The pilgrimage must go on: Senegal holds festival that could draw millions

All roads to the holy city of Touba were bumper-to-bumper. Buses packed with pilgrims inched along, their roofs piled high with foam mattresses. Tollbooth attendants smiled in greeting and held out ungloved hands for change, all day long.

Many people wore masks. Many did not.

Huge throngs of people travelled in recent days to Touba, 120 miles west of Senegal’s capital of Dakar, for West Africa’s largest religious gathering — the Magal — which commemorates the exile of a Muslim spiritual leader.

It is expected to be one of the biggest events to be held anywhere in the world since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. In a typical year, as many as 4 million or 5 million attend the Magal, though no estimates were yet available this year.

The leader of the Mourides, the Muslim sect that organises the event, issued the annual call for pilgrims to come, despite the pandemic. The government of Senegal, which has been heaped with praise for its handling of the outbreak, did not try to ban it. And the levels of traffic suggested that most people were going ahead, despite the risks.

One of the beauties of the Magal, in normal years, is its emphasis on community and hospitality. Pilgrims do not book hotel rooms: Touba’s residents open up their homes and travellers bed down, many to each room. Lunch and dinner, in the Senegalese tradition, are usually eaten off a communal plate.

“My family lives in Touba. I host a lot of people at home. That’s why I couldn’t stay in Dakar,” said Serigne Diop, a 31-year-old mechanic who spoke by phone from Touba. He said he was surrounded by people not wearing masks and took an overcrowded bus from the capital to get there.

Many government ministers and dignitaries joined the pilgrimage too. The event is officially taking place on Tuesday but lasts about a week.

It has already been well documented that Magal pilgrims are particularly susceptible to viruses, because of the event’s inherent lack of social distancing. A study released last year showed that the prevalence of respiratory tract infection symptoms among pilgrims increased fivefold following the pilgrimage.

This year, the authors of that study released a letter warning older people and those with chronic medical conditions to stay away from the Magal, and urged those who attended to wear masks and wash hands.

“During the event, streets around the Grand Mosque and the general market present an extremely high density of population,” the letter said. “All these conditions are very likely to favour the transmission of respiratory pathogens among pilgrims.”

Washing hands may be difficult. The number of people using Touba’s water multiplies during the Magal, and most years, there are water shortages. This year too, faucets are running dry, the local press has reported, except for a dribble late at night.

Many African countries have reported caseloads and deaths linked to COVID-19 that are much lower than in other continents, particularly in Europe and North America. Although many cases may have been missed because of low testing levels, epidemiologists say that the young median age of the continent is likely a significant factor, and that some countries’ hot weather and tendency to live much of life outdoors may play a role. Studies are underway to test the hypothesis that previous exposure to other coronaviruses may have strengthened some people’s immune systems.

Like many West African countries, Senegal had good protocols in place for contact tracing, partly as a result of the 2014 Ebola outbreak, and can turn tests for the coronavirus around fast. It never reported many more than 100 new coronavirus cases a day, and over the past two months, its caseload has fallen. On Tuesday, that was only 19 of 777 tests done, the health ministry said.

But not everyone with COVID-like symptoms receives a test in Senegal, and with over 80% of COVID-19 cases in Africa being asymptomatic, according to the World Health Organization, many cases may go under the radar.

On a trip to Touba last Thursday, Senegal’s health minister told local journalists that he would be deploying 5,000 health ministry officials to Touba to monitor it and respond if necessary. He did not respond to calls or text messages requesting an interview, or answer questions about why the Magal had not been cancelled and why many ministers were attending.

The Magal commemorates the exile of the Mourides’ founder, Sheikh Amadou Bamba, to Gabon. French colonial authorities sent him there in 1895, fearful of his pacifist struggle against them.

And the government would have a hard time overruling the Mourides, who wield great power in Senegal, a country of about 16 million people. One young marabout — a religious leader — said he was in Touba because their leader had issued a ndiguel, or order.

“We are aware of the national and international context, but we couldn’t do otherwise, because of the order coming from the Caliph, who asked all followers to come,” said Cheikh Cissé, 28, who runs a Koranic school, and trades religious books in Dakar. “That’s why I decided, whatever the situation, to go to Touba.”

Most years, there is a ceremony at Amadou Bamba’s mausoleum. But that element has been cancelled this year, while other events are going ahead.

In one, broadcast on Facebook on Monday, dozens of men gathered in a large room, sitting on silver couches and a carpeted floor. Microphones were passed around, and the men took turns greeting each other. Masks were worn, some covering the nose, but some only covering the mouth or even the chin.

The Magal is not the only mass global religious event currently taking place. In Iraq’s holy city of Karbala, tens of thousands of worshippers have been arriving for the Arbaeen, another of the world’s biggest religious pilgrimages. And Saudi Arabia began lifting coronavirus restrictions in Mecca on Sunday, welcoming pilgrims for the first time since March.

In August, hundreds of thousands attended the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and thousands marched against coronavirus restrictions in Berlin.

This year, closed borders for COVID-19 prevented some would-be Magal pilgrims living abroad from going to Touba. And others were put off by concerns that they could catch or spread the virus.

But not all.

“I can’t say that COVID does not exist, but as a Bamba follower I’m not scared, because Bamba’s spiritual path and teaching is stronger than COVID-19,” said Khady Seye, a 45-year-old fish trader, speaking by telephone from Touba. “If I don’t wear a mask, I might get in trouble with the police. That’s why I’m wearing one — not because I’m scared.”

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