

Women’s voices indicate that anyone with a true connection to the higher deities does not see a separation between the masculine and the feminine. There is a conscious resistance to the Western liberal feminist view of gender relations, and Sufi women of the Tîjânî order express their willingness to create gender relations in their own way, which often reflect indigenous cultural values. The actions and words of these women reveal a type of feminism that ultimately liberates and empowers women who participate in leadership roles within the Tîjâni order in Senegal and Nigeria (Frede, 2019).

In the early twentieth century, gender roles were rapidly transformed with the ideas and messages advocated by Shaykh Ibrahima Niasse. Unlike the messages of other Sufi leaders and brotherhoods of the time, Niasse advocated accessibility and acceptance of all people. His movement, called fayḍa, or ‘’the flood’’, brought about incredible changes for women and the less educated in society (Huston, 2001).

The beginning of his movement took place in 1929 when the Shaykh announced to his followers that through a new system of education, tarbiyyah, any person, woman or man, of high or low status, educated or not, could acquire the spiritual knowledge of God, or ma^crifah (Ndiaye, 2019) through a new system of education. Shaykh Niasse appointed many women to become muqaddamahs, or spiritual guides, during his movement, but many remain unknown due to their adherence to isolation from public life (Hill, 2010: 386).

Ndiaye Saliou introduces Chaykh Niasse’s pedagogical philosophy as follows (Ndiaye, 2019:105):

[”In order to identify its semantic evolution and its use in the history of ideas, a preliminary analysis of the etymology of the concept “al-fayḍa” is necessary. This word is a distant derivative of the verb fâḍa, which means to overflow, to afflux or to flood. It thus plunges us into a maritime environment where the first derivative, maṣdarfayḍ, refers to a powerful gush of water that cannot be contained. On the other hand, in a figurative sense, the dictionary suggests the overflow or flow of sirr (secret) from the heart. This meaning is much closer to the Sufi usage. From a second derivation, from fayḍ, the word al-fayḍa is of rare use outside of the mystical context where it has been referred to, in a famous quotation attributed to Shaykh Ahmad At-Tijânî. Thus, it carries the same meaning (flow, overflow, emanation…) with a grain of insinuation to generosity, power, large volume or a large quantity.”]

[‘’Afin de cerner son évolution sémantique et son emploi dans le domaine de l’histoire des idées, une analyse préalable de l’étymologie du concept « al-fayḍa» s’impose. Ce mot est un dérivé lointain du verbe fâḍa qui signifie déborder, affluer ou inonder. Il nous plonge ainsi dans un environnement maritime où le premier dérivé, le maṣdarfayḍ, fait état d’un puissant jaillissement d’eau qu’on ne peut pas contenir. Par ailleurs, au sens figuré, le dictionnaire propose le débordement ou flux du sirr (secret) du cœur. Ce sens est beaucoup plus proche de l’emploi soufi. D’une seconde dérivation, à partir de fayḍ, le mot al-fayḍa est d’un emploi rare en dehors du contexte mystique où il a été fait cas, dans une célèbre citation attribuée à Cheikh Ahmad At-Tijânî. Ainsi, il est porteur de la même signification (flux, débordement, émanation…) avec un grain d’insinuation à la générosité, à la puissance, au volume important ou à une grande quantité.’’]

Many of these women are being revealed, and their experiences are becoming understandable as second and third-generation women now occupy positions of power within the Tîjâniyyah order (Huston, 1937:736). However, many others have a very different view of women as leaders, and Shaykh Niasse has pointed out that the “inherent” traits of women are clear indicators of their position as muqaddamahs (Gray, 1998).

Some women may believe that they do not possess the qualities considered “inherent” to women, but in many areas of society, women must act within the law. Shaykh Niasse’s appointment of women as spiritual guides was not to break down barriers but rather to maintain the gender separation that already existed. Furthermore, women’s inclination to be mothers made them the perfect candidates to serve as muqaddamahs, as the person must be a faithful caregiver who is able to teach others about the spiritual process, according to Shaykh Niasse (Hill, 2010: 382).

The feminine characteristic was appreciated by both women who offered an additional utility to Shaykh Niasse because they could contact other potential adherents in order to enlarge the circle of followers of the Tîjâniyyah movement while respecting social norms. It is unclear whether Niasse wanted to include them out of gender equality or simply to increase his membership, but it is clear that the methods he introduced opened doors for many women to improve their status spiritually, socially, and economically (Mokhtar Ba, 1983).

Aspects of Tîjâniyyah in Nigeria: The Female Leadership of Nana Asma’u

It is important to note that several prominent women served as spiritual guides prior to Shaykh Niasse’s movement, such as Nana Asma’u (Boyd, 1988).

They made enormous strides in contributing to the education of other women, but these high-status women came from powerful, elite, and privileged backgrounds (Bala, 2011). In order to gain the knowledge necessary to attain divinity, women face challenges in obtaining the education necessary to become scholarly Sufi. Most African societies are patriarchal, and traditionalist religious practice has reinforced the level of patriarchy, which has led to the marginalization of many women (Huston, 2004).

