Diourbel

25 november 2022

I took a rather long route to get to Diourbel which involved shared taxis for around 1500 - 2500CFA each leg to Joal, Mbour, Kaolack and then to Diourbel. I was trying to avoid long waits in taxi garages which definitely didn't happen. We were on the road for most of the day.

In Diourbel, I checked into Hotel Balkan where rooms were 25,000CFA including breakfast and a fish dinner was 5,500CFA. The restaurant is on site.

I did a day trip from Diourbel to Touba, the second largest city in Senegal and the home to the largest mosque in West Africa. I was curious to learn more about this holy city.

The story goes that Cheik Ahmadou Bamba, founder of the Mouride brotherhood to which most of the Senegal Muslims belong, chose Touba as the basis for his dream back in 1887. He wanted to establish a community free from colonial influence, centred around his religious beliefs and respecting the values of courtesy, hard-work and pacifism.

The French colonials at the time were wary of Bamba, thinking he might galvanise an uprising amongst his followers. They exiled him to Gabon between 1895-1902 and Mauritania in 1903 - 1907. Eventually the French rulers realised that he was not threatening war and they granted him the choice of Touba as his founding settlement and allowed him to start the building of the mosque in 1926.

Through out Senegal, you now see the name Mame Cheikh Ibrahima Fall on numerous places. He is considered to be the discipline of Bamba and a more recent role model of how to live the Bamba way. In Touba, this is clearly evident in the lack of alcohol, smoking, sports stadiums and night clubs. Around the mosque area there are only stalls selling religious artefacts, no souvenirs.

As I approached the mosque in Touba, I met many people sat around on the pavements with bedding bundles and rucksacks. They explained that they were waiting to go to the fields to help harvest the rice. This is seen as a collective practice of the followers, they stay for days working on the fields to generate an income for the religious practices and the upkeep of the mosque. They were all waiting for the transport to take them out of town to the fields 37km away.

I walked around the mosque alone in the quiet of an early Friday. The mosque was being cleaned by groups of mainly women volunteers and there were people laying out prayer rugs. I joined a tour group and learn more about the building; the pink marble from Portugal, the white marble from Italy, the decoration from Morocco and the rugs from Turkey. The mosque is the largest in W Africa and can hold 60,000 worshippers. We visited Bamba's mausoleum and those of this three sons. In the mosque grounds was a tent preparing food for the needy who were waiting close by. I learnt that it is normal practice for followers to ask people for money which is then contributed to the collective 'pot' to feed the most needy and the religious leaders.

Back in Diourbel, I visited the town, to meet people and look around. I joined the excitement of the Senegal v Qatar match and saw the reserved pride when the final score was 3:1.