The Passport to Paradise gallery highlights the bold, visual images found all over Dakar by focusing upon the urban visual culture of the Mourides, a Senegalese Sufi movement centered upon the life and teachings of a local saint named Sheikh Amadou Bamba.

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A Banner by Assane Dione Shows Bamba Superimposed with the Minaret of Touba
Description: A banner by Assane Dione shows Bamba superimposed with the minaret of Touba, a symbol of the mosque. Bamba’s celestial forehead and peaked turban represent the mosque’s dome while the minaret alludes to Lamp Falls’ critical role in the propagation of the Mouride movement.
Publication Date: Publication Date Unknown
A reproduction of the photograph of Amadou Bamba
Description: A reproduction of the photograph of Amadou Bamba in a Dakar shop, blessing the business and its owners.
Publication Date: January 1, 1997
Amadou Bamba Standing Behind the Great Mosque of Touba.
Description: An anonymous artist’s wall painting portrays Amadou Bamba standing behind the Great Mosque of Touba. The divine curve of the central dome is reflected in the shape of the Saint’s turban and the blue background of the painting, while the tall “Lamp Fall” minaret underscores that Bamba is the spiritual axis of the Mouride world.
Publication Date: January 1, 1994
Amadou Bamba praying on the waters
Description: The most important event that is collectively remembered and recounted by contemporary Mourides is the miracle of Sheikh Amadou Bamba praying on the waters. Different glass painters have rendered the scene in their own way, but always emphasizing the colonials watching from the ship as the Saint rises from his prayer rug, surrounded by fish who have come to receive benediction.
Publication Date: Publication Date Unknown
Announcement of the Magal
Description: Announcement of the Magal (pilgrimage) to the tomb of Mame Diarra Bousso (the mother of Sheikh Amadou Bamba) in the rural town of Porokhane. A model of the tomb is shown on the left of the folded announcement, while Mame Diarra is seen stalwartly holding up the fence in reference to a famous story of her brave loyalty to her husband, in an image on the right that is lifted from an unsigned wall painting on the outer wall of the Éts. Porokhane shop of Madame Aida Ndiaye Baba Lô.

