Harlem’s West African community, ‘Little Senegal,’ honors legacy of mystic
Once a year, Harlem‘s small, but fast-growing West African community, “Little Senegal” or “Little Africa” as the residents call their blocks of W. 116th St., makes its presence known with no shortage of pomp and circumstance.
Last week, Little Senegal residents took to the streets celebrating the 23rd Annual Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Mbacke Cultural Week. Dressed in full-length robes called Boubous – the men in front adorned in rich reds, browns and blues and the women in the back in dazzling white.
Residents marched through Central Harlem chanting in French, Arabic and Wolof to honor the late Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba.
“He is the spiritual representation of everyone all living together, living in peace,” said Khady Gueye of Harlem.
Bamba was a Senegalese spiritual leader and mystic who founded the Mouride Brotherhood, a large Islamic Sufi sect.
According to the 137th St. Murid Islamic Community in America, most of Harlem’s Senegalese community follow Bamba’s teaching of hard work and nonviolence.
“When others were fleeing Harlem, couldn’t leave fast enough, [the Senegalese] came, they stayed, they worked and provided some sense of stability and community action,” said Bill Perkins (D-Harlem). “They are the unsung heroes of the Harlem Renaissance.”
Aissatou Ndao, 48, head of the women’s division of the Senegalese Association of America, has lived in Harlem since 1986 and estimated the community has grown from a handful of residents in the early 1980s, to nearly 10,000 today.
“I’m proud to be a Mouride,” said Ndao. “This is the largest Mouride community outside of Senegal.”
When she first came to the city, Ndao – pregnant and with a 3-year-old still in Senegal – helped her husband sell hats, scarves and gloves on the street.
“It was difficult to be in this community at first,” she said. “For people to get to know you and accept you takes time. People didn’t understand us, our language, our relgion, our culture, why we were here.”
Ndao knew just 10 Senegalese women in Harlem and, together, they formed the foundations of Little Senegal, which grew every year.
“Before, we were afraid to dress like this,” said Ndao, pointing to her Boubou. “I go everywhere like this now. This is who I am.”
For Ndao, her five children and many of the residents of Little Senegal, the freedom to express pride in their heritage, as they did in the march, is a privilege.
“We had to fight hard to make it this way,” she said. “We have been killed, discriminated against, but we come together, and we stick together. That is our fight. That is how we built this community.”
BY Laignee Barron
DAILY NEWS WRITER