Graphite on paper. “The Marabout and the baobab.”
The marabout presents an important figure in West African Muslim cultures, particularly in Senegal and Mali. Known as a shayk in Arabic or a pir in Persian, the marabout is an individual with spiritual authority in Muslim societies. The marabout figure is said to possess esoteric knowledge and descends from the lineage of Mohammad. The term marabout is derived from the word murabit, which describes one who joined himself [to God] and murid, meaning disciple [1].
I found learning about the marabouts interesting because they represented how although certain communities undergo ideological conversion, they may still retain their culture and original worldview. While the marabout has an ideological concept of Islam, the ‘converts’ may not. For example, we discussed Ahmadu Bamba (d. 1927), the shayk of Touba, Senegal, and contemporary marabouts and how people often are convinced to convert to Islam based on the marabout’s spiritual prowess. In Aminata Sow Fall’s Beggar’s Strike, the marabout figure has a lot of power and charisma, and Mour Ndiaye, the public official, often came to the marabout for advice. The story demonstrated how people in this community also often based their own interpretations about religion on the marabout (Fall, 1979).
In this drawing, I drew a marabout standing next to a tree that may or may not be haunted. The marabout is walking away from the viewer with his arms half-raised, indicating he could be expelling the evil spirit form the tree, but he may also be simply raising his arms to adjust his boubou, a traditional outer robe worn by men in West Africa.
[1] From lecture notes, March 8, 2016
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