The embodiment of piety and legacy of El Hadji Malick Sy August 23, 2026
Sokhna Assiétou Sy Malick, second child of Mame Safiatou Niang, is described as the spitting image of her father Seydi El Hadji Malick Sy. She inherited all of his qualities: piety, erudition, hospitality and dedication to the Koran.
“Like father, like daughter”: this is how the imam and chief of the village of Fass-Diacksao, Khalifa Ababacar Guèye, describes his grandmother, Sokhna Assiétou Sy Malick. Between the grandmaster Seydi El Hadji Malick Sy and his daughter, continuity was total. “She was the spitting image of her father,” confirms Abdoul Aziz Diop, known as Moulaye, grandson of El Hadji Malick Sy.
From him, she inherited everything: piety, generosity, legendary hospitality, profound erudition and an unfailing commitment to the Koran. Born in Ndiarndé, Sokhna Assiétou Sy is the daughter of Mame Safiétou Niang and the younger sister of Sokhna Fatou Sy Malick. Very close to her father, she had immense affection and respect for him.
She remained closely linked to Fass-Diacksao, a haven of spiritual retreat founded by her father in 1904. There she was the wife of muqaddam Serigne Youssouph Diop, one of the thousand elite disciples trained by Maodo in Ndiarndé, in Cayor.
At the end of this training, Seydi El Hadji Malick Sy sent his disciples across the country and beyond the borders. Serigne Youssouph Diop thus settled in Fass-Diacksao – a spiritual fulfillment responding to the wishes expressed by Maodo during his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1889.
This religious city is based on a fundamental triptych: education, training and autonomy through work on the land, in order to preserve the dignity of the faithful and avoid begging. Once Serigne Youssouph Diop was established, Seydi El Hadji Malick Sy entrusted him with his daughter Sokhna Assiétou as well as the management of the Diacksao fields.
Altruistic and deeply human, Sokhna Assietou made her home the rallying point for talibés from the surrounding villages. Imam Khalifa Ababacar Guèye remembers that his grandmother devoted her days to reciting and studying the Koran, the works of his father (such as the Taysir or the Khilaçu Zahab) as well as other treatises on Islamic sciences.
“When his father lost his sight towards the end of his life, it was Sokhna Assietou, a skilled reader of the Holy Quran, who told him
cited the wakhf (daily Koranic reading) every day,” he recalls. She was also the one who introduced him, from a very young age, to the Arabic alphabet and the Koran.
Abdoul Aziz Diop, member of the Zawiya tidiane Cell of Tivaouane (Cezat), confirms this exceptional commitment. According to him, his grandmother devoted her entire life to reading the Quran, studying it and praying (zikr).
Her great strength lies in the fact that she never strayed from her father:
Unlike her sisters Sokhna Oumou, Sokhna Rokhaya or Sokhna Nafissatou, Sokhna Assiétou Sy Malick has always lived alongside El Hadji Malick Sy, sharing her daily life between Tivaouane and Fass-Diacksao.
She embodied the union with Serigne Youssouph Diop, a figure from the aristocracy of Ndiambour (Louga). “When Seydi El Hadji Malick Sy installed him in Diacksao, he entrusted him with both his daughter and the fields of his city,” he explains, recalling what he said to him.
knows her father, Makhtar Diop: “My grandmother submitted entirely to her husband, Serigne Youssouph Diop. »
He adds: “The Koran and the rosary were his faithful companions; all the children of Seydi El Hadji Malick Sy are collectively his synthesis. »
“My grandmother was a woman of multiple qualities, anchored in the Koran and the Sunnah. She was a model woman,” said our interlocutor. This is why it has many namesakes across the country, especially among the disciples.
Abdou Aziz Thiakh, head of Mame Abdou Aziz Sy Dabakh’s residence in Diacksao, emphasizes that she was very close to her father, Seydi El Hadji Malick Sy, and very attached to Fass-Diacksao and its surroundings.
“She asked me to write her letters. She was very happy,” he testifies. He also recalls that his brother, Mame Abdou Aziz Sy Dabakh, late Caliph General of the Tidianes, visited him every time he went to Diacksao, his place of spiritual retreat.
Sokhna Assiétou Sy Malick died in 1982 in Ndiarndé, where she rests in the mausoleum alongside her late husband, Serigne Youssouph Diop.
SD SY
