Paper short abstract:

The aim of this paper is to reflect about the changing political role of Sufi marabouts of Senegal and the impact they still have in elections and processes of social movilization within a dominant-party system.

Paper long abstract:

Marabouts, Sufi Islamic leaders have been present in West Africa since the XIth century. They have played a particularly central role in the construction of the Senegalese nation-state since its colonial inception substituting traditional Wolof chiefs as middlemen in the political system imposed by the French.

Though the relationship and the political-economic entanglements between Sufi leaders and the politicians that gave birth to the Senegalese one-party postcolonial state have always been central features of the political culture of this country, this relationship has evolved over time.

From early mutual distrust between marabouts and French colonizers at the end of the XIXth century, the relationship has evolved in the postcolonial period to a relation mainly of cooperation and exchange of different kind of services. Symbolic reciprocal legitimation of the authority of the State and political mobilization of society in favor of the former, are the two main functions marabouts have provided to national politicians.

Nevertheless, since the process of liberalization of the one-party system begun in the 1980s and democratization of the regime went under way, the role of marabouts has changed in the dominant-party era. No longer able to openly support politicians, they still represent powerful material and spiritual brokers that give an overall legitimacy to the political process.

The aim of this paper is to assess the political role marabouts still play in Senegal's current dominant party system and the impact they have on a highly religious Islamic society during electoral processes.