Full Length Research Political Islam and the Negotiation of Political Roles among Peripheral Sufi Leaders in Senegal Samba Camara Ohio University. E-mail: sc350511@ohio.edu. Accepted 28 May 2014 Islam in Senegal is dominated by Sufism, a mystical form of religiosity governed by different Muslim brotherhoods (tarixas). A number of researches on the political influence of the Senegalese tarixas have approached Sufi-Muslim authorities from a globalized perspective, thus paying less attention to internal segments within each tarixa. In this article, the author emphasizes the political roles of Sufi segment leaders (‘peripheral shaykhs’) as they build clientelistic relationships with secular politicians. Peripheral Sufi leaders are charismatic Muslim guides (shaykhs) who earned political legitimacy either through blood lineage with a Sufi founder or through a privileged relationship with a Sufi central leader (Khalif-Général). Speaking of a fragmented Senegalese Muslim authority, the article proposes that the negotiation of political roles among peripheral Sufi leaders has had a double impact on Senegal’s democratization. On one hand, it stifles the constructive role of the Khalif-Général as a transethnic religious mediator. On the other hand, by allowing client shaykhs to proliferate voting commands (electoral ndigëls), it fuels clientelism and prebendalism in political regimes. Based on field observation and analysis of diverse secondary sources, the article concludes that electoral ndigëls, although in decline, have consequences that continue to challenge fuller democratization in Senegal. Keywords: Senegal, Political Islam, Sufism, Muslim brotherhood, Electoral Ndigël. Cite This Article as: Camara S (2014). Political Islam and the Negotiation of Political Roles among Peripheral Sufi Leaders in Senegal. Inter. J. Polit. Sci. Develop. 2(6): 105-116. http://www.academicresearchjournals.org/IJPSD/Index.html INTRODUCTION The politicization of Senegal‟s powerful Muslim brotherhoods (tarixa in Wolof) dates back to, at least, a century. 1 Over the last two decades, however, the structure of the Senegalese Sufi-Muslim authority has undergone various sociopolitical changes that have significantly impacted the country‟s political landscape. In fact, while the Sufi central leaders (or Khalif-Générals) of the tarixas served traditionally as “religious mediators” who facilitated the negotiations of coexistence between the majority-Muslim population and the secular state, the emergence of influential peripheral Sufi leaders in the last decades has threatened the „conciliatory‟ dialogs through which Senegal‟s „democratic‟ model has historically been negotiated (Behrman, 1970; Cruise O‟Brien,1992; Schaffer, 1998; Schraeder, 2004; Gellar, 2005; Diouf, 2013). 2 This article subsequently argues that the increased negotiation of political roles among charismatic peripheral Sufi leaders bears a double impact on the democratization process in Senegal. On one hand, it stifles the traditional role of the Khalif-Général as a transethnic religious mediator. On the other hand, it International Journal of Political Science and Development Vol. 2(6), pp. 105-116, June 2014 DOI: 10.14662/IJPSD2014.022 Copy © right 2014 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article ISSN: 2360-784X© 2014 Academic Research Journals http://www.academicresearchjournals.org/IJPSD/Index.html