This fourth, and for now, final, installment of African Islamic music features recordings from the Cote D'Ivoire, Benin and Nigeria. (I think I will wait until next year to present the Islamic recordings we have in our collection from Mauritania, Sierra Leone, Niger, Northern Nigeria, Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Egypt. My original plan to highlight selections from all of our recordings by the end of the month of Ramadan was too ambitious!) One of the most enlightening aspects of going through all of the recordings that I've featured over the last month has been realizing the ways in which these different Islamic musics interact with other traditional and modern musical genres, both national and regional.  Similar dynamics have shaped the Islamic singing of the Cote D'Ivoire.

The Cote D'Ivoire is perhaps the most ethnically, culturally and religiously diverse country in Francophone West Africa. Drawn by the swath of cocoa plantations that cut across central Cote D'Ivoire (the Cote D'Ivoire is the world's largest producer and exporter of cocoa), large numbers of labor migrants from Burkina Faso, Mali, Ghana, and Liberia have settled in the country over the last five decades. The port of Abidjan, up until the late 1990s, was one of the busiest in West Africa, and drew laborers and sailors from all along Africa's Western coast. Long the economic center of Francophone Africa, Abidjan was also, before the civil war, home to large Moroccan, Lebanese, and French communities. Throughout the golden years of the Ivoirian economic boom (the 1970s and 1980s) the state of the art recording studios and many nightclubs of Abidjan attracted musicians from Togo, Benin, Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger, Guinea, Cameroon, Gabon and both Congos.

The last five decades have seen a dramatic spread of Islam in the Cote D'Ivoire. Up until Ivoirian independence in 1960, Islam was a minority faith, limited largely to the smaller cities and farming villages of the country's Northern Savanna regions. Today, Islam is the religion of almost forty percent of Ivoirians, with the largest number living in the South, especially in greater Abidjan. Probably because of their longtime minority status, and the country's religious diversity, Ivoirian Muslims tend to downplay the differences between denominations (Sunni, Shi'a) and Sufi brotherhoods, and emphasize the unity of all Muslims. At the same time, the decades of cohabitation with Christian communities (both Catholic and Protestant) has influenced Ivoirian Muslims in unique and interesting ways.

Kassim Touré was the first Ivoirian singer to start his own Islamic Choir. He was born, in the 1950s, in the Southeastern city of Aboisso, into a family from the Northwestern town of Odienne. After finishing his primary schooling he continued his university and religious education in Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, and Ghana, simultaneously studying Islamic history and the Koran. Of particular importance to him were his years of study in Mali; he studied with the renowned Islamic scholar Sada Touré in Ségou, and with the singers Racine Sall and Cheikhna Diawara in Bamako. Mr. Touré told me that he was a member of a Sufi brotherhood, but that it did not matter which one. 'What is important', he told me, 'is that I am a Muslim'. In 1979 he returned to the Aboisso region and started to teach, eventually opening 'L'Ecole Confessionel de Kossikro', a Franco-Arabic school that teaches both the national public school curriculum, and Koranic studies.

Kassim Touré et ses Eleves 'Shawki'

Several years later he organized and trained a group of his students to accompany his performances of the Islamic songs that he had composed. (It is highly probably that the idea of organizing school children into a religious choir is one, of the many, that Ivoirian Muslims borrowed from their Christian neighbors. Many of the organizing bodies and institutions of Ivoirian Muslims were inspired by the structures of the Catholic Church). After what he described to me as some very difficult and discouraging years, his choir finally started to get some attention in 1984/1985 when they started to make regular appearances on 'Allahu Akbar', an Islamic television program hosted by Souleymane Doumbia.

His growing popularity led him to a recording studio, when a pharmacist from the Southeastern Bassam region, named Mrs. Ballo Fatou funded sessions at the famed JBZ studio. Today, Kassim Touré has released six cassettes, and his preparing two more. His songs, in both Djula and French, are mainstays of Islamic radio programming throughout the Cote D'Ivoire, Burkina Faso (especially in Bobo Dioulasso), and in Mali. He continues to receive invitations to perform at religious ceremonies throughout the Cote D'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea. When I recently spoke to Mr. Touré he was in Gurdaspur, Punjab State, northern India, continuing his research into Islamic history and music.

