culture learning! magal to Touba

This week Ngay was busy! We have a road that goes through the 3 largest towns in Senegal, and 4 of the 5 largest. So it’s not uncommon to see traffic on this road. However, this week we saw traffic especially heavy. The reason being was the annual magal to Touba. This is a time that many Muslims get to go and pay homage to their leader. And with no further ado, here is Professor Roy to explain more about these pilgrimages.

Thank you, thank you! Yes, what an amazing history this has become. I am amazed at the amount of people that you see traveling the road to Touba each year. And my curiosity gets the best of me in these situations. So I wanted to, as best I can, talk about the what, why, and how of this celebration. I’m borrowing a few things from wikipedia, and thank the writers for collecting these facts.

First, let’s review what we know about the Islamic faith. Muslims are followers of Muhammad, who believe in God, Allah, as the one true God. They do not believe in the Trinity, therefore do not believe in salvation through faith in Jesus. They believe one can only get to heaven by doing good works and earning favor with God. And they do these good works called the 5 pillars.

-God is supreme. God alone is worthy of worship; and Muhammad is his messenger.
-5 daily ritual prayers. Often you see Muslims praying 5 times daily. To do this, they have a series of bows they perform as they recite verses from the Koran and face east toward Mecca.
-giving of alms. Muslims often will give to the poor and less fortunate.
-fasting during the month of Rhamadan.
-the hajj or annual pilgrimage to Mecca.

The hajj is what we’ll focus most of our attention on during this lesson. In Mecca, pilgrims will arrive at the mosque, circle the Kaaba (a cube-like structure in the center) 7 times counter clockwise, kiss the black stone (believed to be the last remaining part of the mosque originally built by Abraham), drink water from the Zamzan well (this was discovered by Hagar when she went searching for water for her son, Ishmael), and run between the hills nearby (where Hagar performed her search). After this they will throw stones to signify stoning the devil, and then sacrifice a lamb symbolic of the sacrifice that Abraham made with Issac (whom they think was Ishmael).

But those of you that study geography know that Mecca is not in Africa, and certainly not in Senegal. So how on earth can the hajj be in a city 2 hours from where I live? Great question! To answer that, we have to go a little deeper.

Senegal has 4 brotherhoods of Muslim believers. Each one is unique in it's strict beliefs, but they all adhere to the 5 pillars of the Islamic faith. The brotherhoods are:
-the Xaadir, founded in Baghdad
-the Tijaniyyah, founded in Morocco (Tijan for short)
-the Layene, which are centered in Dakar, Senegal’s capital city (pronounced like ‘lion’)
-and the Mourides, whom are the richest and have the most Senegalese followers.

The Mourides are the ones who call Touba their home. They have a very nice mosque there, and have their hajj this weekend, the 15th. I’m not sure why of all dates they celebrate this time of the year. That will be homework for me for later!

The Mouride brotherhood allows the pilgrimage to Touba to take the place of the pilgrimage to Mecca for those that cannot afford such a trip. As close as the city is to Mekhe, nearly everyone in the city takes the trip to give alms to the leader of the mosque, pray, and offer a sacrifice.


I am very amazed at the architectural structure of the large mosques in the world. Mosques have a varying number of minarets. These are those tall tower-like objects within the mosques that you seen around. I am sure that all large mosques have at least one. I see some smaller mosques without any. Originally these were designed to be able to look over all the city. The call to prayer urging followers to come to the mosque to pray was first uttered atop this structure; today the call to prayer is uttered on speakers. It is usually the tallest structure in the city. The tallest known minaret is in Casablanca, at over 210 meters! That’s a 70 story building’s height! The grand mosque in Mecca has 9 minarets. The grand mosque in Touba has 5. The minaret also provides natural air flow. As the domes are heated inside the mosque, the hot air rises and is released through the openings of the minaret.

Often times you’ll find the wealth of the city is poured into beautifying these mosques. When you get a chance, have a look at some of the pictures of mosques from around the world.

I found this interesting: In Mecca they have the huge mosque there, the Masjid al-Haram. Inside that mosque is a large square called a Kaaba. This Kaaba, it is said, was first built by angels, then Adam, and finally it was built anew by Abraham and his son (by Hagar) Ishmael. Legend has it that Hagar and Ishmael searched for water in this area and found the spring that still has abundant water in the area. Muslims see this site as very holy. When Muslims pray, they face this Kaaba. The 4 corners of the Kaaba are pretty close to the 4 cardinal directions on a compass. Inside contains Arabic script of the Koran.

Hopefully you found this information interesting. There’s certainly more to know, and perhaps this whets your appetite. Questions, comments, please write!