Ahmadou Bamba Mbacke also known to followers as Khādimu 'al-Rasūl or "The Servant of the Messenger" and Serigne Touba or "Sheikh of Tuubaa", was a Sufi saint and religious leader in Senegal and the founder of the large Mouride Brotherhood.
Born in 1853 (year 1272 of the Hegira), in Mbacke Baol, a small village in Senegal founded by his grandfather, Cheikh Ahmadou Ibn Mouhammad Ibn Habib Allah, affectionately called by his compatriots Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba became one of the most prestigious son of the Muslim community.

The Servant of the Messenger was a Sufi saint a (Wali) a religious leader in Senegal and the founder of the large Murid Brotherhood (the Muridiyya).He produced poems and tracts on meditation, rituals, work, and Quranic study. He led a pacifist struggle against the French colonial empire  who took him into exile for 7 years.

An exile from which he came back to Senegal triumphant and full of divine glory

The historical context in which Sheikh Ahmadu Bamba came to earth
 
​Towards the end of the 18th century, they had some success. In 1776 the Theocratic Revolution triumphed in Fouta-Toro. The failures noted in Kajoor and Bawol did not deter them from resuming the struggle in the 19th century.
The Waalo knew in 1825 a marabout uprising which was short-lived. In 1859 the marabouts of Ndiambour were hardly any happier in their attempt to overthrow royalty. However Ahmadou Cheikhou of Wouro Mahdiyou managed, between 1869 and 1875, to create an autonomous entity in Fouta. In 1860 Maba Diakhou created the theocracy of Rip. Thus, the objective of the marabouts was the Islamization of society. They were very sensitive to the distortions between the dispositions of Islamic society and the conduct of political leaders. They had noticed that the notions of equality, fraternity between believers, the values ​​of fidelity, justice and solidarity had become dead letters. The Muslims were hampered in their undertakings by the French conquest. France was determined to destroy all forms of resistance in order to be able to proceed immediately to the exploitation of the country's resources. The intrusion of France was for everyone a destructive contact. Under its technical pressure, the local civilization collapsed. The natives lost the ability to develop independently in the face of the conqueror's desire to found the country according to his principles.
For their part, the Muslims, possessing a great capacity for organization, strove to bring together believers under the same idea, the same feeling, in order to make them an enterprising force with a view to the establishment of a truly Islamic. Between these two forces which disputed the control of consciences no compromise was a priori conceivable. Each of the camps portrayed its adversary in a very unflattering way. The colonial authority, which had come up against the hostility of the Muslims everywhere, decided to fight Islam with extreme severity. Mage, Carrère, Paul Holle, Archinard advocated effective measures against the peril of Islam1. Carrère and Holle called Islam idolatry, contrary to all truth. The suppression of his cult was even proposed as a legitimate aim of French policy. In their eyes, any policy of tolerance towards it made any progress of Catholicism in this country impossible. These comments were only prejudices that had nothing to do with the truth. Indeed it is indisputable that Islam has raised the moral sense and the intelligence of the peoples that it has torn from their local religions. The abolition of the idols of Mecca was the glory of Muhammad. On each page the Koran insists on the dogma of the Oneness of Allah. On the other hand, intemperance and alcoholism, which were at the origin of the degeneration of certain African populations, found in Islam their most effective brake. The Europeans, who denied this religion any moral sense, had not failed to flood a large part of Africa with wines and liquors of very poor quality which shortened the lives of those who consumed them. Wherever it had triumphed, Islam had abolished cannibalism, prohibited the massacre of populations, distributed instruction and moral education in order to give men the fullness of their dignity. In this indictment drawn up against Islam to justify repression, fatalism was pointed out as a barrier which prevented Muslims from gaining access to progress. This disposition of the soul should not be interpreted literally. The prophetic tradition teaches that we must work as if we were never to die and pray as if we were to die very soon. The Muslim city in the eyes of the Prophet Muhammad can only be harmonious if all Muslims know both how to pray there unceasingly and devote themselves unceasingly with zeal to temporal activities. At this price they will have the capacity to increase their authentic spiritual values ​​with even the possibility of increasing them with the help of the neighbor. If, unfortunately, success does not crown the enterprise, the Muslim is always able to meet the defeat with "a noble resignation"4 by accepting to bow before the will of Allah. However, it is clear that Islam is a religion as exclusive as Christianity. With him one does not serve two masters at the same time. The marabouts, sensing the competition that this religion would bring them, imported by the conquerors, could only compete with it. On the military level, with the defeat of all the aristocracies, they endeavored to transfer the struggle to the underground domain, inaccessible to the invader. Islam was interpreted in the sense of combat. He then became the embodiment of the no of all those who had real or imaginary grievances against French authority.

Why the Sheikh was sent into Exile from Gabon

Taking advantage of complaints from traditional chiefs, as well as marabouts jealous of Mouride success, the colonial administration found the pretext it lacked to arrest the man it had already designated as "suspect" since 1889: a mission was sent to Baol to proceed in this way to his arrest on August 10, 1895