Kassim Touré et ses Eleves 'Sayadethoungaye'

One of the many singers that Kassim Touré inspired was Ali Ballo. He was born in Abidjan, in 1971, into a family from Tingrela (in the far North close to the Malian border). Ali Ballo grew up in Abidjan and started singing during his early years of Koranic school. He started his own choir in 1988, organizing his fellow students at a Koranic school in the Abidjan suburb of Attiecoubé. Today, Ali Ballo is the director of the school and leads a choir of several hundred girls.

Mr. Ballo told me that he started the choir after seeing how many people were drawn to Christian churches by their choirs and liturgical music. He said, 'I realized that sermons were not enough to draw the faithful, we needed to pull them in with music'. Ali Ballo and his choir have released two cassettes, and he is currently working on a third. He continues to perform throughout the Cote D'Ivoire.

Chorale Islamique Ali Ballo 'Djanfa'

Chorale Islamique Ali Ballo 'Dina Daimmainbaga (remix)'


The young singer Bah Diallo currently lives in Abidjan. She was born Aicha Koumah in Segou, Mali in 1977, and took the name 'Bah Diallo' to honor the mother of the Tijani Sufi master 'Cheickna Haidara Ham'allah'. This is her first cassette.

Bah Diallo 'Hommage a Saint Cheickhna Haidara (excerpt)'


I particularly love these next two tracks. They are excerpts from a longer Yoruba-language religious program that was broadcast on Gulf Fm in Cotonou, Benin during Ramadan 2005. I heard the program one night in my hotel room and was knocked out by the warmth of these voices and the melodies. The next day I went to the radio station and they burned me a copy of the program. Unfortunately, the program manager wasn't able to identify the singers, and I haven't had any luck since.

Gulf FM, Cotonou, Benin track 1

Gulf FM, Cotonou, Benin track 2

This final track features the Nigerian singer Sheidat Fatimoh. She belongs to the Tijaniyya brotherhood, and I think is from Kwara State. This music is very similar to Fuji, which has deep roots in Yoruba Muslim music.

In this next track Sheidat Fatimoh praises the Senegalese marabout Cheikh Ibrahim Niasse from Kaolack, Senegal. (Cheikh Ibrahim Niasse passed away in 1975.) The Niasse 'house' of the Tijanniya has followers throughout all of West Africa.

Sheidat Fatimoh 'Sheu Ibrahim Niyas'

This post is based on interviews with Kassim Touré, Ali Ballo, and Doumbia Issiaka. I also drew on the research on Islam in the Cote D'Ivoire of Marie Miran.

Our next installment of Sufi sounds from Africa takes us East to Mali, home to some of West Africa's most iconic Muslim sites; the Great Mosque of Djenne-the world's largest mud brick building-is an architectural masterpiece, the mystical city of Tombouctou has been a renowned center of Islamic learning since the 15th century. And although today Muslims make up around 90% of Mali's population, the worldviews of many Malians still accommodate the pre-Islamic beliefs that are deeply rooted in the country's different regional cultures.

Since the 9th century there have been several different Islamic waves that have washed across the Malian Sahara, pushing south into the Sahel. Berber and Tuareg merchants from Northern Africa, whose commercial success often depended on the strength of their religious networks, first brought Islam to Mali in the 9th century. This first wave of conversions was followed by a second that came in the wake of the twenty-five year reign (1312-1337) of Mansa Musa, one of the most powerful and devout king's of the Mali Empire. His wealth and fame reached beyond the shores of the Sahara and drew Muslim scholars, artisans, architects and traders to his capital of Niani. The third, and perhaps most dramatic wave (it wasn't until the twentieth century that Islam became the religion of the majority of Malians) came from the Senegal River valley. El Hadj Umar Tall was born, around 1797, in the heart of the Futa-Tooro, the region that straddles the Senegal-Mauritania border, and that remains home to the Fulani people, who formed the backbone of his religious and military empire. A devout adherent of the Tijjaniya brotherhood, El Hadj Umar kicked off, in 1848, a jihad that lasted until his death in 1864. And it was after his defeat of the Kingdom of Ségou, on March 10, 1861, that many Bambara –the culturally dominant ethnic group in Mali- converted to Islam.

