Medina Baay Research Association

Here are photographs of some of the woman muqaddams we interviewed in Dakar and in Kaolack. (For some of my observations about woman religious leaders, see this article.)

Medina Baay is a neighborhood on the northeast corner of Senegal’s peanut capital of Kawlax. Before being incorporated into the city, it was an independent village founded in 1930 by Baay Ñas and his disciples after they left the Ñas family’s headquarters of Lewna Ñaseen. It still almost has the feel of a village, with its red dirt roads predominantly Njolofeen population, most of whom are related to most of each other. This profile includes broader information about the city of Kawlax and its various neighborhoods. Of particular importance to the history of Medina Baay are four other neighborhoods: Lewna Ñaseen, founded in 1911 by Baay’s father, Maam Allaaji Abdulaay Ñas, and now constituting much of Kawlax’s city center; Medina Mbàbba, an area south of Medina Baay which was already inhabited by Séeréer-speaking Gelwaar when Baay Ñas arrived; Saam, an area West of Medina Baay that, although densely populated today, originally served as fields and orchards for the residents of Medina Baay; and Coofog, north of Saam, where the Gelwaar royalty who controlled the area lived.