Nana Asma’u, who lived from 1793 to 1864, (Badran, 2004: 295) was:

“well known for playing a key role in the spread of the Islamic revival, and especially for the education of women”

She was a member of the Fodio clan, which ruled the caliphate of Sokoto, in present-day Nigeria. Her family was part of the Qâdiriyyah order, an order that focuses on the pursuit of knowledge. Because she came from a superior and ruling clan, Asma’u received a comprehensive education in Islamic learning and was fluent in four languages.

Much of Nana’s legacy comes from her poems. She wrote many poems mainly about Sufi saints, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, and world history (Boyd & Mack, 1997). She was the first to emphasize the importance of women’s education and taught classes composed of both men and women. Through her teachings, she created a huge network of women, who could then pass on their teachings to other women.

Sheikh Niasse’s actions developed from the story of Nana Asma’u in Nigeria (Shehu, 2015) enabling more women to become involved through the introduction of a training program: tarbiyyah.

For Saudi Gazette, Nana Asma’u was an exceptional Muslim woman (Saudi Gazette, September 15, 2017):

”Throughout our education we are taught about some of the prominent figures in Islam, such as the four rightly guided Caliphs and the wives of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Today, I would like to shed light on a very important woman who you probably never heard of, Nana Asma’u. This woman was the daughter of the founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, Usman Dan Fodio, in Nigeria.

She was a poet, teacher, and a princess. She devoted her life to educating the women of her time. She outlived most of the founding generation of the Caliphate so she became an important guiding source for the government in her later life. She was tutored in Quranic education. She was well versed in four different languages: Arabic, the Fula language, Hausa, and Tamacheq Tuareg.

Nana Asma’u became the counselor for her brother, who was the second Caliph, and stood out in her work as a counselor. There are records of her writing instructions to the governors and she debated fearlessly with scholars and other princes. Nana Asma’u was also a prolific author and was well educated in the classics of the Arab and Classical world. She witnessed many wars and wrote about them in prose in her work titled “The Journey”. Her and her family’s work held so much importance and value that later the governments held this era as a scale to measure themselves against. This was a time of prosperity and knowledge. Minorities were being educated and Islam was successfully spreading.”

The authority of Nana Asma’u, this prominent Tjâniyyah woman, developed in the context of her father and leader Usman Dan Fodio, who fought against the subjugation of women in public and in private. She was surrounded by learned and educated women and became a prolific writer, a visionary, and an authoritative figure. Her legacy to generations of strong African women, who still look to her example, demonstrates the truly transformative effect she had on her society.

Her loving relationship with her father, brothers, and husband, as well as the relationships of mutual respect and admiration between her and other leaders on the continent, all speak to a woman who did not fight patriarchy in her inner circles but rather worked to create the same culture of equality and respect at all levels of society. Her innovative educational system stood like a wall of justice, pushing back misogyny and building up women in every village and town. Nana Asma’u, in her writings, relationships, and educational system, was a transformative leader, whose legitimacy came from a traditional model that she, her father, and the other leaders of her time found in the life of their Prophet ﷺ and the history of their religion (Dangana, 1999).

She leaves a legacy for young men and women around the world; a legacy of social change, cultural development, and spiritual enlightenment. Her legacy for Muslims is particularly poignant. As the community strives to revive the female voice in scholarship, her words resonate and call on all to make room for female scholars, to support female students of knowledge, and to open institutions to female leadership. Nana Asma’u’s legacy lives on in every young woman who cares deeply about her community and makes a lifelong commitment to scholarship and positive cultural change (Mack & Boyd, 2000).

Conclusion: Morocco and religious diplomacy in Africa

Religion is a system that produces spiritual, moral, and aesthetic meaning to meet the eternal need of human beings to find meaning in their individual and collective lives. Human beings cannot do without meaning. It enables them to save themselves from alienation and existential anguish, to obtain peace of mind and tranquillity of heart, to overcome aggressive impulses, and to cope with them (Sambe, 2010).

In the heritage of Sufism based on ma^crifah – that is, Sufism based on intuitive and mystical knowledge (al-Rifa’i, 2018: 229-230). In this legacy, we find explanations and interpretations that shed light on the truth of religious experiences, their nature, their limitations, their patterns, the means of achieving them, and their effects on the structure of society. In this legacy, we also find evidence that these experiences arise organically from the need to quench the ontological thirst for the sacred (Kane, 1994).

Moroccan Islam blends the traditions of Sunnism, Malikism – an Islamic school that takes into account historical and cultural contexts – and Sufism, which is largely apolitical. As the bearer of the title “Commander of the Faithful” Amîr al-Mu’minîn, King Mohammed VI has repeatedly emphasized that his task is to keep Morocco and other countries free of religious extremism (Muedini, 2015) by advocating the religious philosophy of wasatiyyah.

To this end, Morocco has become a key partner in regional counterterrorism efforts led by the United States and European countries. Beyond strengthening Morocco’s diplomatic ties with the West, the authorities have also used religion as a soft power tool to expand their economic and social influence in North and West Africa.