Today, Ségou remains a center of Bambara culture and a very devout city. This first cassette features Sekou Cissé, who goes by the nickname 'Sekoublé'. He is a member of the Tidjane brotherhood, and although he still lives in Ségou, rarely performs anymore in public. These recordings were probably made some time in the 1980s. He sings spiritual advice inspired by the teachings of the Koran.

Sekoublé 'excerpt one'

Sekoublé 'excerpt two'


Soufi Drissa Dembélé also comes from the region of Ségou; he was born 60 miles north in the town of Niono. He is a member of the Qadiriyya brotherhood and a follwer of Sufi Yaya Dembélé, a preacher and teacher from Markala (20 miles downriver from Ségou). He started composing and singing professionally in 1999, and has released two cassettes.

Soufi Drissa Dembélé described his music to me as 'Zhikr', and sings in both Bambara and in the Miniyanka dialect of Senoufo (his mother-tongue). He currently lives in Kouthiala, and performs primarily throughout southern Mali (he as also been invited to perform for Qadir festivities in Burkina Faso and Guinea). These next two tracks are off his first cassette, which was released in 2006.

Soufi Drissa Dembélé 'Mina Thiandjowa'

Soufi Drissa Dembélé 'Magnouma Baro'

Although Sufi brotherhoods have been an important part of Malian Islam for centuries, Sufi Drissa Dembélé is part of a new generation of Malian Sufis, with their own style of worship, who first started to draw attention in the early 1990s. Drawing inspiration from the Baye Fall of Senegal, and in some cases from West African Rastafarianism, this new generation of urban Sufis-previous generations of Malian Sufis were more concentrated in rural areas- have created a syncretic style of worship that reflects Malian pop culture.

Nouhoum Dembélé started his career, back in 1986, singing popular secular music. He was also born in Ségou, and grew up there in a religious family. It was after his mother passed away that he decided to devote himself entirely to religious music. Like his mother, he is a disciple of Cherif Ousmane Madani Haidara, Mali's most famous and charismatic preacher; Haidara is a mega-star, whose religious 'revivals' fill soccer stadiums. In 2005 he self-produced this first cassette release. He performs throughout Mali, and has been invited to perform at events in Burkina Faso and the Cote D'Ivoire. He is currently working on his second cassette.

Nouhoum Dembélé 'Ne Tèkèra kamo la'

These next two tracks by Souleymane Diarra feature some beautiful singing, by both Souleymane Diarra and the female choir. I haven't yet been able to get in touch with Souleymane Diarra, but I think he is a Tidjane, and I am pretty sure this is his first cassette.

Interestingly, the cassettes by both Dembélés and this one by Souleymane Diarra all feature similar instrumentation; ensembles built on the rhythmic foundation of a calabash, and fleshed out by 'ethereal' keyboard playing. (Don't let the keyboards discourage you! All of these tracks feature some great vocals.)

Souleymane Diarra & Cherifoula Groupe San Nayele 'Allaouma'

Souleymane Diarra & Cherifoula Groupe San Nayele 'An Ye Allah ...'

El Hadj Hamado Kanazoe is one of my favorite African Sufi singers. He is not from Mali, but from Burkina Faso. He was born in Mané, not far from the town of Kaya, in north-central Burkina Faso, and since 1970 has been living in Ouagadougou. El Hadj Kanazoe started singing when he was 12 years old and has released 15 studio recordings.

He is the most famous performer of Wazu music, a style that alternates chanting of the Koran in Arabic, with moral commentary in Mooré, the language of the Mossi people. El Hadj Hamado Kanazoe is a disciple of the Tidjani leader Cheikh Aboubakar Doukouré.

El Hadj Hamado Kanazoe 'excerpt one'

El Hadj Hamado Kanazoe 'excerpt two'


This post draws on interviews conducted with Nouhoum Dembélé, Soufi Drissa Dembélé, and El Hadj Hamado Kanazoe, with special thanks to Agathe Diamma and Samuel Kiendrebeogo for their interpreting help. Next up Cote D'Ivoire, Benin and Nigeria.

