In October 2020, the Grand Magal took place in Touba, Senegal. Associated Press photographs record masked women and other Mouride pilgrims standing in line to enter the Grand Mosque.
The Magal commemorates the brotherhood's founder, Amadou Bamba. Tens of thousands attended during the COVID-19 pandemic. The archive distinguishes the religious procession and gathering from the ordered queue at the mosque entrance.
This wait should not be praised simply as proof of faith. The decision to continue a mass ritual existed alongside the risk of infection. Masks and the entrance line document how an established pilgrimage tried to operate under the public-health conditions of 2020.