Newsletter LeFaso.net COMMUNITY OF "BAREFOOT" OF BOBO-DIOULASSO: The soldiers of Islam land on the "Base Bilal"
During 2009, the Bobolais saw curious individuals with bare feet "appear" in their city. By their appearance, their austere and singular attire, they do not go unnoticed in the streets. Dressed in simple, very airy white or cream colored cotton fabrics, these small groups seem to assume a desired simplicity and backwardness. We tried to penetrate their hermetic universe and sought to better understand this brotherhood of "bare feet". Without a specific address to find them, you have to "spin" them to the western exit of Bobo-Dioulasso, somewhere in a wooded no man's land located between the villages of Matourkou, Koumi and Logofourousso.
To get there, the visitor must brave tall grass and sandy fields. The winding and very sandy path that leads there is only passable by motorcycle, bicycle or ideally on foot. The track leads to a perennial river in which water flows from nowhere. It is beyond this pond, in an environment where there is no suspicion of a living soul, that the "barefoot" have taken up residence, on a hill called "Base Bilal". Bilal being an Ethiopian, first muezzin of Islam and companion of the prophet Mohamed. The base is built mainly in banco, topped with straw and consists of a mosque without a minaret, a residence of the spiritual guide, a residence for the bride and groom, another for the unmarried. A white flag flies there with the inscription "God is unique" in Arabic. The mosque serves as a training center.
Inside, next to the Minbar (the Imam's preaching platform), are placed two large whips and a sword intended, we learned later, for the correction of all lawbreakers Islamic. We do not know what awaits us at Base Bilal, let alone the identity of our hosts. We are facing a dozen basic huts where poultry is the only sign of human presence. The women, reclusive in their hovels, took the courage to engage in a surreal dialogue with the reporting team. Keeping these reckless visitors at a safe distance, female voices rise from the houses to tell us that "the men are not there" in Dioula.
A lady dares to set foot outside, but stays on her doorstep to send the children, who had disappeared in the blink of an eye when we arrived, to warn the men in a nearby field. Our fears were dispelled when our first interlocutor, Ousmane Sy, recognized in us, the curious journalists who teased them one day during one of their visits to Bobo-Dioulasso. He will be joined by one of his co-religionists, Mamourou Traoré. Our T. AP (Techniques of Approach) seemed to have worked wonderfully. Nay? ! The good-natured atmosphere that had begun to settle between us and our guests fades with the arrival of a member of the brotherhood, named D. Siribié.
He’s an old man with a flowing, profuse beard, visibly annoyed by our presence. "No photos," he decreed bluntly.
Barefoot in the footsteps of Christ
The old man will first make sure that no images had been taken during his absence, before submitting himself to our questions. The three "Barefoot" accept without great difficulty to converse with us, under a makeshift shed, just to lift a corner of the veil on the Muslim community of "Barefoot" to which they belong, "after having followed the sermons of a guru” by the name of Abdramane Sylla. Supporting documents, the bearded old man explains that the Barefoot "are a unique component of the Islamic movement which identifies with the strict application of the glorious Koran and the Sunnah (Muslim tradition, the second source of Islamic law with the Koran) of the Prophet.
From their point of view, the Quran and the “purified practice” of the Sunnah are “unquestionably the luminous path that every Muslim must take to draw closer to Allah”. The simplicity of their lives, explains the bearded man, stems from the fact that according to the writings and other sources of history, great scholars and even prophets had to walk barefoot in their lives. He cites as examples the prophets Abraham, Issa Ibn Maryam (Jesus, son of Mary), Mohamed and Imam Malick. This act of walking “barefoot? informs the old man, often manifests itself by divine order. "Barefoot is an Islamic conception meaning for its followers, endurance, firm belief in Allah, daily jihad. It is the rejection of all material goods and all that can be a source of corruption.
