Medina Niassene, an emerging religious city January 23, 2026

Created by Serigne Baye Mbaye Niass in 1944, the Medina Niassène city obtained the status of a neighborhood in the commune of Keur Madiabel thanks to the extension of its homes. The locality has some basic infrastructure (health post, primary school, market and community radio), but some difficulties characterize it.

KAOLACK – Located east of Keur Madiabel, Médina Niassène is the last district created in this commune in the Nioro department. The locality is connected to the national road (Kaolack-Nioro) by a sandy road. The visitor can access it by crossing this distance of less than a kilometer on foot or by taking a means of transport. On arrival, an imposing mosque with two minarets welcomes you. This religious infrastructure, painted in green and white, is today one of the symbols of Medina Niassene, underlines Amadou Niang, a septuagenarian met in front of this building. This religious city has the particularity of housing the Gamou of Serigne Baye Mbaye Niass. The 78th edition of this event, celebrated on January 17, 2026, offered Medina Niassene an electric atmosphere. At 10 a.m., there is already excitement in the large public square where the annual Gamou is to be held. This vast space is located between the great mosque and the home of the current caliph, Serigne Mahy Baye Mbaye Niass. The arrival of pilgrims continues as some sellers set up their temporary commercial stalls. Among them, there are sellers of various products: rosaries, second-hand clothes, Koran books, works of art, etc. We also see around ten young people working on setting up a large removable white tarpaulin. The pilgrims, coming from various backgrounds, make incessant comings and goings between the Serigne Barhama Niass residence (guest house) and the homes of the dignitaries of the Serigne Baye Mbaye Niass family.

They carry out individual or collective ziarras with their respective guides. The atmosphere had become indescribable throughout the day of Saturday January 17, 2026. The Gamou of Medina Niassène was celebrated for the first time in 1949 by Serigne Baye Mbaye Niass on the instructions of his big brother, El Hadji Ibrahima Niass known as Baye. After his call to God in 1973, his son Serigne Barhama Niass continued his works until 2021. The imprint of the first caliph Serigne Mahy Baye Mbaye Niass is the current and second caliph. Today, even if the Gamou of Serigne Baye Mbaye Niass remains little known by some Senegalese, the event has allowed the Medina Niasséne district to be discovered by thousands of people.

This locality in the commune of Keur Madiabel has experienced significant demographic growth over the last two decades. This development favored the attachment of Medina Niassène to the commune of Keur Madiabel and its erection into a district in 2009 at the request of the caliph of the time, Serigne Barhama Niass. The first delegate and imam of the great mosque, Mouhamadou Abdoulaye Niass, underlines that the religious leader’s request was motivated by the enlargement of the city with a subdivision of 313 plots which took place in 2003.

This extension allowed the population to have a health post, a French primary school (school 5) in the commune of Keur Madiabel, a new cemetery, a community radio station called Tawfèkh Fm and a market. Souleymane Biteye, resident of the neighborhood, indicates that these two basic infrastructures were acquired thanks to the personal initiatives of Serigne Barham Niass. Aly Guèye, teacher at the elementary school, confirms that the marabout relocated the premises of the old Arab school to accommodate the French primary cycle.

“When the educational authorities granted the request to create a school, he did not have the infrastructure, but he found a solution. We then obtained the support of an NGO and the contribution of the community to complete the six classes and the principal’s office,” he said. The head nurse of the health post (Icp), Cheikh Baye Thiam, informs that their health structure has a medical ambulance offered by a local national. According to him, their major difficulty concerns the absence of a midwife to manage the ultrasound, the lack of accommodation for the Icp assistant and the unavailability of a duty room for night shifts. Mouhamadou Abdoulaye Niass nevertheless specifies that this progress does not spare them from difficulties “Our main concern is the lack of public lighting which encourages cases of livestock theft. The other problems relate to the low water pressure and lack of financial means for certain fathers to pay for the connection,” he testified.

Oumar Bayo BA, special envoy to Kaolack