Mbittéyeen Abdu is one of the core Njolofeen villages and is found in the Lagem area immediately south of Kawlax (as opposed to Waalo, between Lagem and the Gambian border). All the families there are Taalibe Baay, and the only non-Taalibe Baay tend to be seasonal agricultural workers based elsewhere.¹ There is a daily mosque, whose grounds Baay Ñas traced, and there is also a newer Friday mosque next to it.

Foundation of the village

Mbittéyeen Abdu is named after Abdu Jaxate Bittéy, who founded the village along with Ibrayima Caam and Mattaar Sekk, all of whom came from Jolof during the latter half of the 19th century.

Allaaji Baakar Caam, an elder from the village, speaks of these three:

These three cleared out the village [cleared the land for habitation]. I’m not sure where Abdu Jaxate came from. When they settled here they didn’t find anyone here—it was just brush, as even [the village of] Njaase, which borders on us, it was here that they brought their possessions and pulled their water from. . . . There was a big soto [a kind of wild fig] tree here, and that was where they [the Njaase] stayed. . . . When they got up in the morning, everyone sought out the area they were to clear and went off and cleared it, and sought out the area where they were to live and lived there. That was what they did until God, until God allowed the rest of their families to come find them here.

Notes

1. Interview with Allaaji Baakar Caam by Yuunus Caam in Mbittéyeen Abdu, 2004, transcribed by Aadi Faal.