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The Next Generation-In Praise of Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba

In 2018, I set out to cover the side of Islam that celebrates the humanity of its culture, dispelling the notion of terroristic acts associated with the Islamic community. This led me to Harlem’s annual summer celebration of the Senegalese spiritual leader, Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba, known as “The Servant of the Messenger.”

In 1887, he established the city of Touba in Senegal, forming Mouridism, a religion for worshiping Allah. Every summer in Harlem, New York City, he is remembered with an early morning community breakfast, a gathering of worshippers on 116^th Street and a march up Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard (7^th Avenue) to the Harlem State Office Building on 125^th and 7^th Avenue.

I noticed these three beautiful young ladies patiently waiting at 116^th Street and 7^th Avenue for the community breakfast and march to begin. Wrapped in white clothing their beautiful black faces yelled, “Black is Beautiful, too beautiful for words.”

In 2019, this body of work won me my second BRIO Award (Bronx Recognizes Its Own).