{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.016423357664233577, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0, 'mean_word_length': 5.568862275449102, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Erotics, poetics, politics: the spheres of action of Senegalese Sufi voices

ABSTRACT Within the Tijaniyya—the largest Sufi order in West Africa—liturgical traditions rooted in the poetics of love are foundational to piety. This article explores the voicing of these traditions in Senegal—focusing on the ways in which Tijan groups use vocal practice to evoke conflicting imaginaries of spiritual authority and political belonging. By attending to vocal style, I describe how poetic liturgies expressing Sufi cosmologies of spiritual unity and transcendent love are mobilised by Tijan groups to construct cultural and political difference—to draw boundaries around themselves, the sounds that they make and the trajectories of postcolonial citizenship to which those sounds are directed. In public performances, these musical constructions of difference are broadcast to wider audiences, with Tijan groups competing to increase the political impact of their vocal practices. It is at this level, on the public stage, that the erotics and poetics of Tijan piety become entangled with its politics.