Any discussion of Sufism in Sub-Saharan Africa has to include, if not start in, Senegal. Perhaps nowhere on the continent are Sufi Brotherhoods as pervasive as they are in Senegal, where the different orders are a part of national politics, many sectors of the economy, popular fashions, traditional and contemporary art, sports, and popular music. Today it is impossible to walk through the streets of Dakar, St. Louis, Kaolack or any other Senegalese city without being drawn in by the sounds and symbols of Senegal's Sufis; from greetings, shop signs, and murals, to the singing of religious students in the streets, and cassettes playing in taxicabs, Sufi orders shape the physical space, imaginations, and relationships of the majority of Senegalese. And over the last ten years, with the dramatic growth in the religious cassette industry, Sufi songs have implanted themselves in the mainstream of Senegalese musical life. In fact, many Sufi artists now regularly outsell their secular counterparts, and for all of the international recognition that Mbalax and Senegalese hip-hop have received, the sound of urban Senegal (especially during Ramadan) is deeply religious.

There are three main Sufi brotherhoods in Senegal, The Qadriyya, The Tijaniyya, and the Muridiyya. The most immediately visible, and the only uniquely Senegalese brotherhood, is the Muridiyya, which was founded in 1883 by Cheikh Ahmadu Bàmba Mbàcke. The two pillars of Cheikh Ahmadu Bàmba's teachings are submission (to both God and one's spiritual guide, or Marabout) and hard work. After an ascetic life of study, meditation and teaching Cheikh Ahmadu Bàmba was buried in 1927 in Touba, a city 200 km north of Dakar that is today the headquarters of the Mourides (and home to the one of the largest mosques in Africa). In his lifetime Cheikh Ahmàdu Bamba wrote many Khassaides, or religious praise songs, and the Mouride tradition of devotional singing dates back to the first generation of Mourides.

The most famous modern Mouride singer, and one of the first to make praise singing his profession was Abdou Lah Niang Ndar. He was born in the northern city of St. Louis and went by the nickname of 'Guewelu Khadim', which can be translated as 'Bàmba's griot'. (Niang was born into a family of weavers, who have a similar status as griots do in Wolof society.) Abdou Lah Niang was the most popular Mouride singer of the 1980s and early 1990s, performing at religious ceremonies throughout Senegal and for the Mouride Diaspora in Italy, France and Spain. He is one of the most intense vocalists I have ever heard (his 'attack' is similar to that of the late-great Wolof griot Ndiaga Mbaye). Sadly, but not surprisingly, Abdou Lah's many years of singing destroyed his vocal chords, and during the last years of his life his voice was reduced to a raspy whisper. Abdou Lah Niang passed away two years ago.

Here are a few examples of his 'Djaangi Rabb' style of singing. These two cuts are excerpts of 'Moukhadimoul Amdah' one of his most famous recordings, and feature Abdou Lah with his six-man group.

Abdou Lah Niang Ndar  'Moukhadimoul Amdah' cut one

Abdou Lah Niang Ndar 'Moukhadimoul Amdah' cut two


Today, the most successful Mouride singer is Khadim Gueye. He was born, and still lives, in Touba. He is in his early thirties and has been singing religious songs for about ten years.

Ever since the release, in 2003, of his tribute to 'Mame Sokhna Diarra' (Cheikh Ahmadu Bàmba's mother) Khadim's and his group have been in great demand, performing regularly at religious ceremonies and festivities throughout Senegal, and for Mouride communities in France, Spain, Italy, and the USA (he is a regular performer at the 'Cheikh Ahmadu Bàmba day' celebrations that are held every summer in Harlem's Little Senegal neighborhood).

Khadim Gueye 'Sindiidi' excerpt

This next cassette features Sokhna Dieynaba Lam, one of the few female Mouride singers (I know of only three who have released cassettes), and the sister of the celebrated griotte and mbalax star Kiné Lam. She was born blind and has released several cassettes with Demba Diop Thiaroye. (The inset picture on the cassette cover is a representation of the only known picture of Cheikh Ahmadu Bàmba).

