The Char Bouba or the Marabout War took place between 1673 and 1678 in what is today Mauritania and Senegal. It was fought between two coalitions: one of Muslim groups led by marabouts and another of secular traditional rulers and lax Muslims. The former was led by the Lamtuna Imam Nasr ad-Din and included Sanhadja tribes, the Torodbe of Futa Toro, and the Muslims of the Wolof kingdoms of Waalo, Cayor, and Jolof. The latter brought together the Arab Banu Maghfar tribes, the Denianke of Futa Toro and the traditional aristocracies of the Wolof states, supported by the French.
While the marabout coalition was initially successful, overrunning many kingdoms of the Senegal River valley, after Nasr al-Din's death it lost steam and was eventually destroyed. The war had profound long-term consequences on the social and religious makeup of Mauritania and Senegambia. Despite the failure, the jihad and its survivors inspired a long series of religious wars across West Africa that would ultimately culminate in the Sokoto jihad and the Toucouleur Empire in the 19th century.
Name
Nasr al-Din's jihad is commonly known as the Char Bouba (variously transliterated as Sharr Bubba or Shurbuba), meaning 'Bouba's war', among Berber written sources. This name comes from an episode when the Muslim forces first demanded the zakat from Banu Maghfar tributaries, and a man named Bouba called for their help to resist this imposition. Char Bouba is most commonly used when studying the conflict from the Mauritanian perspective, whereas 'Marabout War' is more common in Senegal.
Contemporary European sources called it the Toubenan movement, meaning 'the penitents' in Wolof. The term Mauritanian Thirty Years' War is commonly used as well. This term, however, is derived from the work of the colonial-era French soldier and writer Paul Marty, who incorrectly believed that the conflict began in the 1640s. The 30-year timeframe is likely a poetic embellishment found in hagiographies of Nasr al-Din, or reflects the duration of the religious movement overall. The actual conflict, however, lasted only from 1673 to 1677 or shortly thereafter.
Background and causes
In the desert
The Sanhaja Berber tribal confederation had played a key role in the formation of the Almoravid dynasty, and as a result had experienced a period of strength and power. Following its defeat and disintegration, the Sanhaja were left divided and weak. The more aggressive and warlike of the clans dominated the smaller and weaker groups, demanding tribute. Having failed to preserve their independence, many weaker groups turned away from violence and instead devoted themselves to Islamic learning and piety. These groups became known as the Zawaya, or Maraboutic tribes. A relationship then formed between stronger warrior clans, who cared little for Islam, and the pious Zawaya.
Arab nomads known as the Banu Maghfar (part of the larger Beni Hassan coalition) arrived in the south-western Saharan region in the 15th century. Militarily powerful, they became key players in the political scene in the desert, extorting payment from Zawaya tribes in return for protection. Often, however, they were not able to deliver on their promises, as the powerful states of the Senegal River valley, especially the Denianke kingdom, frequently raided northwards and even brought the Lamtuna under their control. The Hassan and some of the more warlike Berber tribes were themselves often guilty of raiding and pillaging caravans, and so were seen as legitimate targets for jihad, even though they remained nominally Muslim.
Tensions may have been exacerbated by an economic crisis brought on by the 1659 establishment of the French trading post at Saint-Louis, at the mouth of the Senegal River. According to a thesis first put forward by Boubacar Barry, the Europeans were competing with the nomads for both slave labour and the cereals grown in the river valley, which underpinned much of the desert economy. Without easy access to these critical resources, Moor society entered a profound crisis. Other historians point out that the Saharan caravan trade, including slave caravans, remained strong into the 17th century. Instead they see the jihad as an attempt to unite the Black cultivators of the valley in an Islamic state under the leadership of the Berber clerics.
On the Senegal
Among the Wolof and Fula states of the Senegal River valley, the Atlantic slave trade had also engendered a profound social and political crisis. Wars became more frequent as the rulers of the Denianke kingdom, Waalo, Jolof and Cayor used the sale of captives to fund their increasingly powerful royal armies as well as their personal tastes for imported luxuries and alcohol. If a long period of peace threatened their bottom line, European slavers would often encourage or even bribe the rulers into starting a new war, giving them guns and powder upfront, and being repaid in slaves. If a foreign enemy could not be found, rulers often accused entire villages of disloyalty on flimsy pretexts and rounded up the inhabitants to be sold. Similarly, the legal system was corrupted, and enslavement became a standard punishment for minor crimes.
As the slave trade was tearing their societies apart, many Wolof and Fula were increasingly adopting Islam as a counterweight to the ruling class. The 16th century had seen a gradual transition where local marabout families, initially mostly Berber outsiders, naturalized and melted into the surrounding population. This class of Wolof Muslim leaders would play a major role in the Marabout War. In Futa Toro, the Torodbe class of native Muslim scholars had been around for centuries, and were generally oppressed by the ruling class. They were, however, numerous and influential among the population of the middle Senegal valley.
