A mystical cosmopolitanism: Sufi Hip Hop and the aesthetics of Islam in Dakar

Abstract

For many, any alliance between ‘Islam’ and ‘Hip Hop’ is an unholy one, whether for bringing Hip Hop into Islam or vice versa. Yet many of Senegal’s prominent rappers today are committed adherents of the Fayḍa Tijāniyya Sufi (mystical Islamic) movement who rap about religious knowledge. Even the Fayḍa’s senior, classically trained authorities tend to accept Hip Hop as an effective tool to promulgate religious principles and recruit new disciples. The line between rapper and Islamic preacher has become blurred, and several rappers are even formally appointed spiritual guides with their own disciples. This article attributes the success of Sufi Hip Hop to aesthetic resonances between global Hip Hop culture and the Fayḍa’s self-imagination as an increasingly urban and global esoteric movement. I illustrate with the persona and art of Daddy Bibson, the first and most influential Fayḍa rapper to rap about Sufi knowledge.

Keywords:

• Hip Hop
• Islam
• Senegal
• Sufism
• aesthetics

Notes

1. ‘Dañu bëgg a xalaat, dañu bëgg wax bu xóot, dañu bëgg critique.’ Interview, Guédiawaye (Dakar suburb), June 7, 2016.

2. A number of rappers today follow Shaykh Moussa Cissé, nicknamed Njàmme Daaru (1900–1994), a Baay Faal leader who introduced a system of tarbiya during the 1960s that similarly promises direct knowledge and vision of God. His followers are popularly called ‘Yàlla-Yàlla’ (God-God) because of their reported constant talk of God (see Ndiaye 2016).

3. ‘Sa xel bii nga am ba pare di dem si afeer u ñàkk fayda, ay gis Yàlla, ay xam Yàlla, yëf i dof.’ Interview with Biba Arif, Dakar (Colobane), 5 August 2014.

4. Interview with Maxi Krezi (Amadou Aw), Rufisque, 20 May 2014.

5. These are the three primary constituents of the Tijānī wird, the daily litany that one ritually ‘receives’ from a shaykh on entering into the Tijānī order and then recites daily. Receiving the wird is a prerequisite to receiving tarbiya. While the litanies transmitted during tarbiya are not a matter of public record, they are generally known to include more or less the same elements.

6. ‘Né en Afrique, grandi en Amérique, le rap a dû faire un tour.’

7. Tang (2012) has discussed early Senegalese rappers, including members of Daara J, articulating this connection with the griot tradition. Such claims seem to be less in vogue now.

8. ‘Mënoo dëkk si mbedd mi, mënoo dëkk si inondations yi, dëkk si coupures d’éléctricité yi, dëkk si dund bu cher bi, dëkk si chaque jour taalibe yi wër la nga leen di jox, ngay gis nit ñi di feebar duñ am fuñu fajoo, ba pare, man personnellement, mënumaa loolu di bañ a véhiculer un message boo xam ni c’est un message engagé, un message boo xam ni tey jii nii foo tollu boo ko waxee ñépp ay prêter attention. C’est comme ngay saaga nit di woy. Mënul nekk, loolu.’

9. ‘Yaw tu n’as pas la tête même d’un gars, d’un adepte du rap. Yaw xam nga ne rap xajul sa bopp. Gis nga dama la ne kaamil xajul ci bopp u xaj. Loolu la Wolof yiy wax.’

10. Standard spelling: Soldaaru Baay ya ngoog (‘There are Baay’s soldiers’).

11. Like several of his other albums, this album’s cover includes an ʿajamī (Arabic script) Wolof spelling of the title, in this case jasbu, although the term derives Arabic Sufi literature.

12. ‘Soldaar u Baay, taalibe Baay du daanu. Ku ànd ak Mawlaanaa Baay Ñas doo daanu.’

13. ‘Baay a tax ñu téye mic. Jihād! Uh!’

14. ‘Mu doon sama waay.’

15. ‘kurus gi sina sànni ay effets spéciaux, salaatul faatiya doon ay bombes.’