The Bamba of Banda (a town in west-central Ghana, known in Juula as Fugala) claim descent from the Bamba imams of Bighu (Begho), the Juula emporium that was destroyed by internecine struggles in the early eighteenth century. Yaḥyā, son of the last imam, Maḥmūd Bamba, is said to have resettled in Banda. The figure of Sh. ʿUmar Banda is much revered by the Banda ʿulamāʾ, and his descent from one of the last Bighu imams is given as ʿUmar b. Sulaymān b. Abī Bakr b. Maḥmūd b. ʿUthmān b. Yaḥyā b. Imam Maḥmūd (NU/Wilks FN 73). His reputation rests largely upon the fact that, as it is said, “he …