Beyond African Orality

Abstract This book offers the first English translation and interpretation of sixty Wolof ʿAjamī poems (Wolof written with an enriched form of the Arabic script) by Sëriñ Mbay Jaxate (c. 1876–1947), a follower of the Senegalese Murīdiyya Sufi order founded by Shaykh Ahmadu Bamba Mbàkke (1853–1927). Sëriñ Mbay Jaxate was one of the greatest Sufi poets of Africa. As a wise moralist and an astute social critic, he kept a sharp eye on his compatriots and the unfolding historical, cultural, and religious transformations in his society. His poems focused on praising the virtues of his Sufi master, Shaykh Ahmadu Bamba, and fostering the pursuit of spiritual and moral excellence in his society, which he construed as the best investment to achieve success in this life and Paradise in the hereafter. His ʿAjamī poems capture every facet of rural Wolof farming communities of his time. To communicate more effectively with his agrarian audiences, he deployed numerous metaphors drawn from the local fauna, flora, livestock, farming activities, planting and harvesting seasons, sports such as wrestling and target shooting, hunting, culinary habits, and the climate. Unlike his Muslim colleagues, who often code-switched between classical Arabic and the local lingua franca (Wolof) and included Qur’anic or Arabic liturgical quotations in their poems, Sëriñ Mbay Jaxate opted to minimize Arabic structures in his work, preferring rural Wolof words for more efficient communication with his African audiences. His work demonstrates how ʿAjamī has served as a key literary medium and source of knowledge in Muslim Africa.