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Serigne Muhammadu Mustapha Mbacke was born in 1886 and passed away in 1945. He was best known for starting the construction of the mosque of Touba and for bringing the railway to the city of Touba, the religious epicenter of the Murid. Wade (1991: 141) argues that one of Bamba’s goals had always been to build a mosque in Touba, a location which he chose himself.

Wade (1991:141) indicates that the mosque of Diourbel which Bamba built with his own money, despite its beauty, was meant to be the prelude of what he intended for the mosque of Touba. After Bamba passed away (or as Murids would say bi mu waccee li(ë)ggey or bi mu laqo, i.e. when he finished his work or when he hid himself, respectively)5, as the oldest son and now the first Caliph of the entire Murid Sufi religious order, Serigne Muhammadu Mustafa Mbacke hadthe responsibility to start the foundation of the mosque of Touba in accordance with Bamba’s wishes. Serigne Masokhna Lo wrote this mourning poem in 1954 to eulogize the achievements, the personal qualities of this first leader, and to highlight the daunting challenges that he faced in his mission to lead the nascent brotherhood, and to fulfill Bamba’s wish to build the mosque in Touba. The Latin-based Wolof transliteration used throughout the paper (along the Ajami texts) is not meant to be strictly consistent with the official standard Wolof writing system used in Senegal, but rather to reflect accurately the dialectal and idiolectal patterns in the poem and the poet’s Bawol variety of Wolof.

Figure 2: Title page of the poem [here]

Figure 3: Excerpt 1 of the poem [here]

Transliteration

Bismillaahi-ar- rahmaani-ar-rahiimi (In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful)

1. Ma teema jóg man woy Hamdi Mustafaa, ki darajaal yoonu muriid mooy Mustafaa

2. Ngir moo fi wuutu Bamba nekk ak noon yi, ñoom ñépp ñu di ko fexeel duñu táyyi

3. Teewul mu sóobu lu ko baayam digaloon, jublu ko rekk faalewu ca benn noon

4. Ngir isiñoor day nátt rekk daaldi dem, defar palaa jox meetar moo di wállam

5. Seex Bamba moo di isiñooru yoon wi, moo longri ca gott ba jis xáll wi

6. Mu daaldi nátt daaldi liiñe kër ya, buddi garab ya daaldi xotti mbedd ya

7. Saxe li neex yalla te neex yonent ba, góor ak jigéen ñépp di yéem yenam ba8.

Ba ay bañam kalaame kooki noonam, ñu daaldi koy fab yobbu fuñu mëna jëm

9. Muy gëna dër ca li mu newoon te du ñaxtu, te jaaxlewul du yoxyoxi du jángtu

10. Pexe yuñ xam ci xeeti mbooleem luy rey, walla luy lor, walla lu mëna jur hay

11. Def nañu ko ko faalewuleen ñu jaaxle, ne suñu yeboo delloo ko mbaa duñu baaxle

12. Ñu daaldi ko delloosi Bambay waa ja, mu daaldi ñow Diourbel tabax jumaa ja

13. Ma gáttal foofu mbirum Bamba géej la, mëneesukoo jeel foofa lámb ndox la

14. Ba mu laqo mbindéef yi Hamdi Mustafaa, taxaw gannaawam leey jaloore Mustafaa
 
15. Fekk na boobu Seex Bamba jox na ko ndigël, ne ko jumaay Tuubaa jee mooy samandigël.

 

Literal translation

1. Let me rise and sing about Hamdi Mustafa, thanks to whom the Murid way became prominent.

2. For, he is the one who represented Bamba, while all his enemies6did everything in their power to hurt him.

3. Despite that, he strictly followed his father’s instructions, and did not worry about any of his enemies.

4. Because an engineer’s role is to design a plan, and to give it to the master builder,

5. Sheikh Ahmadu Bamba is the engineer of the way. He is the one who surveyed the forest and designed the main roads.

6. He measured and aligned the houses, uprooted the trees and built the roads.

7. He did all this while following God and the Prophet’s instructions. All the men and women were dazzled by his responsibility (work),

8. to the extent that his opponents created troubles between him and his enemies. Then they brought him away anywhere they could7.

9. Yet, he continued to be more determined in his work, would not worry, would not waver, and would not panic.

10. Anything they thought could kill or hurt him, or anything they thought could bring hardship to him,

11. they used against him. Yet, he ignored them. This worried his enemies. Then they said: ‘We better bring him back to avoid creating trouble to ourselves’.

12. Then they brought him back. Bamba is our hero. Then he came back to Diourbel and built the mosque.

13. To be brief here, Bamba’s work is (as mysterious as) a sea. Anywhere you touch (or turn) there is water8.

14. When he became hidden from the mortals, Hamdi Mustafa was the one who rose to the task with distinction.

15. At that moment, Sheikh Ahmadu Bamba had already given him his order by telling him:‘(Building) that mosque of Touba is my order.’

The name Hamdi Mustafa is line 1 is an endearing name for Serigne Muhammadu Mustafa Mbacke.

Excerpt 1 is constructed around the following rhythmic patterns: 1) Repeated words, 2) repeated syllables structures (CV, or CVVC, or CVC, and 3) different words with identical complex syllable structures (CVVCCV) as illustrated in the underlined structures.
The rest of the poem is also constructed on similar rhythmical patterns with slight differences. The excerpt also contains the following French loanwords: isiñoor from ingénieur [ɛ̃ʒenjœʁ] (engineer), palaa from [plã] (plan), meetar from maître [metʁ] (master), longri from longueur[lɔ̃gœʁ] (length) used as the verb ‘to measure’, liiñe from ligne [liɲ] (line) used for ‘to draw a line’, and kalaame from réclamer [ʁeclame] (complain). These words are fully incorporated loans which have entered the Wolof language for such a long time that they have become part of the lexical repertoire of most Wolof speakers. As is the case in most language and culture contact situations, these French lexical items were borrowed in Wolof to express the constructs that came along with the introduction of French culture and political system in Senegal.

 

To be continued...

By S. Fallou Ngom

Fallou Ngom is Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology & Director of the African Language Program in the African Studies Center, Boston University.