The tomb of Sokhna Maïmouna Mbacké, youngest and last surviving daughter of Amadou Bamba, is under construction in the holy city of Touba shortly after her death in 1999. Lying just adjacent to the Great Mosque where her father lies in rest, the tomb receives its own pilgrims.
Publication Date: December 1, 1999
Announcement of the Magal (pilgrimage) to the Tomb of Mame Diarra Bousso (the mother of Sheikh Amadou Bamba)
Description: Announcement of the Magal (pilgrimage) to the tomb of Mame Diarra Bousso (the mother of Sheikh Amadou Bamba) in the rural town of Porokhane. A model of the tomb is shown on the left of the folded announcement, while Mame Diarra is seen stalwartly holding up the fence in reference to a famous story of her brave loyalty to her husband, in an image on the right that is lifted from an unsigned wall painting on the outer wall of the Éts. Porokhane shop of Madame Aida Ndiaye Baba Lô.
Publication Date: Publication Date Unknown
Glass Painting Portraying a Baye Fall Follower
Description: Glass painting by Mor Gueye (or his studio) portraying a Baye Fall follower of Sheikh Ibra Fall wearing an talismanic portrait of Amadou Bamba and holding a hir club. Baye Falls often wear patchwork clothing and dedicate their lives to Amadou Bamba’s phenomenology of hard work as a form of prayer.
Publication Date: Publication Date Unknown
Glass Painting Stands Where Images of the Saint are Purchased
Description: Glass painting stands can be found throughout urban Dakar, where the images are purchased primarily by tourists but also by Senegalese. While these colorful displays include comic book depictions and other generic tourist themes, such as beautiful Senegalese women, birds, and brightly painted car rapides, they almost always also carry several images of Sheikh Amadou Bamba, Sheikh Ibra Fall, and other leaders of the Mourides and other Senegalese Sufi movements.
Publication Date: January 1, 2001
Glass Painting of Two Women in a Room with a Photo of the Saint
Description: Mouride women often lead very pious lives, and even in relaxed moments, images of Amadou Bamba bless them. In this glass painting, a woman is depicted having her hair arranged into one of the attractive coiffures for which Senegalese women are so justly famous. The stylist’s room is humble, yet graced by a portrait of Amadou Bamba on the wall. Incense burns, talismans hang from hooks, and a trunk full of clothing is hidden under the bed. The client relaxes and fans herself while chewing on a toothbrush stick and listening to the transister radio on the floor beside her.
Publication Date: Publication Date Unknown
Glass Painting of the Saint
Description: This glass painting by Gora Mbengue from 1986 represents a very particular painting style. The large body of work by this artist demonstrates Mbengue’s commitment to documenting the life of Amadou Bamba.
Publication Date: Publication Date Unknown
Glass Painting of the Saint on a Horse
Description: The current dean of Senegalese glass painting is Mor Gueye, an ardent Baye Fall who documents Mouride history. Mor Gueye considers himself to be an historian and recounts the trials and deeds of Amadou Bamba through his paintings of the Saint. Of this painting he states, The Saint received a letter from God in the form of a triangle, and it was delivered by the Angel Gabriel. After reading the letter, the colonials came to arrest him. This was in Djawol (Mor Gueye).
Publication Date: Publication Date Unknown
Gorée Island
Description: Gorée Island lies just off the shore from Dakar, and is fraught with colonial history. The infamous “Slave House” of Gorée has emerged as a symbol of suffering and is a pilgrimage site visited by many cultural tourists.
Publication Date: Publication Date Unknown
Image of Bamba on a Tree in a Market Place
Description: Description Unknown
Publication Date: January 1, 1994
Image of Saint in a Doorway
Description: Paintings of the Saint are very often positioned next to doorways or other kinds of thresholds, a reference to Bamba’s role as a gateway to divinity
Publication Date: Publication Date Unknown
Images of Sheikh Amadou Bamba in Multiple Media
Description: Images of Sheikh Amadou Bamba in multiple media, including plastic, wood, copper, glass, and plaster-of-Paris, showing how a single image of the Saint derived from a 1913 photograph has been reproduced in an astonishing variety of materials and formats.
Publication Date: Publication Date Unknown
Interior of The Great Mosque of Touba
Description: Visual effects within the Great Mosque of Touba are stunning. Moroccan-style tile, stucco, and painting create an environment of spiritual intensity. Columns and arches within the Great Mosque of Touba are repeated in celestial harmonies.
Publication Date: January 1, 2001
Interior of The Great Mosque of Touba
Description: Repeated visual themes create a sense of infinite peace within the Great Mosque of Touba.
Publication Date: January 1, 1996
Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana Flanked by Coumba Galwo
