Maba Diakhou Bâ

Mamadu Diakhou Bâ (1809 – July 1867) was a Muslim leader in Senegambia (West Africa) during the 19th century. He was a disciple of the Tijaniyya Sufi brotherhood and became the Almami of Saloum.

Maba Diakhou Bâ combined political and religious goals in an attempt to reform or overthrow previous animist monarchies, and resist French encroachment. He is a part of a tradition of Fulani jihad leaders who revolutionized many West African states during the 19th century.

In the 19th century, he became a prominent Muslim cleric and slave trader and pillager of non-Muslim states.

Spelling variations In Serer: Ma Ba Jaxu and Ama Ba Jaxu (or Amat Jaxu Ba) Maba Jaxu Maba Jahou Bah Ma Ba Diakhu Ma Ba Diakho Ba Mabba Jaxu Ba

Early life A descendant of the Fulani Denianke Dynasty, Amath Ba was born in 1809 in the region of Rip, also known as Badibu. His grandfather had immigrated from Futa Toro, and the family were all teachers of the Quran. Maba studied in Cayor and taught in Kingdom of Jolof, his mother's native land, where he married a member of the royal family. In 1846, he likely met El Hadj Umar Tall, who named him the Tijani leader for the region. He returned to Rip around 1850, and spent ten years teaching and preaching in the village of Keur Maba Diakhou near Kaolack.

During this time, French forces under governor Faidherbe had carried out a scorched-earth policy against resistance to their expansion in Senegambia, with villages razed and populations removed after each victory.

Beginnings of Jihad The king of Badibou (Rip) in the 1850s was entitled Mansa Jeriba. He was a weak ruler, and his warriors would frequently raid marabout villages in the area. Maba was the court marabout, frequently making amulets and praying for the king, but also attempting to weaken him by magical means and stockpiling weaponry. When the marabouts retaliated against the ceddo (animist) warriors for a raid, the king tried to crush them but Maba and his talibes (students) defeated them. This success attracted more supporters, and by 1861 Maba controlled all of Rip. At this point he launched his jihad into Serer territory and soon controlled most of Saloum and part of Niumi. He founded the city of Nioro as his capital, named after El Hadj Umar's capital.

Expansion and War In 1862, the former Damel of Cayor Macodou Coumba Fall took refuge with Maba. Twice their combined forces defeated Fall's son Samba Laobe, the Maad Saloum, but on October 2nd they failed to take the French fortifications at Kaolack, where Laobe had taken refuge. Still, Maba now controlled most of Saloum, and enforced his interpretation of Islam throughout the country, burning and enslaving villages that resisted. In 1863 a group of animist Mandinka chiefs of Rip, assisted by Kiang and Wuli, counter-attacked and defeated the marabout forces at Kwinella.

Maba's forces now numbered up to 11,000 fighting men. In October 1864 the French recognized him as Almamy of Baddibu and Saloum.

Slave trading activities

Maba was a prominent Muslim cleric and slave trader that ravaged non-Muslim states.

Maba Diakhou Bâ is an important link in the tradition of Senegalese marabouts who trace their lineage to Umar Tall. This tradition has continued to the present, with such notables as El Hadj Saidou Nourou Tall (the former grand marabout of French West Africa) the Tivaouane-based Sy family of El Hadj Malik Sy (1855–1922), and the Niass family of (1840–1922) and his son Ibrahim in Kaolack. Tivaouane in the north among the Wolof and Kaolack among the Serer have become the two centers of Tijaniyyah Sufi teaching in Senegal, and both were founded as a direct result of Maba Diakhou Bâ's short-lived state.

He was interred in the village of Fandène (or Mbel Fandane), and his tomb, which has become a place of pilgrimage, is in the Diakhao Arrondissement, département of Fatick in Sine-Saloum, Sénégal.