ABSTRACT
People choose their marabout and have the freedom to switch to another marabout if they feel their Sufi journey needs that change, taking the marabout's Sufi order affiliation, leadership style, and personal faith into account. Marabouts figure prominently in discussions of faith in Senegal, and their words are often a part of that public religious discourse. Choosing and entering a teacher-disciple relationship with a marabout is a faith practice just as prayer is a faith practice. Prayer can inform the belief that through prayer, a single person can achieves a greater unity with God. Marabout is declaring one's readiness to continue, consciously and deliberately, on a spiritual path. "Annihilation of self" includes entrusting soul to a marabout, to receive guidance on the path toward that unity. Soxna Aïssa described the importance of a marabout's leadership through another analogy: a path through a difficult landscape. She highlighted the difference between marabouts and their disciples, and the need for a spiritual guide.
