Cheick Hamallah

June 19th, the house of the Chérif Cheick Hamallah is encircled at dawn. The plane which transports it takes off at 6 a.m. Almost all the persons in charge hamallists of Nioro are stopped the same day and are tortured, before being off-set in the concentration camps of Ansongo, Bourem and Kidal. Meanwhile, Chérif Hamahoullah arrives at Dakar the same day. The plane which transports it makes before a short stopover with Kayes around 8 a.m. (the apparatus is escorted of a second) 37. It remains in Dakar until June 21st and this short Dakar-native stay is not whole rest. The governor-general Drink, trusty servant of the mode petainist and too dedicated adversary of the Committee of free France, decides “to humiliate the Sherif of Nioro publicly”. It is the opposite which occurs. Indeed, the High commissioner in French Africa of the Vichy government makes lead to his Dakar-native palate Sheik Hamahoullah, shackles with the wrists , before presenting it at an assembly large Senegalese marabouts like Seydou Nourou Tall joined together for the circumstance.

- “Here the famous Sherif Cheick Hamallah”, exclaims the general governor! - “Hamallah Sherif, do you believe you more extremely than all these large marabouts? Do you believe yourself more still informed? Why remainders you not quiet? If you are still turbulent, it is because “you yet were not annoyed”. In any case, you will suffer and I promise to you that you will not see any more this ground of Africa. Don't you want to be like all these large marabouts here present? ”

The Hamahoullah Sherif who is always upright and connected in front of the assistance has courage to answer because a true sherif descending from the prophet of Islam forever fear: - “I do not see sincerely what one can reproach me to Mister the Governor, I pay my taxes, I repurchase my services, I was not opposed to the recruitment of the riflemen. My conscience does not reproach me anything the whole. I always await your evidence of my culpability. To answer your questions, I will say that the marabouts that here are very sizeable and in no way they want to be connected publicly like me. And me, I would not like to be as they… Regardez their chests, they accept your medals. These medals are the medals of this low world. You can be sure that me I will never pin your medals on my chest. God does not authorize me to do it . Lastly, as you make a point of making me suffer, I will help you in this direction. You can prohibit the port of the chain to me, you can prevent to me from requesting, all that does not make suffer. But as you absolutely make a point of making me suffer, here how you can do it: prevent me from thinking of God while I am in life. ”

On the order of the governor Drink, Sheik Hamahoullah is brutally taken back in prison 37. June 21st, the Sherif of Nioro is embarked in a military aircraft bound for Algeria via Atar and Casablanca: “Mauritania, Saint-Louis with Atar, quantified military, absolute priority n° 68 A.P., general governor telegraphs to announce regular plane June 21st will transport Chérif Hamallah condemned 10 years internment to undergo Algérie stop. To take the monitoring required measures necessary and not to admit any native on the ground lasting stopover plane. ” 39 the Sherif “is thus led always in the plane in Algeria to Casseigne, city located at the North-East of Mostaganem” 40.

In 1942 Sheik Hamahoullah is dénouveau off-set in France. He is then transferred to Evaux-the-Baths (Digs) at the beginning of April 1942 when he has as companions of detention of famous personalities of IIIè French Republic, of which Edouard Herriot. A document of the National security reveals that Sheik Hamahoullah could adapt neither to the climate nor in the living conditions in France. In spite of the request for transfer in Corsica, dated August 28th, 1942, of the doctor attached to his center of internment, the authorities of Vichy hardly dealt with the Sherif. In October 1942, the Master of Nioro is already seriously sick. He was, seems he, transferred urgently to the hospital from Aubenas before being sent to that of Montlucon. There it was treated by Doctor Bons. According to the French colonial authorities, “Sheik Hamahoullah is deceased on January 16th, 1943 with 16:30. Diagnosis: cardiopathy”. It according to the same sources was buried in a tomb individual and not in a common grave to the cemetery of the East in Montlucon. In 1956, its body is transferred to the square L 183, always with the same cemetery, in a bought concession percent years per Mr. Tiécoura Diawara, a worthy old man, former teacher of Abidjan and father of an eminent African politician. According to precise and sure information, a Head of African State always in exercise, although catholic, would have been at the origin of the generous act of Mr. Diawara.

The death of the Master of Nioro was made available of the Africans only by one circular of the n° 259 AP/5 of the general governor of the AOF dated June 7th, 1945. It was confirmed by a declaration of the senator Amadou Doucouré, of French Sudan, published in Paris-Dakar of August 7th, 1947. Ainsi finishes the animated life of the Hamahoullah Sherif of which the first ambition was to practice and preach the tijanism such as Sheik Tijâni wanted that he is taught and included/understood. What reproached the important administration Sheik Hamahoullah? One did not forgive him to behave as a free man, recognizing only the authority of Allah. One reproached him his refusal to yield in front of the colonial authority and to want to remain upright while the majority of all its pars were with knees. Sure of his truth, to trust of his culture, such a worthy man could not spontaneously disavow himself. For religious reasons, he wanted to live free in a country not released where nobody thought of resistance, even peaceful. It is finally of this contradiction that the divorce between the Sheik and France resulted. With the truth, the Sherif of Nioro was resistant peaceful, his intention was monk, excluding any servility. Admittedly, it was not guilty with the eyes of the law, but for the colonial administrators it was to be eliminated since nonfavorable to the colonial system. By treating the prestigious Sherif of Nioro like resistant, the colonizers were not mistaken. Indeed, the man was the initiator of a model of attitude with regard to colonialism. Its example was dangerous for the stability and the maintenance of the colonial system, even if it had made its reserve a problem of conscience which raises of demanding sound preoccupation of freedom and a prayer in holiness. It is its inalterable thirst for freedom which reveals Sheik Hamahoullah according to the expression of Vincent Monteil “like resistant a victim of colonialism”. With the light and at the end of this short study it appears to us as a peaceful hero who preferred to suffer until deepest from itself, to live in exile to preserve its freedom, essential condition and necessary to its eyes to devote itself to God. Memory of Alioune Traore on the life of Cheick Hamallah

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