Mbacké (Mbàkke in Wolof) is a city and urban commune in central

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

, located east of

Dakar Dakar ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Senegal, largest city of Senegal. The Departments of Senegal, department of Dakar has a population of 1,278,469, and the population of the Dakar metropolitan area was at 4.0 mill ...

. It is the capital of an administrative department in the Diourbel region. Along with the nearby city of Touba, Mbacké forms an urban

conurbation A conurbation is a region consisting of a number of metropolises, cities, large towns, and other urban areas which, through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban or industrially developed area. In most ...

whose population currently stands at 1,222,275, making it Senegal's second largest agglomeration. It is connected to

and Touba by the N3 road.

History

Mbacké, also known as Mbacké-Baol, was founded in the sparsely populated wilderness of Eastern Baol in 1796 by Mame Maram Muhammad al-Khayri (d. 1802), great-grandfather of Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Mbacké. Mame Maram was a reputed Muslim jurisconsult. He received the land grant to establish Mbacké from the king of Baol, Amari Ngoné Ndella Fall, who was also king of neighboring Cayor. During the first half of 19th century Mbacké was a well-known center of

Islamic Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

learning. It was destroyed by Maba Diakhou Ba, the Tijani jihadist from the Rip, in 1865 and the Mbacké family, including the young Ahmadou Bamba, was forced to join Maba's court in Nioro. Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba returned to Mbacké in 1884 when he embarked upon his spiritual career. Due to the pressure of his growing following of disciples, Bamba soon moved away from the town, settling first in Darou Salam (now a suburb of Mbacké) and then in Touba, further to the north-east. A spur of the Dakar-Niger railway was built to Mbacké in 1931, at which point the French colonial authorities laid out an "escale" neighborhood by the train station. A variety of businesses: wholesalers and traders, then opened shop. In 1952, Mbacké was raised to the rank of "commune" (equivalent to limited municipal status) and in 1958 it became the seat of an administrative subdivision (later called a "department"). Its population at that time was approximately 7000. The phenomenal growth of near-by Touba began to impact developments in Mbacké in the 1970s. Many of its commercial establishments, including bank branches, relocated to the autonomous holy city of the Mourides, where taxation and real-estate are more favorable. However, as Mbacké lies beyond Touba's sacred precincts, it fulfills certain auxiliary functions, such as public administration and secular entertainment, forbidden in that holy city.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mbacke Populated places in Diourbel region Communes of Senegal Populated places established in 1796 Diourbel region 1796 establishments in Africa