La Voie du Baye Fall: Photo Essay on the life of Sufi Muslims in Senegal

Here is the recent photo essay by photographer Fabrice Monteiro.

This body of work looks at faith, attire, rituals and trances through portraits and scenes from daily life. A way of life, the Baye Fall are Muslim Sufi of the Wolof world. Monteiro captures moments that punctuate the lives of these men and women, the Yaye Fall. These include ‘The Great Magal of Touba’, a pilgrimage commemorating founder Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba  exile in Gabon, and gives rise to a huge collective prayer on the beaches of Touba, and another occasion   ’The Gamou’ that celebrates the birth of the prophet. In these  photographs one can discover the principles governing the life of the Baye Fall community: their duty of offering as it relates to the practice of “Madial” and especially “jebellou” which is total submission to the marabout.