Description: In this panel from the Bel-Air factory mural, Papisto Boy shows Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana, flanked by Coumba Galwo, a well-known Senegalese recording artist. The term “SET” refers to an urban rehabilitation movement of the late 1980s, of which Papisto was an active proponent. Coumba Galwo is embraced by the staircase and gazes pensively at the “Door of No Return” of the infamous Slave House of Gorée Island. Nkrumah receives a triangular message from God carried by Archangel Gabriel in the form of a dove, while rural dwellings on the right of the image reveal a haunting visage looking toward Nkrumah. “Aïda Souka” is the name of a short film by Mansour Sora Wade (1992), named for the beads that many Senegalese women wear around their waists as an alluring accoutrement. The ram staring at the beautiful woman so identified is an allusion to erotic attraction.
Publication Date: January 1, 1997
Léopold Sédar Senghor (1906-2002) and Pythagorus
Description: In this narrative panel from his Bel-Air factory mural, Papisto Boy portrays Léopold Sédar Senghor (1906-2002) and Pythagorus. “This is Leopold Sedar Senghor. Why did I paint him here? Because he is a great person, and has many accomplishments at the French Academy. He is known everywhere in the world,” Papisto Boy said. Written allusion is made to Senghor’s poem “African Night,” and the image of Pythagorus is from Papisto’s imagining of a Greek coin. Papisto’s signature style is to position one image next to another in an overlapping format, or to show figures in circular insets. Whereas Papisto always has his own reasons for his juxtapositions, his visual tactic allows viewers to make associations and intellectual linkages through surrealist “ironic collage.”
Publication Date: January 1, 1996
Man Sitting Under Photograph of Bamba Blessing Home
Description: The photograph has found its way into Mouride enclaves around the world. Here it blesses the home of a Mouride man in Lomé, Togo.
Publication Date: January 1, 2000
Mouride Woman Singing
Description: Very few Mouride women are visual artists, but many excel as vocalists. Here a young woman named Seynabou Ndiaye stands to lead the devotional singing of a group of women and children on the enclosed rooftop of an apartment building in Grand Dakar. She holds one hand over her ear to hear her pitch, and the other before her mouth like a microphone.
Publication Date: January 1, 2001
Mural of Che Guevara
Description: Papisto Boy paints many portraits in his Belaire factory mural, but Che Guevara and Bob Marley appear more often than any of his other heroes. “Che was a great leader. Art has no boundaries so he, too, must be on this wall. This wall is for the whole world, and Che is not the only one here. There are many prominent figures from America. I have painted a fish over his forehead because Che is like a swordfish – strong, athletic, and agile.”
Publication Date: January 1, 1999
Mural of Former U.S. President Bill Clinton
Description: Papisto Boy stands before a detail of his Bel-Air factory mural depicting former U.S. President Bill Clinton. Clinton is portrayed twice in Papisto’s mural, this time commemorating the president’s visit to Dakar in 1998. The picture is superimposed over an earlier visual narrative of warships with a still-visible message that those lost in war are not forgotten. Here Papisto points to eggs in the nest of an eagle, a sign of U.S. strength and promise.
Publication Date: January 1, 1999
Mural of Former U.S. President George Bush
Description: This scene from the Bel-Air factory mural of Papisto Boy depicts former U.S. President George Bush. The image is a visual monument to fallen Senegalese soldiers of the Gulf War dubbed “the Hares” (Diambar or Djomboor) for their wiliness in battle. That a predominantly Islamic African country like Senegal should send soldiers to the Gulf War is a strong indication of the republic’s independent stance in world politics. A closed book entitled The Seven Secrets of George Bush floats next to Mr. Bush. When asked what these secrets might be, Papisto laughed and responded, “How should I know? They’re secret!”
Publication Date: January 1, 1998
Mural of Jesus Christ and Pope John Paul II
Description: This narrative panel from the Bel-Air factory mural of Papisto Boy portrays Jesus Christ and Pope John Paul II. “Jesus is next to the Pope because this is faith. One must have faith in order not to create wars. It is very important to paint people of all religions. Why? Because we have been called to open peoples’ eyes. I painted Pope John Paul II during the Gulf Wars. He wanted to talk to the world to say, ‘We should stop these wars.’”
Publication Date: January 1, 1998
Mural of Late Rastafarian Vocalist, Bob Marley
Description: A detail from the Bel-Air factory mural of Papisto Boy portrays the late Rastafarian vocalist Bob Marley wearing the talismanic necklace of a Baye Fall and the image of Sheikh Ibra Fall, as though Marley were a Baye Fall disciple of the latter.
Publication Date: January 1, 2001
Mural of Malcom X
Description: Here Papisto Boy portrays a deeply reflective Malcolm X. A bleeding Africa is seared with the poem, “I heard a cry, I heard a cry coming from a far off land, ‘Save my child!” Archangel Gabriel (in the form of a dove) brings a letter from God to Malcolm X, and a red rose (?) suggests the artist’s devotion to the man’s messages of dignity. Just visible to the right are the upraised fist of Nelson Mandela and a black panther (see fig. 3.11). To the left of Malcolm X (not seen in this image) are details of one of the curving staircases and the “Door of No Return” of the Slave House of Gorée Island.
Publication Date: January 1, 1999
Mural of Osama bin Laden Next to the Falling World Trade Center
