World Wise Schools: Islam in Senegal and Ramadan

In an overly simplistic summary, 95% of the Senegalese population became Muslim over hundreds of years of cultural exchange with the North Africans. Over the years Islam developed from a religion of merchants, to a religion of the upper class, to the religion of the masses. Muslims resisted conversion to Christianity and even used Islam as a rallying point against colonization.

As mentioned before, the majority of Senegalese are Muslims, but that does not mean they are all the same type of Muslims. Just as Christians are broken into Catholics and Lutherans, Episcopalians and Presbyterians, the Muslims of Senegal have options between sects, or brotherhoods. These are distinct branches of Sufi Islam, which is based in mysticism and different from the Sunni and Shi'ite branches that are more prevalent in the Middle East.

One of the two largest of the brotherhoods are the Tidians (Ti-jaan). This brotherhood was founded by an Algerian in the 18th century and is considered an Islam for the poor, as it was founded in rebuttal to more conservative brotherhoods. It is now the largest Sufi brotherhood in West Africa, and in Senegal is especially popular among the Wolof ethnic group. My village is also primarily Tidian, although it does not come up in conversation a lot. Today the Tidians put a great emphasis on Koranic learning and have even established schools for girls.

The other major brotherhood is the Mourides. While the Tidians are popular throughout West Africa, the Mourides contain their following in Senegal and the Gambia. Their religious city is Touba, where the founder of the Mourides was born; every year Mourides make a pilgrimage to Touba on their holy day. They make up approximately 1/6 of Senegalese population.

The smallest brotherhood is the Qadiriyya. It was brought in from North Africa by missionaries, and it is a more fundamentalist group that either the Tidians or the Mourides.

Islam is a central part to life in Senegal. Each brotherhood has a leader, and you can see their faces hanging everywhere. People love to show their support for their brotherhood. They have tapestries they hang int heir houses, in their cars, buses can have decals on the windows. These men wield a lot of power. They can be politically influential if they so choose, and that means that political groups hoping to win will intentionally cater to brotherhood leaders. The leaders can reach their followers mostly through the radio, but also television and newspapers.

What you all really want to know about though, is the holidays, am I right? I'm writing this in the middle between Senegal's two biggest holidays: Ramadan and Tabaski. During Ramadan Muslims will fast from sunrise to sunset, and break the fast lavishly. This means no food or water. People will often wake up just before dawn to eat last nights leftovers in preparation for the day, and then depending on the time of year either go to the fields to work while they still have energy or go back to bed. Work does not stop; women still have to do laundry, prepare a meal for the children if funds permit, and see to the compound. Men still have to go to the fields and tend the animals. If someone has a conventional job in the government, with NGO, or in a hospital, they still must go.

To break the fast in my village we would drink instant coffee and powdered milk with a small chunk of bread. Some families would also eat mogni (moe-knee), a millet based soup that tastes excellent with copious amounts of sugar. People then take a break while the women cook dinner. During Ramadan families try to have one lavish dinner each night, spending extra money on fish or meat and vegetables.

Children, the sick, the elderly, and pregnant or nursing women are not obliged to fast as the others are, but they often still do, with negative effects on their health. In my village the children would eat one mid morning meal of white rice with a bullion cube crushed up, and their parents would try to buy them snacks during the day. Last year Ramadan was during mango season and those who weren't fasting snacked on mangoes all day.

Ramadan lasts for a month and then there's a big party! This party is called Tabaski. Everyone will get all dressed up, cook an extravagant amount of food, and go see all of their friends and family. This year my host family killed a goat and we had loads of meat! I'll leave you with some pictures: