Amadou Bamba

Amadou Bamba (1853-1927) was a Senegalese Sufi religious leader and founder of the Mouride Brotherhood, one of the largest Sufi orders in West Africa. Known to his followers by titles including Serigne Touba, he preached a doctrine emphasizing disciplined work, nonviolence and devotion as paths to spiritual salvation, attracting a large following among Wolof peasants and former soldiers during a period of French colonial expansion in Senegal. Regarded by French colonial authorities as a potential threat, he was repeatedly exiled, including years spent in Gabon and Mauritania, experiences his followers came to regard as periods of miraculous trial. The holy city of Touba, which he founded, remains the spiritual center of the Mouride movement, and his life is commemorated annually by one of the largest religious pilgrimages in West Africa.