Shaykh Ahmadou Bamba: A Peacemaker for Our Time

Shaykh Ahmadou Bamba: A Peacemaker for Our Time

Shaykh Ahmadou Bamba ranks with such apostles of peaceful militancy as Mahatma Gandhi, Abdul Ghaffar Khan, and Martin Luther King Jr. His adventures begin in the villages of Senegal in West Africa before he is thrust into the dense, treacherous, dark jungles of the French Congo and the pristine Sahara Desert in Mauritania. The French who had control of much of West Africa, caught up with Bamba in the summer of 1895. Bamba seemed to know what was to happen to him for, the night before his arrest, he gathered his disciples together. The majority fervently pronounced that they were willing to launch a violent resistance and to die rather than allow the French to take Shaykh Ahmadou Bamba away. Bamba’s reaction was to state that in a war there are never any victors. Thirty-three years of exile, imprisonment and house arrest only fortified his spirit, as affirmed by his inspiring ubiquitous poetic expressions. His writings are seen as living texts that make them forever current. He petitioned God to ensure that the verse he composed “be an eternal source of happiness for whomever would apply its knowledge . . . and that it would lead the sincere aspirant to spiritual vision, and to unveiling of profound secrets.” This story of the role of African ‘natives’ and Sufi Masters in peace building breathes a fresh spiritual and intellectual air into the history of Islam in Africa in general and Senegal in particular. Kimball’s presentation of colonial resistance and non-violent social change is compelling and timely. This is an unprecedented account, through oral and written histories, into the life and times of a great poet and peacemaker. It is a book of universal import with a message of truth, peace, and the power of nonviolence. "Careful yet compelling, this biography of West Africa's great spiritiual luminary is required reading for all who seek a devout alternative to modern fundamentalism and intolerance." Abdal Hakim Murad, Dean, Cambridge Muslim College "Michelle Kimball is to be congratulated in making the life and thought of Shaykh Ahmadou Bamba, the great Senegalese Sufi master of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, accessible to the English-speaking world. His spiritual life as well as peaceful combat against colonialism have much to teach contemporary Muslims. Her work also reveals the very important but often forgotten truth that classical and traditional Sufism did not belong only to what Westerners call the Middle Ages but continued into recent times and is still alive as a living tradition." Seyyed Hossein Nasr, University Professor of Islamic Studies, The George Washington University "Shaykh Ahmadou Bamba ranks with such apostles of peaceful militancy as Mahatma Gandhi, Abdul Ghaffar Khan, and Martin Luther King Jr. Kimball's presentation of this Sufi shaykh's espousal of non-violent social change is compelling and timely. Quoting frequently from Ahmadou Bamba's own writings, Kimball weaves a narrative of anti-colonial resistance and social transformation. That such an activist voice could emerge from the din of colonial alienation is a testament to the enduring strength of the principle of peace in Islam." Eric Ross, Professor Islamic Studies, Al Akhawayn University, Morocco "Bamba's inclination toward peace is tied to his revolution of a different kind—one comprised of sublime patience and fortitude in the wake of tribulation and the recognition that power is not in the body, but rather emanates from the soul, after it is bestowed from above. Michelle Kimball invites us to reconsider how we define revolution. In telling Shaykh Bamba's story, she invites us to reflect on the question of where freedom begins. And where world peace begins. We might therefore reflect on the following: "...Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves" (Qur'an 13: 11)." Youssef J. Carter, Harvard University, in Research Africa Reviews, Vol. 3 No. 1 April 2019. "Thanks to Michelle Kimball for this excellent book on Ahmadou Bamba ... I have learned a lot from it, so my hearty congratulations to the author...I am very much grateful to Michelle Kimball for writing this book, which for me is a dream book come true. I have been waiting to read and learn about Ahmadou Bamba for some thirty years now. I congratulate her for the excellent work. I am sure it will be read with much interest in today's times when Islam is much blamed for violence. Michelle Kimball successfully presents the main face of Islam as that of Peace in both realistic and practical ways through the life story of one of the great saints of Islam viz., Ahmadou Bamba." Imtiyaz Yusuf, ISTAC, International Islamic University Malaysia. In Al-Shajarah, ISTAC Journal of Islamic Thought and Civilization, 2020, Vol. 25 No. 1. Shaykh Ahmadou Bamba ranks with such apostles of peaceful militancy as Mahatma Gandhi, Abdul Ghaffar Khan, and Martin Luther King Jr. His adventures begin in the villages