05/01/2025
Many Sufi poets of West Africa were charismatic, multilingual, multidisciplinary scholars, warriors and mystics who composed poetry in Arabic alongside local West African languages. Many were leaders in the fight against colonialism, and were also considered saints in their own time, renewers of the faith (mujaddids) and spiritual poles (qutbs) of their epoch.
Being able to write well in verse was seen as the sign of a scholar and it was used for everything from making teaching materials more memorable to writing letters, recording events and elegising those who had passed away.
Arabic poetry in West Africa was influenced by the poetic traditions of classical Arabic poetry from the Arabian peninsula and Andalusian poetic forms. It also drew from local oral African poetic and singing traditions, which were themselves in turn influenced by the Arabic poetry being recited and composed in the region.
Poetic virtuosity is highly regarded in West African traditions of writing verse, with challenging forms and rhyme schemes being adopted to display the poet’s skill, such as acrostic poems, internal rhyme schemes, and the mono-rhyme of the traditional qasidah ode. Much poetry also has a devotional aspect and includes prayers, quotes from the Quran and sunnah and stories from the Prophet’s lifetime, and is composed to be recited out loud rather than to just be read.
In the on-demand video on Sufi Poets of West Africa in our poetry membership, we delve into poetry by West African Sufi poets Uthman Dan Fodio, Nana Asma’u, Amadou Bamba and Ibrahim Niasse, also exploring the influence of West African devotional and poetic traditions on the development of the Blues and Gospel singing.
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