The Kunta family (the Awlad Sidi al-Wafi) is among the best-known examples of a lineage of Islamic scholarship with widespread influence throughout Mauritania, Senegambia,[1] and other parts of the Western Sudan, and are closely associated with the expansion of Qadiriyya.
The Kunta shaykhs and the family or clan they represent, are an outgrowth of the Kounta Bedouin Arab peoples who spread throughout what is today northern Mali (Azawad) and southern Mauritania from the mid-sixteenth to the early eighteenth centuries (CE).
[2] The family's history goes back to Sheikh Sidi Ahmed al-Bakka'i (Arabic: الشيخ سيدي أحمد البكاي بودمعة ; born in the region of the Noun River – d.1504 in Akka) who established a Qadiri zawiya (Sufi residence) in Walata.
Sidi Al-Mukhtar al-Kunti (1728–1811) united the Kunta factions by successful negotiation, and established an extensive confederation.
[3] The Kunta family has historically played a leading role in Timbuktu, and have been power brokers in many states of the upper Niger.