Description: In this detail from his Bel-Air factory mural, Papisto Boy depicts Osama bin Laden next to the falling towers of the World Trade Center. “Blood in the mountain” is written above the image in reference to the tragedy of September 11th, 2001, while a finger points at bin Laden in condemnation. Papisto explains: “I put this here as a historical document. We know that bin Laden is an evil-doer, and that he is crazy. He pretends otherwise, but here in Senegal, we do not accept that. We know perfectly well that he has done damage all over the world. Here in Senegal, they staged a reunion with presidents from many different countries, fourteen of them [this a reference to an anti-terrorism conference called by President Abdoulaye Wade]. There were big personalities, they spoke of this on radio, on television, and there were a lot of people. Why? Because people here do not accept him [bin Laden]. His idea is not good for Africans. His people have a lot of money, but they do not help us. They build mosques, but they should be giving money to Africa for food or for medical care. Or they could be building maternities and hospitals. They are not doing that. They make money and buy weapons to make violence. The hand means that he is guilty. This is not a person who tells the truth. I put a serpent in the image because serpents are very, very, very provocative. The serpent is ready to attack.”
Publication Date: December 1, 2001
Mural of The Late Thomas Sankara
Description: The late Thomas Sankara is depicted in this detail from the Bel-Air factory mural of Papisto Boy. “This is the President of Burkina Faso, Thomas Sankara. He, too, was a great man. He was a revolutionary, and there is a book about him.” When Thomas Sankara seized the presidency of the Republic of Upper Volta, he Africanized his country as Burkina Faso, a name suggesting renewed dignity and self-reliance. Sankara’s progressive politics put him at odds with many, and he was assassinated in a counter coup. The portrait of Sankara is painted over a text about the travails of Senegalese who grow up in foreign countries. For his mural, Papisto writes, “You’re always among us, Sankara.” Below this a haiku-like poem reads, “A stag belled in the moonlight and shed hot tears.”
Publication Date: January 1, 1999
Mural on Exterior Factory Wall
Description: Mouride artist Pape Mamadou Samb (better known as “Papisto Boy”) paints on exterior factory walls in Bel-Air, an industrial neighborhood of the port of Dakar. Through his devotional works, Papisto hopes to educate people about Amadou Bamba. In so doing, he brings the world to Bel-Air, for he calls upon a panoply of global freedom fighters, heroes of resistance, revolutionaries, and “messengers” of the Saint. This narrative detail from the Bel-Air mural depicts Sheikhs Ibra Fall and Amadou Bamba. As Papisto explains, “To start my paintings, my murals, I begin with Sheikh Ibra Fall. He is the secretary, the closest friend of Sheikh Amadou Bamba, the great Holy Man. Just like the bird which brings him the message from Allah, it is saying that you [Lamp Fall] will stay with Amadou Bamba, and you will work with and for Amadou Bamba. When he was not saying his prayers, his work was his prayer.”
Publication Date: January 1, 1999
Narrative Scene of Bamba's Family
Description: In this narrative scene from his Bel-Air factory mural, Papisto Boy depicts members of the family of Sheikh Amadou Bamba. Papisto Boy enjoys discussing the images with local and expatriate passersby. Of this painting, he explained, “This is the family who have worked for Mouridism. Here we have the Holy Man, Sheikh Amadou Bamba and next to him are his sons. This is the moment when Amadou Bamba was praying on the sea, and his disciple Ibra Fall was saying to Amadou Bamba, ‘The work you do, we know that tomorrow it will be something.’ On the left is Sheikh Falilou Mbacké, the second son of the Holy Man. On the right is Serigne Moustafa Mbacké, the first son who succeeded the Holy Man as Caliph. In the center is the existing Caliph of Touba, Serigne Saliou.” Also seen (from left to right) are the Kaaba of Makkah, the ship of Bamba’s exile to Gabon in 1895, a spirit incorporating the dreadlocks and talisman of a Baye Fall, and a map of Africa in which the Saint it shown calming aggressive jinns in the miracle of Wir-Wir.
Publication Date: January 1, 1999
One of the Doors to the Great Mosque of Touba
Description: One of the doors to the Great Mosque of Touba brings those entering through a threshold of prayer. Above their heads, a mandala bears sixteen points in four colors, in possible reference to a khatem mystical device referring to the house of God.
Publication Date: January 1, 2001
Orange Painting of Amadou Bamba
Description: Although it is painted orange, and it is somewhat stylized, this image faithfully reproduces some aspects of the 1913 photograph while beginning to depart from it. The artist has added a Qur’an in one of Bamba’s hand which is revealed.
Publication Date: January 1, 1996
Painting of Bamba in Doorway
Description: Paintings of the Saint are very often positioned next to doorways or other kinds of thresholds, a reference to Bamba’s role as a gateway to divinity.
Publication Date: Publication Date Unknown
Painting of Bamba on the Door to a Restaurant
Description: A painting of Bamba on the door to a restaurant shows how the artist has “improved” on the 1913 photograph by indicating that Bamba did in fact have a second foot, but that it is partially cast is shadow.
Publication Date: January 1, 1994
