Aḥmadu Bamba's Pedagogy and the Development of ʿAjamī Literature

Abstract

Abstract:While African literature in European languages is well-studied, ʿajamī and its significance in the intellectual history of Africa remains one of the least investigated areas in African studies. Yet ʿajamī is one of the oldest and most widespread forms of literature in Africa. This article draws scholars' attention to this unmapped terrain of knowledge. First, it provides a survey of major West African ʿajamī literary traditions and examines the nexus between the pedagogy of Aḥmadu Bamba and the development of Wolofal (Wolof ʿajamī). Then, with reference to excerpts from Sëriñ Masoxna Ló's 1954 eulogy, it discusses the role of Wolofal in the diffusion of the Murīd ethos.

The Role of Islam, Ajami writings and educational reform in Sulemaana Kantè's N'ko

“…The reason this poem-which should have been sacred-is written in Wolof Is that I hope to illuminate the unknowing about his Lord (Camara 1997:170) According to Ngom (2009), this aim is also connected to Bamba's own desire for African cultural autonomy. At least once in writing, Bamba explicitly engaged with the issue of race and hierarchy within Islam; in his work Mas lik al-Jin n ( ‫مسالك‬ ‫الجنان‬ 'Itineraries of Heaven') he writes:…”

“…The Ajami tradition of Wolof, commonly referred to as Wolofal, emerged primarily out of the Sufi Muslim brotherhood, the Muridiyya ( ‫المريدية‬ al-murdyya), established by Shaykh Amadu Bamba . Wolofal is still extensively practiced in Senegal today in both formal publications and more mundane record-keeping, signs and correspondence (Ngom 2010). Ngom (2009; suggests that the nineteenth century flourishing of Wolof Ajami can be traced to the personality and teachings of Amadu Bambu.…”

“…Wolofal is still extensively practiced in Senegal today in both formal publications and more mundane record-keeping, signs and correspondence (Ngom 2010). Ngom (2009; suggests that the nineteenth century flourishing of Wolof Ajami can be traced to the personality and teachings of Amadu Bambu. The Muriddiya's leader asserted a strong African identity as part of his broader Islamic message; he addressed French colonialism and its supposed superiority but he also "differentiated the essence of Islamic teaching from Arab and Moorish cultural practices with no spiritual significance" (Ngom 2009:104).…”

“…While he himself wrote in Arabic, perhaps because of a spiritual desire to "commune with God and the prophet Muhammed" (Camara, 1997, p. 170), Bamba articulated an explicit Afro-Muslim identity that gave "ideological and implementational space" (Hornberger & Johnson, 2007) for local language Ajami literacy to flourish. This overt engagement with issues of race and cultural autonomy within Islam makes the Wolofal tradition seemingly unique, but ethnic relationships-mediated, today at least, in part by notions of raceare alluded to in other accounts of Ajami literature's emergence (see Ngom 2009 for Fulani/Moor and Robinson 1982 for Fulani/Manding).…”

African Englishes and creative writing

“…The answer is a definitive ‘yes,’ as UNESCO's () part of the statement in (23c) indicates. Writing creatively in African languages is not only a sine qua non condition for their structural elaboration and national self‐esteem for their speakers, but also crucial for mass indigenous knowledge production, reproduction, and diffusion in these languages (Ngom ; Jahnke ; Bokamba ). The achievement of these goals will in turn facilitate the expansion of education to the masses; reduce dramatically the pervasive illiteracy in much of the continent; and produce informed and critically minded citizens in their inter‐ethnic vernaculars to become their own spokespersons with the capacity to demand and create conditions for participatory democracies in their respective countries.…”