It’s dominating your passions”, the old man will specify. Our interlocutors try to persuade us of the very opposite of the idea we have of them, that is to say a society that stubbornly refuses technology and progress. The simplicity of their way of life seemed to us humanly difficult to bear, and is clearly akin to unspeakable misery. On the contrary, giving the air of feeling sorry for our fate, they retort that “God designed man to a degree of perfection such that he does not need artifice to live” (sic?!). It is the cornerstone of the Barefoot philosophy which justifies, according to them, the refusal of any means of transport other than walking and the conveniences of the modern world, such as shoes, European clothing, White school. Do they all have one thing in common? : having abandoned religion (including ordinary Islam), family, friends, possessions and money to find oneself barefoot “without any ties other than God? ".
Between Sharia and the family
A member of the brotherhood, Saïdou Traoré tells us with a certain pride that he abandoned his moped before embracing the life of the Barefoot. He says he wouldn't take any other means of travel for anything in the world. With no other protection than a piece of cotton, their children do not yet know that they do not have a birth certificate and even risk having their hands cut off one day with the application of sharia, if they come to commit theft. The parents assure that the religious education they receive is sufficient for their earthly happiness. According to Mr. Traoré, "being barefoot" is far from being synonymous with a life in autarky, because many Muslims come from Bobo-Dioulasso every Friday to pray with them.
They are even convinced that other Muslims see in them “men of truth, authentic Muslims”. Indeed, the “Barefoot” community considers itself to be Mouharidjirounes, that is to say “the soldiers of Islam” as in the time of the Prophet Mohamed. It is they, supposed to be the best, who have adopted the immaculate white fabric called "Daliba". Their mission is to travel the world with the flag of Islam, the Koran, the whip and the sword to set up bases, prepare the world for the strict application of Sharia, the only condition for the advent of a world of peace.
Next to the soldiers of God, there are the "Ansars", that is to say the "sympathizers" of the "barefoot" community. These are responsible for welcoming the soldiers, helping them to settle and providing for their “natural needs”. The Bilal Base site was purchased by a Bobolais Barefoot sympathizer who requested anonymity. He is also an Ansar from the Barefoot community, said A. Traoré, who plays the role of general secretary of the sect. We found him on the Bilal base during one of his visits to the Grand Imam of “bare feet” for Burkina. He has a clear vision of the religious practice of the Barefoot. “We are taxed with having behaviors of fundamentalists, fundamentalists, but these are habits of the Prophet himself.
It is the back-to-the-source effort that some call radicalism. The “barefoot” advocates the oneness of God and the Sharia which modern Muslims do not want to hear about. Yet Sharia is the Koran, that's what God says. Radicalism aims to confront modernism which has divided Islam into several factions. There are so many injustices, murders without revenge that to remedy them, we must return to the source of Islam, ”said Mr. Traoré.
In tune with the madmen of God in Northern Mali
The occupants of the Bilal Base came either from neighboring Mali, from the province of Kénédougou, from Comoé and all met within the framework of their new religion. This cosmopolitanism is presented as a sign of openness. They also claim to be on good terms with the inhabitants of the neighboring villages of Samagan and Matourkou. Our interlocutors also deplore the interpretation deemed "ironic and profane" conveyed by their detractors who, according to them, are driven by the sole desire to discredit "barefoot". Indeed, groups of Muslim fanatics distinguished themselves during 2009 in the Hauts-Bassins region for acts of refusal of vaccination and destruction of a school in the village of Sokouraba.
The "barefoot" we met reject without much conviction these acts attributable, in their eyes, to other groups. They also specify that groups of "barefoot" people have been installed in the commune of N'Dorola, in Soungalodaga (a farming hamlet located in the future bed of the Samendéni dam), very recently in Ouagadougou in secondary bases and in Timbuktu in Mali where resides the spiritual guide of the "barefoot", Cheick Ibrahim Khalil Kanouté (see box). The guru's phone number will also be given to us to allow us to continue our investigations if necessary.
