West African Sufi : The Religious Heritage and Spiritual Search of Cerno Bokar Saalif Taal

Louis Brenner illuminates forgotten struggles and shows the path towards meaning that one man chose to take.

"Anndude anndaa yo woni anndal manngal. [The greatest knowledge is to know one does not know.]" These words were spoken by Cerno Bokar, a contemplative Muslim mystic and teacher from what is now the Republic of Mali. Cerno Bokar was a devout Muslim who devoted his life to acquiring a deeper understanding of Islam, and to searching for what he considered to be the universal truths that reside at the core of all religions, a search that was marked by ceaseless and persistent questioning. But toward the end of his life the personal religious commitment of this humble and tolerant man was challenged, and he became the victim of destructive political tensions then raging in colonial French West Africa. He spent the final months of his life under virtual house arrest, banned from the local mosque, his school closed, and his Sufi disciples dispersed, a systematic oppression that hastened his death in 1940. West African Sufi documents the evolution of this tragic crisis, but more important, it evokes Cerno Bokar's personal engagement with Islam and Islamic mysticism in his own words and describes in rich detail the religious and cultural milieu that shaped this engagement.