Abstract
For many, Islamic hip-hop is a contradiction. Yet many prominent rappers in Senegal have joined the Fayḍa Tijāniyya Sufi movement and communicate religious messages through their music. Rappers have contributed significantly to the Fayḍa’s rising popularity among Dakar’s youth, popularizing the Fayḍa’s esoteric teachings through their lyrics. Although many Muslims reject hip-hop as un-Islamic, the mainstream of Fayḍa adherents and its learned leaders have embraced rappers as legitimate spokespeople for the movement. Scholars discussing change and debate in Islam have often emphasized discursive argumentation that refers to foundational texts, or “sharī c a reasoning.” This article examines four other modes of religious reasoning and demonstration that Fayḍa rappers use in addition to sharī c a reasoning to present themselves as legitimate representatives of Islam: (1) truths that transcend texts and discursive reasoning; (2) the greater good, which may apparently contravene some prescription; (3) divine inspiration and sanction, for example through dreams and mystical experiences that reveal a rapper’s mission and message; (4) and “performative apologetics,” or a demonstration of exemplary piety and knowledge such that a potentially controversial practice can be reconciled with one’s religious persona. The article focuses particularly on the case of the rapper Tarek Barham. As productive as Talal Asad’s widely accepted conceptualization of Islam as a “discursive tradition” has been, this article proposes understanding Islamic truth, authority, and experience as founded not just in discourse—especially in reference to foundational texts—but in multiple complementary principles of knowing and demonstrating.
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Notes
“Xam nga moom mooy sñ u rappeurs yi. Loolu la gaa yi di wax. Début bi dañ doon wax moom mooy sñ i dof yi. Baay dañ doon wax moom mooy sñ i dof yi. Paske ku xam Baay rekk, ku egg si Baay, li ñu njëkk a wax moo mooy, ‘daf, kii dafa dof! Ay ‘maay Yàlla’ ak yooyu lay wax—ay wax u dof lay wax. Li muy wax du wax u nit. Dëgg la ne du wax u nit. Maay Yàlla kan moo koy wax ku dul dof? Donc ñun duñ ay nit. Bokkuñook ñoom. Nit lañu si jëmm nii mais si mind bi duñ nit. . . . Buma génnee sama sound bu fekkee ne yaw danga gis ne li may wax ci Baay loolu dafa haraam, a, day haraam si yaw rekk. Waaye su fekkante ne yaw, yaang si jëriñu, dang si jëriñu rekk . . . . Xam nga? Mais man, jàppal ne mission la bu ma Yàlla sas, bu ma Baay sas, pur ma eggale ko mbindéef yi.”
Contemporary mballax founder Youssou Ndour’s 2004 album Egypt (released in Senegal as Sant Yàlla), a collaboration with Egyptian composer Fathi Salama and many Egyptian musicians, more explicitly discusses religious themes and praises founders of all Senegal’s major Sufi obediences. Yet importantly, the album is far from the frenetic mballax genre and has much more subdued instrumentation, including Middle Eastern instruments associated with religious music (see McLaughlin 2011).
An example of the latter is Simon Kouka, a Catholic by birth who converted to Islam in 2000 and was then introduced to Shaykh Mamour Insa by non-rapper friends.
“Yàlla-Yàlla” is the colloquial term for followers of Baay Faal Murid leader Shaykh Musā Cissé, nicknamed Njàmbe Daaru. He introduced a form of tarbiya since Baay’s time through his followers also report coming to “know God.”
In his extended discussion of this term, Gates (1989) distinguishes this African American vernacular term from its standard English homonym through capitalization and bracketing the (g), which is typically not pronounced.
Niang (2009, 67) mentions the numerological meaning behind this number as explained by members of Barham’s former group, Pinal Gang.
“Dafa mel ne yaw, yaw, ngay dugg si toilette nga ne toilette dafa am sobe. Doo fa tudde Yàlla. Doo ko wax bismillaah quoi. Nga ne doo fa tudde Yàlla. Walla nga dugg si toilette, def li ngay def ba pare nga ne alhamdulillaah. Xam nga, alhamdulillaah, tur u Yàlla la. Xam nga, ñu ne loolu dafa haraam. Waroo tudde Yàlla si fu am sobe. Pourtant, fu am sobe foofu eska Yàlla newul fa? Yàlla mu ngi fa! Bu fa nekkee kon war nañ ko tudd!”
