In school we are taught to admire the Latin, the Greek, and the Hebrew. And we are also taught to despise Africans. African-American culture has been wiped away from them. We don’t know our ancestors. Chinese people love China. Indian people love India but if you tell an African people, to go back to Africa, their homeland, they will strongly disagree. I used to be the same way until I visited Africa and when I went to Africa, I was really amazed. I have never seen in my entire life a land so beautiful and their beaches, I recommend that place if you love to travel. It’s also my first time to see people with my skin, police officer, judges loving me and happy to see me. I went to Africa for two months and it was the greatest experience I ever had.
According to Frederick Douglass, “I didn’t know that I was a slave until I found out I couldn’t do the things I wanted.” This system that we are in was set up to keep us as slaves that’s why people from Africa don’t want to comeback in their homeland because of miseducation but the educated once are there, they are investing on Africa and getting richer.
Our book review is all about “Servant of the Messenger” by Khadimu Rasul. The exciting thing about this book is that the author is Shaykh Ahmadou Bamba’s grandson and I had actually the pleasure to meet the author so I’m so excited.
Shaykh Ahmadou Bamba is one of the greatest spiritual leader that Senegal has ever seen. When he was a kid, his mother never spent a night with him. When the night comes, a white light will come and get him and will bring him back in the morning. And when he was a little boy, he has some magical powers. One day, he and his mom needs to get a water from a 50 foot well and when the bucket fell and the rope fell down, he told his mom: “don’t worry mom, don’t tell this to anyone.” He imagined that he can pull the bucket up for them and they got the bucket filled with water.
At nine years old, his sister was stolen, was kidnapped to slavery and then killed. His grandfather was murdered while praying. During that time, slavery was very difficult for them, the French was murdering the villagers and burning the villages down. They are also stealing cows, and everything that can be stolen. Bamba, came from a family of educators and not warriors. And what was special about him is that he fought the French with peace and love. And everywhere he went, he would build a school and he will educate people. And all other Sheikhs got jealous of that and went and told the French. So the French summoned him to court six or seven times and he wouldn’t show up. He finally showed up and the first thing he did when he went to court was he made a lot, he made two rockers and the judge was upset, they said “don’t come in my court disrespecting us what are you doing. You can’t pray here.”
Shaykh Amadou Bamba replied, “I serve one God and I don’t serve you guys.”
So the french judge told him, “you need to salute our flag.” He said, “I’m not saluting the flag.”
The judge said “you need to salute our flag.”
He said, “listen if I salute that flag, that would be the beginning and the demise of the French Colonist.”
He said, “okay you don’t have to salute it.”
But they knew he was going to be troubled so that’s when they banned him to Gaban for eight years. They starved a lion for three days and then put him in the room with the lion. After three days, they opened the door and the lion jumped out and started eating them alive. And Sheikh Amadou Bamba was in there praying. These are the miracles he was able to create. Because of what happened, they took him on a ship. They took a raging bull and it toured rage. It ran towards him and the angel took and put it up in the air. While he was on this ship they told him listen it’s time to pray and we know that you’re not gonna miss prayer time and you can’t disrespect us by praying so what are you gonna do so what he did was he took his prayer and went out on the ocean and in the ocean was all the millions of slaves went through. There, all the slaves are dead. They held him up because he was praying for their souls and when he got it from prayer you could see the sand on him. And when the slave ships would come and get them from Goree island and take them to where their destination, sharks would follow the boats and just eat because they would throw humans off the boats. And the sharks would just follow him and eat the people up so Sheikh Amadou Bamba was bulletproof, he was fireproof, and what I love about it is when the French would witness these miracles, they would start asking the sheikh to pray for them and they would start serving him. He wrote seven tons of poems, meditation, and he just wrote so much.
I’ve actually been to Tuba, the city he discovered in 1888 and I actually was able to see the library of all the miraculous works, and the writings he did. And another thing just like Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Shiekh Ahmadou Bamba was able to stop slavery in Senegal by non-violence. They sent him to Gaban for five years, most people that were sent there, they wound up getting killed and they couldn’t live off of the land because it was too treacherous. So when after eight years and he came back and people couldn’t believe he was still alive and because of that, people that followed him tripled in numbers. So the expectation that the French had was the opposite. People start loving him more and start following him more and the French just couldn’t believe that he kept living every time they tried to murder him.
They threw him inside of a fire but he stayed in that fire for three days. His mom had to go in there and get him out the fire and said, “Sheikh, your people need you.” He replied, most of my followers will not speak (wall..(can’t exactly hear this word))
Sheikh Amadou Bamba has so many amazing prophecies. I recommend you guys you to get this book. You just won’t believe how amazing his life was.
Holy City, the only thing in tuba is mosque schools. It’s just as soon as you enter Tuba, you can feel the love. I’ve actually been there. I’ve had the pleasure of being there and thank God and if you guys get the chance to visit, please visit Senegal and you will love it. It will change your life.
What I love about Sheikh Amadou Bamba is he believed in the power of writing. The sword wasn’t his weapon the pen was. That’s how he was able to defeat the French and another thing about him is that I absolutely love that his heart forgave and he let stuff go he said, “the greatest battle we will ever have in life is against ourselves. How hard is it for us to pray on time. Sometimes how hard is it for us to give charity, how hard is it for us to do the right thing.” He said that’s the greatest battle you will ever fight it’s against yourself and he was right. Our greatest enemy is ourselves.