He was born on September 5, 1954 (another version has him on January 6, 1953) in Darou Mousti, a village created in 1912 by his grandfather Mame Thierno Birahim Faty Mbacké on the orders of the latter's brother and founding father of the Mouride brotherhood, Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba. Modou Kara Mbacké is the founding president of an Islamic movement called Mouvement Mondial pour l'Unicité de Dieu, created in 1995.