By Simba Jama

WE have since been looking at the black Israelites of West Africa.
To this day, some of them observe Mosaic dietary laws such as not eating pork and the slaughtering of beasts by the neck. They also observe festivals which correspond with the likes of Passover and Feast of Harvests.
Because Islam once thrived in that region and to a large extent still does, some of the cultural practices of these West Africans are often confused with being Islamic.
Islam is a way of life which some term a religion. It literally means ‘submission’ to the will of Allah.
The Israelite identity is not religious, but is something to do with genes.
It is a tribe of people whose lineage goes back to a man called Israel (Jacob).
Through exposure to Western propaganda, most Africans associate Islam with Arabs.
We do not realise that even Muhammad the prophet of Islam was a full blooded black man from the tribe of Ishmael, the first son of Abraham.
We know from the Bible that Ishmael’s mother Hagar was a black Egyptian and she later found Ishmael an Egyptian wife.
Most of Muhammad’s teachings are to do with how mankind was created from black clay, in the image of Allah. Muhammad’s parents died when he was young and he was raised by Ethiopian guardians.
He was also in constant personal contact with the Israelites of the land of Saba (Sheba) which was in neighbouring Yemen. The Ishmaelites and the West Africans (Israelites) were eventually known as the Moors in Europe.
Both have a common ancestry in their forefather Abraham.
Most of the Arabs, who are not black are simply coloured people who kept mixing among each other and thus they have no standard shade of skin colour.
The Middle East is in-between the black land of Africa and the white land of Europe and thus the existence of the mixed race in that area.
Currently, in North Africa and Arabian lands we find blacks applying gel to their hair so as to look less African and more Arabic.
This is because of an inferiority complex which has its roots in our colonial experience.
Because people of mixed race are lighter in complexion than the average African, whites ranked Arabs higher than black Africans on the social scale.
This is what is known as racial profiling.
It should be understood, however, that there is no particular relationship between the Islamic religion and being an Arab.
The Moslem most of the people in our country know is an Arab man or woman with long robes and, in the case of a woman, with a covered face.
In West Africa there are followers of Islam called the Murid, who present a different face.
‘Murid’ is Arabic for ‘one who desires’ and it signifies a disciple of a spiritual guide.
They are mostly found in Senegal and Gambia but their strain of Islam has spread to the Diasporas of Europe and America through emigration.
Upon first glance one would think they are Rastafarians because most of them wear dreadlocks and keep unshaved beards. Yet the Murid movement began long before the man called Ras Tafari was even born.
The founder was Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Mbakke (1853–1927) and he was also affectionately known as Khadīmu ‘l-Rasūl (Servant of the messenger).
He was a mystic and religious leader who produced a large quantity of poems and writings on meditation, rituals, work, and the Qur’an.
The Murid brotherhood was founded in 1883 in Touba of Senegal, a place which would later become a religious site of pilgrimage for the Muriyyads (followers) after the death of Ahmadou Bamba.
He was a scholar at Timbuktu and wrote over 66 books in Arabic.
He became a legend and a symbol of liberation at a time when Senegal was facing colonial oppression.
His form of fighting foreign domination was largely spiritual and for Zimbabweans, he can be identified with the likes of Mbuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi.
For the people of Islam and West Africa, such was this black sage who in Zimbabwe would be known as Mhondoro.
He taught people to emulate the Prophets of the Quran and the Scriptures.
Teaching them to value work and that one should reap what they sow.
Even in today’s Senegal, if one runs into a dreadlocked man in rags offering work for food, he is probably a Murid.
The French were the ones who colonised Senegal and through written testimony, some of the powers of Cheikh Bamba and the effectiveness of his movement are confirmed.
Although non-violent, he taught black liberation and submission to none, but Allah.
This made him a constant threat in the mind of the colonisers for there was no one more influential among the blacks of Senegal and Gambia at that time.
If he wanted to, Bamba could successfully lead a war against them.
Thus at one point he was sent into exile in Gabon for over seven years.
Among the several stories of his miraculous works during this forced exile are:
On the ship to Gabon, forbidden from praying, Bamba is said to have broken his leg-irons, leapt overboard into the ocean and prayed on a prayer rug that appeared on the surface of the water.
In a den of hungry lions, the lions slept beside him, etc.
He led a spiritual struggle against the colonial powers and although he did not wage outright war on them, he taught what he called the jihād al-’akbar or ‘greater struggle’, which was fought, not through weapons, but through learning and fear of Allah (Mwari).
He is remembered as a Mujjadid (renewer) of Islam and has more than four million disciples in Senegal alone today.
They are known for their industriousness and good manners. Their characteristics are very much similar to Rastafarians, particularly the Murids that are known as the Baye Fall.
Sheikh Ibrahima Fall (1855–1930) was a disciple of Cheikh Bamba.
Baye Fall means Baba Fall and he would eventually be called Lamp Fall for he became the light of the way of Murid.
To the Murid, he is the perfect example of a disciple.
Fall reshaped the relationship between Talibes (disciples) and their guide.
He also instituted the culture of work among Murids.
He learnt the Quran at an early age and the turning point of his life was when he met Sheikh Bamba.
He left all he was doing and went under Bamba’s guidance.
Fall achieved major Arabic sciences such as theology, grammar and rhetoric.
He too was a mystic and had a reputation for ferocity and extraordinary strength.
In Baye Fall’s writings, he refers to the whites (tubab) as the devils and he is said to have had a lot of hidden knowledge which can be seen in works like his Arabic book, Jazbul Murid.
Fall along with Bamba, wore matted dreadlocks and smoked what the Senegalese call pone.
The two are well respected and have become important spiritual figures in Islam and West Africa.
They were Islamic mystics yet their tales are as indigenous as Chaminuka’s.