“Ma ne ko lu tax duma dugal sama kurus si biir boite bi? Xanaa boite bi si biir boite bi Yàlla nekkul fa? . . . Ma ne ko kurus bi, ma ne ko man ak kurus bi kan moo gën? . . . Buñ la doon may Barhaam di la may kurus bi ban ngay jël? Entre nit ak kurus, booy jël? Xam nga, nit ngay jël. Paske Yàlla moom moo ne nit moom moo ko gënal lépp loo gis. Te man nit laa, maa ngi dugg ci boite bi.”
“Léegi, moom kan moo ko ne man sumay dugg ci biir boite bi man musique laay dégg? Xam nga sama nopp man maa ko moom, mm? . . . Kii mën na dégg musique, man ma dégg zikkar. . . . Man su may duggee si boite bi, ay zikkar laay dégg.”
“Buñ ne musique dafa ḥarām quoi. Musique mën na ḥarām su fekkee ne yaa ngi fécc di génne say taar.”
“Mais ñun suñu musique Baay lañ ciy wone. Dañ ciy jàngale—xam nga—ñëwleen ci waa ji ngir ngeen mën a jëriñu.”
“Tey jii nii suma sàmpoon sama micro taxaw fii man kese téye sama micro di yuuxu dañuy naan kii dafa dof. Mais suma tegee fi concert, teg sound yi, gaa yi ñëw, . . . donc lan moo lay attirer? Mooy sound bi. Ci sound bi laa leen mën a attirer pur wax leen dëgg.”
“Finalité bi, moom moo am importance.”
“Paske ñoom dañ naan 'haraam,' donc duñ fa dugg. Mais mën nga dugg ci boite de nuit, mën nga dem toog ci baar bi mais doo naan sàngara, doo, mais ñi fa nekk ngay jéem a récupérer nga indi leen ci foofu, pur ñu ñëw.”
“defar nit ñi” and “defar société bi.”
“Ñi ñiy déglu, ñoom amuñu temps ñuy dem ci sñ yi di leen déglu. Duñu dem ci jumaa yi. Duñu déglu ay waaraate. Donc ñi ñu mën a déglu mooy ñi nga xam ne ñoom, ñoom ñoo tolloo génération, ñoom ñoo bokk li ñuy def, ñoo bokk milieu buñuy buñuy fréquenter.”
“Dama leen di encourager parce que ay donneurs de leçons morales lañ.”
“Li ñuy jaamu Yàlla gi lañu bëgg a foowe.”
“Ñii buñ paree seen musique lañuy def.”
“Dama gëmoon ne man musique dafa harām.”
“Demal rabi. Yaw sa mission rab la.”
“Moment boobu noonu lépp leer na si man. Xam naa ne man, sama mission lii la.”
“Yaw si sa bopp yaw day leer si yaw. Mbir yi dang kay xam. Yaw day leer, du nit moo lay wax mais yaw si sa bopp.”
“Baay daf ñu yónni, jox ñu mission, pur ñu xamal jaam yi mbir yi lan la.”
“Gis naa mission bi nga ma yónni.”
There are many examples of this tendency from the writings of Shaykh Ibrahim. His magnum opus, Kāshif al-Ilbās (The Removal of Confusion) (Niasse 2010 [1932]), is a very early work directed to a broader Muslim and Sufi audience that responds to criticisms and aims to establish the conformity of his Sufi teachings with sharī c a, largely through citing a plethora of established scholars and Qurɔān and ḥadīth. His writings aimed at his own disciple community, especially his poetry, tend to assume acceptance of his Sufi teachings and rely far less on sharī c a reasoning (see, for example [Niasse] 1955, 1969, 1990).
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Hill, J. “Baay is the spiritual leader of the rappers”: performing Islamic reasoning in Senegalese Sufi hip-hop. Cont Islam 10, 267–287 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11562-016-0359-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11562-016-0359-1