As for the news in the North of Mali, the "Barefoot" of Burkina reject any responsibility but consider "normal" the acts of destruction of the Islamists "with whom we share the same objectives". For the "barefoot", those who really want to follow the prophet Mohamed must necessarily apply the Sharia, the divine law which takes precedence over that of the modern world (the laws of the State). “There are crimes every day, we don’t talk about them. Why are crimes related to the application of Sharia considered inhumane? “Asks the secretary general of” barefoot “. He recalls in passing that Sharia has already been applied in Burkina Faso in 2011 on one of the "barefoot" bases in Samagan, the village which had hosted their biannual meeting. The emir of a base was publicly flogged on a Friday with 80 lashes for defaming the sect. The "bare feet" ensure that the sentence was pronounced fairly and carried out under the conditions provided for by Sharia.
The majority of Muslims in Bobo do not recognize themselves in the actions of the "barefoot". This is the case of Cheick El Hadj Ismaël Démé, Islamologist, specialist in Arab philosophy and adviser to the town hall of Bobo-Dioulasso in charge of relations with Arab countries. He says he respects the feet as human beings. Mr. Démé is in total religious disagreement with them because Islam, according to him, is a religion of peace, hygiene, love of neighbor, wisdom, tolerance. “No one can deny modernization, development, Islamic civilization. Barefoot people are mad or sick. And Muslims already have enough problems in this world, that we don't add crazy problems? “, decided El Hadj Ismaël Démé. Very categorical, the Islamologist declared that there is no link between “bare feet” and Islam.
Today, the "barefoot" recognize a small number of followers because, according to them, of the rigor of their practice. They would be 14 soldiers of Islam in Burkina Faso. Those of the "Base Bilal" have at their side, children from 8 to 10 years old. With no other plans in mind, these toddlers already have the talk of the apocalypse. Run in, they are already trying with unsuspected aggressiveness to convince the visitor of the vanity of material life and the price to pay: hell.
Mahamadi TIEGNA (camerlingue78@yahoo.fr)
The origins of a sect with a sulphurous reputation
Cheick Ibrahim Khalil Kanouté was born in 1965 in Kayes, Mali. Son of a postman, he did not benefit from a Koranic teacher. Enrolled in electricity at the Technical High School of Bamako, he came to doubt Western science and to be disgusted with the system. In 1984, he would have had a revelation in Bamako, where a voice would have ordered him to "get up and pray to the Lord". This is the beginning of his Islamic commitment which will be punctuated by long mediations, after having resigned from all social responsibility. He devotes himself to Sufism and undertakes to follow in the footsteps of the Prophet Mohamed. His popularity grows gradually and his disgust for the system too.
To the point of refusing jobs as policeman and accountant in a bank, and abandoning all modern equipment? : watch, radio, modern means of transport, source of instability for him in his spiritual ascent. He leaves his family and tries in Markacoungo, to form a society purely governed by Sharia. Then, he adopted a style of dress in accordance with his conviction of detachment from the material? : a daliba (hand-woven cotton), leather slippers, a stick. The "barefoot" style was born. His speech convinces during his travels and disciples, especially young people, swell the ranks of the "barefoot". His proselytizing activities boil down to preaching and destroying all visible forms of fetishism or other places of worship deemed satanic. Malians will remember "bare feet", the bloody episode of a confrontation which led to the death of a judge and 10 "bare feet" in 1998 in Dioila, 135 km from Bamako.
The spiritual guide of the community will be sentenced for this to life, following a trial in 2000, as well as his henchmen. He served his sentence in Timbuktu until the city was occupied last March by Islamist groups. He is then released. According to the latest news from the Bilal Base, their guide is on the way to Bamako.
M.T.Source: Divine Help
List of "barefoot" bases or camps in the sub-region
Bamako (Sas Siddy)Ségou (Al Farouk)Kayes (Zour Noureine)Sikasso (Sadja Bahr)Timbuktu (Saad Ibn Wagas)Mopti (Saad Ibn Malick)Kolikoro (Tal Hata Ibn Obeïda)Gao (Abderahiman Ibn Auf)Kidal ( Zou Beïr Ibn Awani)Tingréla in Ivory Coast (Zeïd Ibn Thabit)Bobo-Dioulasso in Burkina Faso (Base Bilal)Guinea-Conakry (Khalid Ibn Walid)
Mr. Source: Divine Help
Sidwaya
