Because of this, the situatedness of the Diakhanke within remote areas would not be enough to shield them from turmoil. In Bundu, they would find themselves in a more tumultuous situation owing to the state powers being warring clans of Fulanis and Soninkes (nee: Serekhule) that were aiming to establish their foothold on power. In Mali, the Diakhanke had largely been autonomous owing to their particular location as well as the reverence that local Mandinke and Soninke rulers had towards them. The villages that they would found were numerous, and this included those founded the Diaby-Gassama (Saffali), the Sylla (Bani Israel), the Diakhite-Kaba (Jeylani/Toumboura), and the Drammeh (Gunjiour). The choice was both pragmatic, in terms of its closeness to their home origin, as well as deliberate, in that Bundu’s remoteness protected the Diakhanke from the turmoil involved in the breakdown of century-old empires and from intervention within state affairs.

Owing to that, they began to found villages in the deep wilderness of Bundu – a region that sits in modern-day Senegal but remains highly inaccessible even to this day. The breakdown of the Mali Empire and the Songhay Empire in the 15th and 16th centuries meant that the stability that the Diakhanke had experienced for almost 300 years was untenable. After 200 years of continuous living in Bambu Diakha, the effects of external pressures as well as the difficulties of maintaining a single harmonious society began to cause migration south towards Senegal’s oriental region of Bundu. The Diakhanke, within these universal and Muhammadan patterns, were no different. In this article, I explore how the tumultuousness of the 1600s and 1700s began with extreme difficulty for the Diakhanke but eventually resulted in what a tajdid (revival) and tashrih (expansion) of their values in the Western lands of West Africa. This is indicated by another Prophetic narration that highlights the arrival of a mujadid (renewer) at the head of every century to renew the faith, courage and strength of the Muslims.

Within that ultimate trajectory, there are ebbs and flows, downturns and rejuvenations. This is true in people, nations and even his own religious communities. In a Prophetic narration brought forward by Sidi Ahmed Al Hashimi, the Messenger (SAWS) is reported as saying “It is an obligation upon Allah that whatever He raises, he brings down”.

Karamba diaby gassama