Papisto Boy Standing in Front of his Mural of Bob Marley
Description: Papisto Boy standing in front of his portrait of Bob Marley in the Bel-Air factory mural. Papisto feels that Marley is a “messenger” of Amadou Bamba whose inspiration “passed through music,” and the artist’s attention borders on a reverence witnessed among many Mourides. Men devoted to Lamp Fall are called Baye Falls, and their dreadlocks are an obvious point of convergence with images of Rastafarians. Indeed, tourists often mistake Baye Falls for Rastas. In this portrait entitled “The Fruit of the Year 2000,” Marley’s face is framed by the shape of a mango and conveys millenarian hope that the future will be as blessedly bounteous as the words emerging from the singer’s lips, that turn into five-franc coins.
Publication Date: January 1, 1999
Photograph of Bamba in a Car Rapides
Description: Images of the Saint based on the 1913 photograph are placed in the windshields of car rapides, the colorful urban taxi buses of Dakar, and other vehicles of public transport. Sometimes the images are photocopies of the photograph, and other times, as here, they are painted renditions of the photo. It is thought that the image of the Saint blesses and protects those who travel under his watchful gaze.
Publication Date: January 1, 1995
Plaster Paque Showing Bamba as if Poised Between Two Worlds
Description: Plaster plaque showing Bamba as if poised between two worlds, with his form rendered in low relief. In the plaster plaque shown in fig. 1.1, a teapot placed next to the Saint’s feet is a reference to the daily ablutions that are among the five pillars of Islam.
Publication Date: Publication Date Unknown
Poster Announcing the National Week of the Senegalese Woman
Description: Poster announcing the National Week of the Senegalese Woman sponsored by the Senegalese Ministry of the Family and National Solidarity from March 30th to April 7th, 2001. A depiction of Mame Diarra Bousso (mother of Sheikh Amadou Bamba) is taken from a lithograph of a painting signed “Wade” that is sold at the Éts. Porokhane shop of Madame Aida Ndiaye Baba Lô. The poster reads “Virtues and Values of the Godmother, Economic Involvement of Women” while a lower caption explains that the “Godmother” is Sokhna Mame Diarra Bousso” (written in Wolof orthography).
Publication Date: June 1, 2001
Relief Image of Bamba on a Wall
Description: Although three-dimensional images of the Saint are forbidden, sometimes artists will push the limits by having Bamba emerge from a wall in relief, as if he were stepping out of the shadow itself.
Publication Date: January 1, 1996
Telephone Center with a Mural of the Saint
Description: A telephone center in Bel-Air that has been painted by Papisto Boy with portraits of the Saint, the Great Mosque of Touba, and Lamp Fall. Papisto has cleverly transformed an air conditioner protruding from the side of the small building into an image of the Kaaba of Makkah.
Publication Date: January 1, 2001
The Great Mosque of Touba
Description: The Great Mosque of Touba is one of the largest and its central minaret perhaps the tallest of sub-Saharan Africa. Touba. This detail of the Great Mosque shows the top of the minaret named for Sheikh Ibra Fall.
Publication Date: January 1, 2001
The Only Known Photograph of Sheikh Ibra Fall
Description: The only known photograph of Sheikh Ibra Fall was published by Paul Marty in 1917, in the same volume in which the 1913 photograph of Amadou Bamba appears. Mourides understand the holy man’s dark robe to signify his dedication to hard physical labor in the name of the Saint. This lithograph copies the original photograph, and is used in devotions.
Publication Date: January 1, 1917
The only known photograph of Amadou Bamba
Description: The only known photograph of Amadou Bamba was taken in 1913 while he was under house arrest by the colonials in Djourbel, Senegal. Although the negative can no longer be found, the photograph has taken on a life of its own. It is reproduced all over Senegal and the diaspora, and has been the visual catalyst for an explosion of artistic imagery during the past twenty years. This photograph was taken from the microfilm of the book that the photograph was first published in
Publication Date: January 1, 1917
Transparent Image of Bamba's Head on a City Wall
Description: The image of the Saint is sometimes rendered transparently on city walls to appear like an apparition. Other images become weathered through time, increasing their mystery and batin (hidden side).
Publication Date: January 1, 1995
Transparent Image of Saint on City Wall
Description: Description Unknown
Publication Date: January 1, 1995
Unknown
Description: ...unknown...
Publication Date: Publication Date Unknown
Wall Painting Depicting Sheikhs Amadou Bamba and Ibra Fall
Description: Description Unknown
Publication Date: January 1, 1996
Young Man Singing with a Chorus
Description: A young man named Modou Kara Ngom sings the lead while women and children provide a chorus during devotional singing on the enclosed rooftop of an apartment building in Grand Dakar.
Publication Date: January 1, 2001

Sampling from L'Institut Fondemental d'Afrique Noire (IFAN)

Phil Curtin Collection

Collection Boubacar Barry

Collection Charles Becker: Recherches et documents sur le Sida

Photographs from “Passport to Paradise’: Sufi Arts of Senegal and Beyond

Mosques of Bondoukou

Futa Toro, Senegal and Mauritania

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