In much of the Maghreb and West Africa, Islam is expressed through Sufism, a mystical form of religion that has a reputation for encouraging dialogue, tolerance and peace. The appointment in 2002 of Ahmed Toufiq, a follower of the Sufi order Boutshishiyyah, as minister of Islamic affairs, represents a desire by Morocco to intensify Sufi diplomacy in the region. In particular, through the Tîjâniyyah brotherhood, which has millions of members across West Africa. (Czerep, 2021).

Religious diplomacy has also played an increasingly important role in King Mohammed VI’s regular state visits to West and Central Africa. While these visits are usually focused on signing a series of political and economic agreements, the king has also met with Sufi representatives who have a strong influence on political and social issues in these countries. During a tour of Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Guinea and Mali in 2014, the king signed agreements allowing hundreds of imams from those countries to receive religious training in Morocco at the Imam Academy. The kingdom’s political and religious ties to West Africa have recently allowed Moroccan officials to strengthen its relations with members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

In this regard Czerep (2021) writes:

‘’Under Mohammed VI, Morocco has developed an original way of gaining influence in Sub-Saharan Africa: religious diplomacy. Led by the king personally, it exploits traditional and new channels of influence and has proved effective in re-establishing Morocco’s political role on regional and pan-African levels. It also strengthened the African vector of its economic expansion and may become an important part of the security equation in the Sahel.’’

He goes on to say:

‘’The Sufi link historically is placed at the core of Morocco’s special ties to Senegal, which in recent decades has been synonymous with the limits of its outreach towards Africa. After 2010, Mohammed VI’s religious diplomacy first expanded this model into French-speaking Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire, then to the whole of West Africa and parts of Central Africa. For that, the king deepened his personal relations with the dynastic leaders of the most internationalised Tijaniyya branch, founded by Ibrahima Niass (who died in 1975) and centred on the Grand Mosque in Kaolack in central Senegal. The Niass leaders are regarded as spiritual guides by millions of Tijanis from the Gulf of Guinea, across the entire Sahel zone, to Sudan and among the global diaspora, notably in Paris and Chicago. They are also powerful independent political actors who could serve as promoters of Moroccan interests. The Mohammed VI-Niass alliance provides privileged access and influence over local Muslim establishments in African countries useful for lobbying Morocco-friendly policies. The religiously facilitated impetus in Muslim Africa helped to reach the rest of the continent on issues such as a return to the AU.’’

In March 2015, King Mohammed VI inaugurated an institute for the training of imams, and preachers (male and female religious leaders): The Mohammed VI Institute for the Training of Imams Mourshidin and Mourshidat(Institut Mohammed VI pour la formation des Imams Morchidines et Morchidates), in the capital Rabat. The Moroccan authorities have emphasized that the Maliki rite is particularly suitable for the training of religious leaders from different countries. At present Malians, Guineans, Ivorians, Tunisians, members of the Union of Mosques of France, etc. are trained there, and the international demand is constantly increasing.

Another important institution of Morocco’s successful religious diplomacy in Africa is: the Mohammed VI Foundation of African Oulema founded in 2015. It coordinates the efforts of Muslim Ulema (scholars) across Africa. It promotes the religious values of tolerance and Islamic heritage and establishes cooperation between Morocco and African states in the religious, scientific, and cultural fields. The foundation has 34 chapters across the continent, including Ghana, Niger, South Africa, and Côte d’Ivoire.

The preamble of the Foundation explains the reasons for its creation, taking into consideration the religious and cultural ties that unite the Kingdom of Morocco with many African countries and the imperatives of the current situation which require the establishment of a framework of cooperation between the Ulema of Morocco and those of African countries, for the purpose of preserving the religion against deviations and extremism, so that its magnanimous values are at the service of the stability and development in these countries.

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You can follow Professor Mohamed Chtatou on Twitter: @Ayurinu

End notes:

[i]Murîdiyyah was founded by Ahmadou Bamba (1853-1927), a Sunni Muslim reformer based in Senegal. He was an Ash^carit theologian, a Malîkîfaqîh, founder of his own Sufi way. Ahmadou Bamba, in a context where colonization had caused a significant social and cultural shock, will gradually be recognized by his peers as the spiritual heir of the Prophet ﷺ (qutb or “pole of holiness”) “sent” by God every hundred years and charged with reviving Islam. To carry out this mission, Ahmadou Bamba advocated a theology influenced by the Qâdiriyyah sect, to which his father’s teacher, Sidiyya, belonged. Murîdiyyah is thus considered a branch of the Qâdiriyyah, although it was also influenced by the Tijâniyyah and the work of al-Ghazâlî. This reform, above all pedagogical and spiritual, led to a profound reform of the Senegalese society. Its doctrine is based on four fundamental principles: faith in God, imitation of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, learning the Qur’ân and love of work. The Murids assimilate to Islam traditions specific to the Wolof people, such as the sanctification of work, or their strong attachment to the notions of mutual aid and solidarity.

[ii]The brotherhoods, particularly the Murîds, now control a large proportion of Senegalese businesses and even have international business interests, for example in New York.