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Baghayogho: A Soninke Muslim Diaspora in the Mande World
Abstract
This article traces the role and implication of a single family of Wangara - dealt with in an earlier article - descent in the reform of Islam undertaken by the king Askia Mohammed, following his pilgrimage to Mecca, for the Malian cities of the 17th century - which by that time were under the Songhay. It appears that the "mission" to the chiefdoms of the gold and kola producing forest zones - to areas as diverse as the Gabu, the Konyan, the Worodugu, the Mossi and Dagomba kingdoms - was based on a conscious plan formed by the Songhay dynasty and its religious advisors, a plan to convert the animists in the south to a reformed Islam which abandoned the maraboutic traditions of earlier Islamic movements, and based on the commercial connections of the Wangara with the gold and kola bearing regions, taking as origin the Baghayogho family of Islamic scholars established in Timbuktu for centuries as Imams of the Sidi Yahya mosque and claiming today to be the last descendants of the Wangara. The myth of a common pilgrimage of scholars of several clans (dyamou) which all happen to be of Soninke origin seems to indicate that individual "mission areas" were assigned to particular clans, and that those for the Baghayogho were along the river axes of the Bani (which joins the Niger near Djenne) and the Volta (which originates on the Dogon plateau) for the conversion of such diverse peoples as the Bambara, Senoufo, Mossi and Dagomba. It remains to establish the concrete genealogical links of the founders of the branches in the diaspora with the main branch in Timbuktu.
... The general belief is that the expansion of Islam in Dagbon could be attributed to the arrival of one Shaykh Sulaymana b. Abdallah Bagayugu, a Wangara teacher linked with the Western Sudanese city of Timbuktu (Wilks, 1965: 93-94;Ferguson, 1972: 48-52, 64;Massing, 2004). 7 Members of the Bagayugu fraternity were among the early Islamic scholars ("Ulama) in the Western Sudan Region. ...
... Mais cette politique changea de forme dès le retour d'Akia-Mohamed de la Mecque dans les années1490. En effet, le pouvoir de Gao finit par s'appuyer sur des familles de savants musulmans de Tombouctou, notamment la famille Bagayogo, pour développer l'enseignement de l'islam et le diffuser largement en milieu bambara, senoufo, dogon et mossi (Massing 2004). ...
Towards Governance by the Mosque: Recourse to Islam for Social Ceremonies and the Circulation of Public Information in Sénou (Mali). - As mosques proliferate in Bamako, inhabitants are increasingly seeking out the services of Muslim cults for social ceremonies such as namings, weddings, and funerals. This recourse to Islam gives a central role to the mosque which is becoming the most sought out place to house these ceremonies. In addition, the mosque is also used as a prime vector for communications. Most public information of interest is channeled to populations via the mosque. This article investigates the economic, social, political and ideological issues regarding this recourse to the mosque, in general, and in social ceremonies, in particular in the Senou neighborhood (Commune VI district) on the outskirts of Bamako. © 2019 Editions de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. All rights reserved.
This article provides a select reading of the British Africanist Ivor Wilks’ unpublished field notes, “Conversations about the past, mainly from Ghana, 1956–1996.” Specifically, it focuses on Wilks’ notes on the migration of Muslims in Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso, including his collection of interviews, diary entries, anecdotal observations, and ethnographic data. It offers new perspectives on the entanglements between mobility, knowledge transmission, and authority in the history of Muslim communities in West Africa that are normally taken for granted. While this article is not meant to be exhaustive, it highlights the possibility of using disparate notes and observations to stitch together the beginnings of a compelling story that centers mobility as a crucial aspect of the history of Islam in Africa.
The Kamaghate lineage which claims to belong to the Diakhanke tradition of Haji Salim Souaré and the Soninke clerical lineage of Diaby-Gassama has held the ima-mate in Begho and expanded with the Gonja into the Western Volta basin. Its roots can be followed to centres of Islamic diaspora such as Djenne, Odienne, Samatiguila, Tiemé, Kong, Bouna and Bondoukou. It forms part of an Eastern Diakhanke branch which has introduced Islam into the Volta Basin, the Kamaghate being the principal actors in the western half, while the Baghayogho have established themselves more in the eastern half, among the Mole-Dagbane speakers. Islamic missionary efforts can thus be shown to be well organized by African muslims, in establishing specialist "maraboutic" lineages and attributing them exclusive spheres for the purpose of converting the non-Moslem populations of the Sahel and savannah regions, and even gaining influence as court advisors in the kingdoms of the forest zone. Thus the Kamaghate also hold the imamate for all Muslims at the Ashanti capital, while a special karamoko serves the court alone.
In the last fifteen years, the reflection on the African Diaspora has been granted a very significant place in the Anglo-American academia. In contrast, in France, the social sciences have appeared uninterested in this literature. Yet, French researchers have many reasons to take part in this reflection. Since the interwar period, France has been a major site for activists working towards the construction of a Black diasporic identity. Because of segregationist laws in the US, the American occupation of Haiti, and the lack of (post-) secondary education in its African colonies, France has been the destination of thousands of young Blacks among whom a significant proportion of intellectuals, writers and students. Moving beyond its ethnic, national and linguistic differences among its members, these elite took on the ambitious objective of coordinating Blacks all around the world for the emancipation of Africa and the black race. This article questions the epistemological foundations of the dearth of reflection on Black diaspora in the French social sciences.
The Wangara are a central element of a Soninke diaspora and go back for centuries in history, namely to the Soninke kingdom of Ghana. They were known as Wakoré, who probably obtained royal trade privileges. Certain groups holding the imamates in key settlements such as the Sa(gha)nogo, Kamaghaté, Diaba(gha)té, Timité, Cissé- Haidara, Fofana and Bagayogo are of Soninke origin, but other people identify themselves with them claiming "Wangara" status. Certain identity markers remain stable over the centuries: long-distance trade in precious commodities, Moslem, scholars and imams; the ethnic groups identified with them do shift and are often not Mande but assimilated to their group identity aspiring to integration in the trade network: Bambara, Bobo, Senoufo, Songhay, Hausa, Gonja and others.