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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The Murids: Surveillance and collaboration
Author:Robinson, DavidISNI
Year:1999
Periodical:The Journal of African History
Volume:40
Issue:2
Period:July
Pages:193-213
Language:English
Geographic terms:Senegal
France
Subjects:Muslim brotherhoods
colonialism
biographies (form)
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Religion and Witchcraft
History and Exploration
About person:Ahmadu Bamba (c. 1850-1927)
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/183546
Abstract:At the beginning of the 20th century Muslim societies of northern Senegal and southern Mauritania moved slowly into relations of accommodation with the French colonial regime. The accommodation permitted the Sufi brotherhoods to develop considerable autonomy in the religious, economic and social spheres. This article examines the path to accommodation followed by the Murid movement and its founder, Amadu Bamba Mbacke, arguing that this may have been less long and tortuous than the standard literature suggests. The conventional historiography makes the entire period (1895-1912) of Bamba's exile into a time of opposition, followed by a rather intensive collaboration (1912-1927) from Bamba's return until his death. The present author argues that the pattern of relationship - a simultaneous combination of close surveillance by the French, constant communication between the two sides, and collaboration in the economic development of the peanut basin - was established by the early 20th century and remained consistent for the rest of Bamba's life. The author suggests that this pattern was also applied to the other brotherhoods, and that it originated to a large extent in changes in practice and perspective in the colonial administration. Notes, ref., sum.
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