Beginnings
Awbek b. Ashfaga was a well-known Zawaya scholar and ascetic who gained a reputation for knowledge, saintliness, miracle cures, and clairvoyance. For three years he preached and built up a community of followers made up primarily of Zawaya but open to all believers, transcending ethnic and tribal divisions. He began calling for the formation of an Islamic state that would resemble the ideal society of the early Caliphs. He went by numerous self-appointed titles, such as Sayyiduna (our master), Imamuna (our Imam), and Mushi al-Din (he who spreads the faith), before finally settling on Nasr al-Din (protector of the faith). Nasr demanded the loyalty of all of the Zawaya, forcing every Zawaya leader to swear allegiance to him. His government was composed of himself, a vizier, and four qadis, and tasked itself with enforcing order in the southern Sudan, known as Qibla. Nasr set himself the goals of fighting those who he believed had neglected Islam and oppressed Muslims, uniting the various groups of the region in a single state, and creating a new and divinely-guided order.
As Nasr looked to expand his reach, he looked first to the states south of the Senegal River. The southern rulers frequently raided Zawaya communities and held many women and children as slaves; stopping the raids and freeing the captives was an important motivation. It also gave him the opportunity to gain control of a regional breadbasket, as well as the entrepôts for the gum trade along the Senegal, which could offset Hassaniya control of Portendick on the Saharan coast. The move also avoided a confrontation with powerful Hassani groups, many of whom were prepared to acknowledge his spiritual authority.
The kings of Senegambia, however, were prepared to do no such thing. Nasr sent emissaries and preachers to the court of the Silatigi Sire Sawa Laamu and other kings demanding that they more closely follow the tenets of Sharia law, restrict themselves to four wives, and stop pillaging and enslaving their own subjects. These entreaties, sent to rulers who already identified as Muslims, were ignored. In total seven messengers were sent to the Silatigi, but each time he refused to heed the call.
Course of the war
Jihad on the Senegal
In early 1673, Nasr and a small group of followers entered Futa Toro. Rather than confront the much larger Denianke army, they toured the countryside preaching toubenan (repentance), an end to slave raids and oppression, and a recommitment to the law of God. The message spread quickly among the Torodbe and the local peasantry, who flocked to the marabout banner, and the movement quickly became a revolution. Old power structures were torn down, and village assemblies appeared in their place. With the entire population rising against him, Sawa Laamu fled to Gajaaga with his family and closest followers. Within a month of their arrival, the marabouts were in control of Futa Toro.
With his army strengthened by Torodbe recruits, Nasr next moved against the Kingdom of Jolof. Al Fadel ibn Abu Yadel led the invasion, took Ouarkhokh, and a man named Suranko was, according to legend, miraculously cured of blindness and then enthroned as ruler.
In Cayor not only the populace but parts of the garmi ruling class rallied to the marabout cause. Yacine Bubu, the former lingeer, had been controversially removed from her position by the new Damel Decce Maram. Seeing an opportunity, she and her entourage converted, allied with the qadi Njaay Sall, and together they overthrew and killed the damel in battle, taking control of both Cayor and Baol. Yacine Bubu then prevented Sall from taking power and establishing a fully Islamic state, forcing him to accept the appointment of her nephew Mafaly Gueye as damel.
A marabout army made up of Wolof and Fula adherents marched on Waalo, the last kingdom still standing south of the river. Brak Fara Kumba Mbodj fought obstinately, twice defeating the Toubenan forces in the field, but finally his capital was besieged, and he was killed. He was replaced by Yerim Kode from a rival royal matriline, who was functionally a prisoner of his marabout entourage. Meanwhile in Cayor, the new Damel Mafaly Gueye strayed from the path of orthodoxy and was caught drinking alcohol by Muslim partisans. Njaay Sall attacked Lambaye, Mafaly's capital, and executed him after only six months on the throne.
The war expands, Nasr ad-Din's death
By late 1673, with his base firmly established south of the Senegal and his personal power at its peak, Nasr turned his attention to strengthening his Islamic state. In early 1674 he sent his brother Munir ad-Din to Saint Louis to negotiate with the French, looking to keep them out of the conflict and re-open trade on Muslim terms. The victories of the Toubenan movement had given them control over the entire Senegal River valley, blocking almost all French trade and bottling them up in their island stronghold. In particular, the marabouts' blanket refusal to sell Muslims to Christians as slaves struck at the heart of French commercial interests. Negotiations made little progress. The French commander De Muchins attempted to impress Munir ad-Din with the power of the king of France, but was powerless to enforce his commercial priorities on the ascendant and unified Islamic state that the marabouts were building. Foremost among these priorities was the resumption of the slave trade.
As negotiations dragged on, Nasr moved north across the river and tried to impose the zakat on the warrior tribes. They refused, saying that Nasr did not have the right to do so since he was not a Caliph. One of the tributaries of the Lamtuna, a man named Bubba, persuaded his chief to call on Haddi b. Ahmad b. Daman, the leader of the Trarza, to help resist Nasr ad-Din, resulting in the war being called Shurbubba. Negotiations between the Zawaya and the Banu Maghfar went nowhere, and war broke out. Sides were drawn on religious, not ethnic lines. Most Zwaya and a few Hassaniya supported Nasr. The Brakna allied with the Trarza, and some Zwaya tribes did not join the war at all.
The first battle of the Shurbubba was a successful raid by the Zwaya at Intuji. The second was at Jiwa, when some of the Manu Maghfar managed to make off with Zwaya livestock before being tracked down and defeated. The third and most pivotal battle was at Tirtilass. Again the Zwaya emerged victorious, but Nasr ad-Din and many of his closest companions were killed. The traditional date of Nasr's death is August, but more recent scholarship has argued that he must have been dead by May 1674 at the latest.