Sokhna Dieynaba Lam

One of the first disciples, and definitely the most famous, of Cheikh Ahmadu Bàmba was Cheikh Ibra Fall. Cheikh Ibra Fall distinguished himself from all of Cheikh Ahmadu Bàmba's earliest followers through his commitment to manual labor; he dedicated his life to spreading the Mouride faith, and to mobilizing the labor of the faithful for the support of the brotherhood. Cheikh Ibra Fall went on to found the 'Baye Fall', a sub-group of the Mouride, who follow his commitment to spiritual freedom through hard labor. Various groups of 'Baye Fall', who can often be identified by their patchwork garments, and dreadlocked hair, can today be seen in the streets of major Senegalese cities fundraising (sometimes interpreted as begging) for the brotherhood. The 'Baye Fall' have their own unique repertoire of songs accompanied by percussion; these Baye Fall rhythms have roots in the music of the Serere ethnic group (many of the earliest converts to 'Baye Fallism' were Serere farmers).

This next track is off this cassette featuring 'Ngagne Seck' and his group of Baye Fall percussionists from Rufisque, a coastal city close to Dakar.

Ngagne Seck et le Dahira Touba Fall


The Tijaniyya Sufi order was founded in 1784, in Algeria, by Cheikh Sidi Ahmed Tijani, and is today the most widespread Sufi brotherhood in West Africa, with adepts in Mauritania, Mali, Cote D'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad, Sudan, and Senegal (there are several different branches, or houses, in Senegal). The three artists featured below are members of the 'house' founded by 'El-Hajj Malick Sy', which has its headquarters in Tivaouane, a small city off the national road between Dakar and St. Louis.

Mbaye Ndonde was the most appreciated and influential Tidjane singer of his generation. He was born, in 1930, into a family of griots from Keur Dieumb Ndiaye, a small village not far from Thiès. He started singing publicly in 1949 and continued to perform up until July of 2000; he died on October 16, 2000. Throughout his life he was one of the most fervent supporters of El Hajj Ababacar Sy-who was one of El Hajj Malick Sy's sons-and composed hundreds of songs in his honor. At the age of 19, at the request of El Hajj Ababacar Sy, Mbaye Ndonde moved to Tivaouane, where he lived for the rest of his life. Although hundreds of cassettes exist of his singing, Mbaye Ndonde did not go into a recording studio until 1996, and he released less than a dozen studio recordings. Today his son Doudou Kende Mbaye, who leads his own group and has released about a dozen cassettes, keeps his musical legacy alive.

El Hajj Mbaye Ndonde 'Njool Fama Vie et Oeuvre de El Hadj Malick Sy' excerpt


Kabir Sene was born and raised in Thiès. After finishing Koranic school, and several years of Arabic study, he started to sing publicly, in 1988, with his group Sope Dabakh. The group has released six cassettes and continues to perform throughout Senegal.

This next track is taken off his third cassette. (The small inset picture on the cover is of Abdoul Aziz Sy, the Khalife, or leader, of the Tivaouane 'house' who passed away in 1997.)

Kabir Sene & le Groupe Sope Dabakh

Next up is an excerpt from a cassette by Cheikh Ahmed Tidiane Ngom, which features a funeral elegy for El Hajj Abdoul Aziz Sy. I haven't been able to learn anything about this artist.

Cheikh Ahmed Tidiane Ngom

The Qadriyya order, which was founded in the 12th century by Abdul Qadir Jilani, a native of the Iranian province of Gilan, is one of the oldest Sufi Brotherhoods in the world. The Qadriyya order was also one of the first to arrive in West Africa (Cheikh Ahmadu Bàmba's father was a Qadir marabout). This next cassette features Cheikh Bou Diop, a singer from the Qadir center of Ndiassane, a small town north of Thiès, which was established in 1884 by Cheikh Bou Kunta.

The religious songs of the Qadirs are accompanied by a group of kettledrums of different sizes called Tabalas. This group includes six singers and six percussionists.

Cheikh Bou Diop


This post draws on interviews with Cheikh Babou, Abdul Aziz Kébé, Ahmed Saloum Dieng, Kabir Sène, and Doudou Kende Mbaye. I thank them all for their generosity and help. Next up... Sufi sounds from Mali and Burkina Faso.