The followers of the Baye Fall aren’t your typical Muslims. They show their devotion a bit differently: with dreadlocks and reggae.
Often, members of the Baye Fall are confused for Rastafarians.
“They both have very positive vibes, which is why they look alike — the Baye Fall and the Rasta” concedes Mamadou Lamine Seck, a follower and the lead singer in Gustou Band.
“But we don’t have the same prophet. I don’t believe in Rasta, but I appreciate Rasta.”
The Baye Fall sect is little more than a century old, and was born out of Senegal’s second largest city: Touba. Touba itself was founded in the late 19th-century by the creator of the Mouride Brotherhood — a branch of the Sufi order of Islam. In fact, Baye Fall’s founder, Sheikh Ibrahima Fall, was said to be one of the brotherhood’s fiercest disciples.
Aside from the physical look of Baye Fall followers, the sect is also notable for the value it places on hard work.
“Ibrahima Fall realized and decreed that working is better than fasting and praying. That is the principle we are all still following right up to this day,” says Serigne Abdoul Aziz Fall — a Baye Fall religious chief and grandson to the founder.