During Ramadan, Senegal's Baye Fall community lives to serve through iftar meals

Each Ramadan, members of Senegal’s Baye Fall gather in their holy city of Touba to cook and distribute Iftar meals.

Thousands of followers of a unique Senegalese Muslim community, the Baye Fall, worked with electric fervour on a recent morning preparing iftar meals for breaking the Ramadan fast, even though they themselves were not fasting.

Unlike other Muslims, the Baye Fall for the most part neither pray nor fast, despite the two practices falling under the five pillars of Islam.

Distinguished by their striking appearance, members of the religious group wear dreadlocks, multi-coloured patchwork outfits and numerous accessories believed to have mystical powers.

In Senegal, which is about 95 percent Muslim, most followers of Islam belong to one of four Sufi brotherhoods: the Mouride, Tidiane, Layene or Khadre, all of which play a major role in society.

Every Ramadan the Baye Fall, who are Mourides, organise festivities in Touba, a city in central Senegal that is their capital, distributing iftar meals with thousands flocking from across the country to participate.

Spiritual acts

A vast courtyard and surrounding area teemed with people and motion on a March morning, despite stifling dust and heat.

Organised into groups and adorned in their emblematic attire, the Baye Fall worked with devotion, as firewood smoke and the aroma of food drifted.

Men and women, old and young helped with slaughtering livestock, preparing food, chopping firewood, collecting garbage and washing dishes.

Bayefallism came about more than a century ago and is based on the practices and life of Mame Cheikh Ibrahima Fall (1855-1930), known as "Lamp Fall" ("Light Fall" in English), who was one of the first disciples of the founder of Mouridism, Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba.

Hard work, selflessness and repeatedly invoking God's name, as well as serving iftar meals to the faithful, are the foundations of the faith, Abo Fall, one of Lamp Fall's descendants, told AFP.

Baye Fall literally means "disciple de Fall."

It is a "mystical Sufi Islam where every task, every duty performed represents a spiritual act," said Doudou Mane Diouf, who authored a biography about Fall.

Since its inception, Bayefallism has attracted many people not just in Senegal but also abroad.

According to accounts and contemporary testimonies, Fall dedicated his life to serving his marabout, or spiritual guide, and neglected his own well-being.

His followers say he refused all forms of pleasure, never styled his hair and never changed his clothes, which he regularly mended with scraps of fabric, hence the dreadlocks and patchwork outfits by his followers.

His appearance was also a means of "asserting his African culture" in a context marked by colonisation, Diouf told AFP.

'Quite unique'

Adam Khadim, born and raised in France in a Senegalese Baye Fall family, recently moved to Senegal in order to better live by his faith.

Bayefallism gives him a feeling of "well-being" he said, even though it is a "rather difficult path because there are many more moral obligations than rights."

As the time approached to transport the food to the home of the Mouride caliph general, where it would be distributed, the excitement intensified.

A group began chanting religious songs in unison, the volume growing louder and drowning out all surrounding noise. Their faces sweating, some people even seemed to be in a trance.

Cheikh Ibra Fall Baye Dieye, one of the Baye Fall adherents present for the festivities, said these sorts of moments "replace fasting."

They are "therefore very important" he said, dressed in a yellow and black patchwork tunic. "We reconnect with ourselves."

Becoming a Baye Fall requires adhering to certain rules, such as pledging allegiance to one's marabout and following his instructions. Individuals must agree to undergo spiritual training with the marabout.

In Touba the Baye Fall play a central role during major religious events that often draw millions of people: they manage security and cleanliness in the city, prepare meals and organise fundraising drives.

They are also known for being experienced farmers and promoting an environmentally friendly lifestyle.

Despite all this they are often misunderstood in Senegal and subject to criticism because of their different approach.

"We are quite unique in our practices and that can create some confusion and misunderstanding," said Khadim, while assuring the differences are ones with which he is nonetheless comfortable.