Mamadou Gaye Sam: A researcher serving the family of Mame Cheikh Mbaye
A passionate researcher and committed teacher, Mamadou Gaye Sam has established himself as one of the finest connoisseurs of the life and work of Serigne Sam Mbaye. Between transmission of knowledge, translation and writing, this English teacher at the Malick Sall high school in Louga works to introduce the general public to the human, intellectual and spiritual dimension of a scholar whose legacy continues to profoundly mark the religious and cultural history of Senegal.
He is so passionate about the life and work of Mame Cheikh Mbaye and her children that we ended up giving him the nickname Mamadou Gaye Sam (an allusion to Serigne Sam). English teacher at the Malick Sall high school in Louga since October 2019, he wrote a book entitled “Serigne Sam Mbaye, journey of a Mujahid (fighter of the faith) or the biography of a Mujuddine (renovator)”.
The fair-skinned young person always dressed in a traditional boubou is often taken, in schools, by students and other teachers, as an Arabic teacher. Which makes him smile. “Because of my outfit, I am often taken for an Arabic teacher,” he confesses, sitting in his living room in the Baghdad city of Louga (gift given to families by El Hadj Djily Mbaye). Although the man born in 1987 went through the Daara of Koki, he is an English teacher, researcher, translator and essayist. He devotes his research largely to Mame Cheikh Mbaye, founder of the Koki daara and father of El Hadj Djily Mbaye, Serigne Sam Mbaye etc.
The one who obtained his baccalaureate in 2006 at the Malick Sall high school in Louga, recalls that the idea of writing a book on Serigne Sam came from the fact that from the Cheikh Anta Diop University, they had started to translate Serigne Sam Mbaye’s lectures into English after their translation into French. “In the English department, there is a subject called theme-version and I was working on Serigne Sam’s lectures. My father recommended that I talk about it to Mame Cheikh Mbaye, Serigne Sam’s eldest son. Around 2012, I started translating some of his lectures into English. I worked with an Egyptian publishing house and this product is due to be released in January 2026,” Mr. Gaye replied. The latter continues that the Senegalese know Serigne Sam through his speeches, but do not know the dimension of the man. This is what motivated him to write about himself. “I did research and wrote a work published in 2022 as part of the man’s centenary: ”Serigne Sam Mbaye, journey of a Mujahid (fighter of the faith) or the biography of a Mujuddine (renovator)”. This book traces his journey and his role in Islam,” confided the author. For him, Serigne Sam Mbaye, a multidimensional man, managed to give conferences in Wolof, a language understood by almost all Senegalese, so that they can all have access to it.
Mamadou Gaye, born in Koki in 1987, holds a Master 2 in American literature and civilizations from the English department of the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar (Ucad) and a Certificate of Aptitude for Secondary Education (Cap) from the Faculty of Science and Technology of Education and Training (Fastef). For 10 years, he has been an English teacher. He started at the Diamniadio high school in the Rufisque department before landing at the high school in his hometown, built by one of his ancestors.
Oumar KANDE
