“Dabakh, the pedagogy of kindness”: Sidy Diop dedicates a book to El Hadj Abdou Aziz Sy

After “The Primer of Sidy Diop”, the author returns with a tribute work retracing the journey of a man whose nickname “Dabakh” alone sums up his human qualities. Twenty-nine years after the death of El Hadj Abdou Aziz Sy, his words and his legacy continue to inspire. Éditions du Soleil announces, for September 14, the publication of *Dabakh, The Pedagogy of Goodness*, a work by Sidy Diop dedicated to the former Caliph General of the Tidianes. The publication date takes on a symbolic dimension. It coincides with the 29th anniversary of the call to God of the one who remains, in the collective memory, a major figure of the moral and religious conscience of the country.

Through this 244-page work, the author does not simply retrace the life of El Hadj Abdou Aziz Sy Dabakh. He seeks to understand what made this man unique, whose authority was based more on kindness, listening and service than on power. “He had the power to bring people together without ever seeking to dominate, the authority to correct without humiliating, the strength to forgive without weakness,” underlines the journalist.

Sidy Diop relies in particular on testimonies, stories and anecdotes to reveal a “profoundly human” Dabakh. Goodness, for him, was not considered as a simple personal quality, but as “a true discipline of life”. This philosophy is summarized in three formulas which structure the subject of the work: “He did not reign. He served. He did not divide. He gathered. He did not seek greatness. He embodied it. »

Beyond the duty to remember, “Dabakh, The Pedagogy of Kindness” intends to question the present. “What is goodness left when noise, anger and division take up all the space? », asks the author in the presentation of his work. The book is intended to be an invitation to rediscover one’s thoughts and one’s relationship with others, summed up by this maxim attributed to him: “To serve men is to serve God. »

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