Singing a Wide Heart: Timbre and Sung Prayer in Senegal’s Layène Community

Layène sung prayer (called sikkar) is embedded within the religious practices of the Layène community, a minority Sufi order in Dakar, Senegal. This article explores the functions of Layène sung prayer, focusing especially on its loud, vibrational timbre. Both men and women vocalists in call-and-response sing loudly, using wide vibrato and electronic amplification to ensure that the sikkar reaches the inhabitants—both human and non-human—in the surrounding community. This article demonstrates that the distinctive timbre of Layène sung prayer serves the spiritual functions of binding the community together in spiritual and social cohesion, increasing individual and collective generosity, and demarcating Layène territory in the context of rapid urban growth. Through contextualizing ethnographic research, interviews, and analysis of audio recordings within the community’s hagiography, this article demonstrates threads of connection between community ethics of generosity and hospitality and the timbre of sikkar.