Existing comment:
Resistant.
Images like this once inspired defiance to French rule in Senegal.
Sheikh Amadou Bamba stands in the center, in a white robe and turban. A Sufi saint, poet, and teacher, he led a pacifist resistance against the French colonial administration. As a founder of the influential Mouride movement, one of four mystical Sufi groups within Islam, Bamba's image was considered so potent -- by both his followers, who believe it conveys blessings, and by the French, who feared it as a rallying point of resistance -- that it was once banned in the colony. The image is based on the only surviving photograph of Bamba before his exile to Gabon and Mauritania. During his banishment (1895–1907), his teachings and influence spread, as did stories of his supernatural powers -- from an ability to lay his prayer mat on the ocean waves to fighting monsters and receiving guidance from the archangel Gabriel. |