In the Footsteps of Omar ibn Said, a Muslim Slave from Fuuta Tooro

On July 19 and 20, 2022, the African and Middle Eastern Division (AMED) hosted a symposium, “Religious Practices, Transmission, and Literacies in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia.” The symposium featured the presentations of seven scholars who conducted two-week research residencies in the AMED Reading Room between June 1 and July 15, 2022. The residencies and symposium are part of the Exploring Challenging Conversations project generously funded by a planning grant from the Lilly Endowment, Inc. The purpose of the initiative was to enhance public awareness of cross-regional and intercultural religious understanding in Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, and their global diaspora. Dr. Mamarame Seck is a PhD holder in linguistics with concentration in discourse analysis. Among his research interests are the Wolof language and culture, Senegalese society and culture, Islamic discourses in West Africa and the functions of Sufi oral discourse in the practice of Islam in Senegal, in particular the socialization of the Sufi disciple and his relationship with the shaykh. Dr. Seck has published books and book chapters among which Youssou Ndour: A Cultural Icon and Leader in Social Advocacy (Peter Lang Publishers, 2020), Narratives as Muslim Practice in Senegal (Peter Lang Publishers 2013). He is also the author of an Intermediate Wolof textbook, Nanu Dègg Wolof, published with the National African Language Resource Center (NALRC) at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. After teaching at the University of North Carolina at Chapel for six years, Dr. Mamarame Seck joined IFAN (Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire) at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal, where he serves as researcher in the Département de Langues et Civilisation, precisely in the laboratory of linguistics. He is currently the curator of The Historical Museum of Senegal in Gorée. Dr. Seck’s current research focuses on the narrative about Omar Ibn Said, a Muslim slave from Fouta Toro, in the Senegal river valley. Abstract: This article has a dual purpose. First, it explores the origins of Muslim slave Omar ibn Said from in the Fuuta Toro as described in his autobiography, dated 1831, and in his other writings. Second, it poses the question of the sharing of Omar's heritage with the populations of Fuuta. Indeed, the autobiography of the Muslim slave Omar ibn Said was recently presented to the scientific community by the Library of Congress in the United States in 2017. The rediscovery of this fifteen-page manuscript, restoring biographical elements of Omar ibn Said, has attracted the interest of very different actors on both sides of the Atlantic. It would be the only manuscript, preserved in the United States, written in Ajami Arabic, by the hand of a slave, originating from the region of Fuuta Toro, in Senegal, in the 19th century. It provides information on the history of the transatlantic slave trade and slavery practices in Fuuta Tooro and the United States. It also reports on the religious, intellectual, and political history of the Middle Valley of the Senegal River. There are certainly works on the American trajectory of Omar ibn Said (Parramore 1973; 1974; Robinson 1973; Alryyes 2011; Sarr 2014). However, few studies have focused on his life before slavery, his intellectual journey, and the conditions of his captivity. In addition, there is also the question of the symbolic return of his complete unpublished work to Africa, to be shared with his people of origin. A ten-day trip to Fuuta Toro and beyond allowed us to show Omar’s manuscripts to Imams and Arabic and Pulaar speakers and translators and to conduct interviews with the goal to identify his home village. As a result, Coppe Mangay, a village located in Fuuta Toro, between the Senegal and Doue rivers was identified as the closest place to what Omar has described in his texts to be his hometown. This article will contribute to the enrichment of knowledge on the African origins of black Muslim slaves. In addition, it launches the debate on the sharing of former slaves’ heritage with the African continent with a view to the reconciliation of African Americans with the land of their ancestors. For transcript and more information, visit https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-10462