Dr. Ahmed Bangura
Dr. Ahmed Bangura | Image captured at Zaytuna College (Berkeley, CA)
بِسْمِ ٱللَّٰهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
Dr. Ahmed Bangura: Bismillah Ar-Rahman Ar-Raheem. Al-hamdu lillahi Rabb il-'alamin* [with Allah’s name — the Merciful Benefactor, the Merciful Redeemer. All praises are due to G-d, The Guardian-Evolver, The Cherisher and Sustainer of all the systems of knowledge.]
My name is Ahmed Bangura and I currently live between Sacramento, CA and Lungi in Sierra Leone.
Probably at the beginning of the 19th century, Karamoko Sorie Ibrahim undertook a long road trip with his children. Most likely, he started off from Guinea, or from Mali. One of his sons, Karamoko Umaru was my paternal grandfather. They were Mandinkas. Karamoko means a scholar and a teacher.
They mostly ended up settling in the tiny village of Rogbap, in Northern Sierra Leone. My grandfather married Ya Mariama, a local woman, my grandmother.
It is really difficult for me to imagine how Karamoko Ibrahim and his family managed to live in a non-Mandinka and non-Muslim environment. They were following a tradition formulated by thirteen century [West African] scholar Karamoko Salim Suwari on how Muslims can coexist peacefully with non-Muslims. The tradition informed the peaceful spread of Islam in West Africa.
This is my lineage.
Abdullah Bangura & Dr. Ahmed Bangura | Image captured at Zaytuna College (Berkeley, CA)
I’ve done some traveling myself, and without planning to, I have been doing what my ancestors did: studying, living among strangers, building relationships, and sharing what I have learned in schools and universities and in life.
Like my ancestors, I have spent the greater part of my life away from my place of birth. I lived mostly in the United States, but have also lived and studied in France, Canada, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and Egypt. From 1994 to 2017, I was a professor at the University of San Francisco, where I was blessed to share what I know with Americans, mostly non-Muslims and non-Blacks. It was beautiful to experience friendship with people whose backgrounds were so different from mine. The Suwarian tradition was at work.
What I would hope survives me, more than anything else, is the work that I started with the help of my beloved wife, Fatima Maju, and friends of mine, twenty six years ago; the work of the Ihsan Foundation for West Africa.
I have younger siblings who never went to school. Going to school is still a luxury that many children in Africa cannot enjoy. By Allah’s infinite grace, I went to school. With the help of many people of goodwill, I have for almost 30 years now dedicated much of my life to opening the doors of a modern education to poor African children.
I paraphrase here the words of our West African sage, Amadou Hampate Bah, who said that the hand that gives will always find something to give. In giving, we receive, and in giving we give our hearts the nourishment that they desperately need. I pray that this spirit survives in my children and in all those whom I was blessed to meet.
May Allah bless you all. As Salaamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh [Peace be upon you and G-d’s mercy and blessings].
You can learn more about and support Dr. Bangura’s legacy work here: The Ihsan Foundation for West Africa
*Before beginning his statement Dr. Bangura recites in Arabic the first lines from surah (chapter) Al-Fatiha (The Opening) from The Holy Qu’ran.
