From the Colony to the Post-colony: Sufis and Wahhabists in Senegal and Nigeria (original) (raw)
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Religions, 2020
In the nineteenth century, African Muslim societies were marked by the emergence of a reformist Sufi Islamic discourse aimed at changing and moving away from traditional Islamic practices. Although this discourse was influenced, to some extent, by external sources of inspiration, it was linked to the local African context. This study demonstrates that the reformist discourse of major Sufi figures such as Sheikh Amadu Bamba in Senegal and Sheikh Usman Dan Fodio in Nigeria reflects a number of common features of Islamic reform in Africa, yet their reform programs were shaped by the conditions of the local context. This research contribution aims to understand the actual role that the discourse of Sufi spirituality played—and still does—in the religious, economic, and political life of Muslim societies in Africa. This study has shown that despite the prevailing belief that Sufi discourse does not tend to politicize as it tries to maintain a safe distance away from matters of politics a...
Religion Compass, 2010
Sufism had a decisive influence on the development and spread of Islam in West Africa. Although it has been the subject of a considerable number of academic works, Sufism in West Africa remains understudied and often misunderstood. French and British colonial views of Islam had a lasting impact on the perception of Sufism in Africa, resulting in its depreciation as a kind of ''popular'' Islam of the ignorant masses. A closer look at eminent West African Sufi leaders and their movements, including the Qadiriyya, the Tijaniyya, and the Muridiyya, reveals that Sufism articulated itself in a variety of ways over the past three centuries, and that it continues to be a formidable spiritual, intellectual, and social force in many countries in the Western parts of the African continent.
Being as Good Muslims as Frenchmen': On Islam and Colonial Modernity in West Africa
Journal of Religion in Africa, 2009
In contrast to many previous studies that follow the perspective of colonial administrators and portray Muslim religious leaders or marabouts as essentially political actors who seek political and economic advantage, this paper proposes a new perspective on marabouts under French colonial rule. Focusing on three prominent representatives of the Tijaniyya Sufi order, Seydou Nourou Tall (d. 1980) and Ibrahima Niasse (d. 1975) from Senegal, and Sidi Benamor (d. 1968 from Algeria, the present study shifts the emphasis to the religious motivation behind marabouts' activities. Against the dominant perspective that reduces their activities to mere reactions to colonialism or strategies to gain followers or resources, we show how the three Tijani leaders engaged with colonial modernity. Th ey worked to spread Islam and toward other specifi c religious objectives within the Islamic sphere. After accepting the reality of French rule and having established a good rapport with the administration, they were able to pursue some of their own religious agendas beyond the purview of the colonial state, French colonial attempts to control their activities notwithstanding.
Sufism, sects and intra-Muslim conflicts in Nigeria, circa 1979-2000
PsycEXTRA Dataset, 2011
This paper analyses the major areas of discord among the Nigerian Muslims from 1804 to 1979. It further defines and distinguishes between what Sufi orders are and what sects stands for according to the primary sources of Islamic law. The Intra-Muslim conflict in Nigeria within the scope of this paper can be divided into three parts. The first is the period of consolidation and intellectual awareness, between 1804 to the later part of the nineteenth century. It shows how the three Jihad leaders, namely Sheikh Usman bin Fodio [d.1817], his son Muhammad Bello [d.1837], and his brother Abdullahi, displayed their wealth of knowledge and experiences in the true understanding of Islam. The second could be referred to as the period of struggle for supremacy. This was the time when the two dominant Sufi orders in Nigeria (Qadiriyya and Tijaniyya) struggled to restore their position as well as to acquire more Muslim members into their groups. The third period commenced in the late '70s with the emergence of a group popularly known as Izalatul-Bid'a wa-iqamatus Sunnah [Movement for the removal of innovation and establishment of the tradition]. The period witnessed a major change from intellectual disagreement in the past to incessant hostility.
Is Senegal still the African exception? Sufism and democracy revisited
Journal of Religious and Political Practice, 2016
to celebrate the reopening of the Institute of African Studies, directed by Mamadou Diouf. The 10 chapters, including an introduction, reinterpret Senegal's history and politics in terms of the so-called "Senegalese exception" of a stable African democracy among neighbors plagued by military coups, civil wars, and ethnic conflicts. Senegal managed to have a peaceful and democratic transition of power, making the West African country a positive example of good African leadership. First put forward by Donal Cruise O'Brien, the "social contract" theory between marabout (Sufi Islamic leader) and talibe (disciple), as well as between the marabouts and the state, is the foundation of Senegalese stability. The volume revisits this theory with fresh interdisciplinary analysis and an acknowledgement of the agency of talibes (often undermined in the earlier scholarship). The Introduction highlights Sufi Islam as an "antidote to political Islam, " in particular the Senegalese model of pluralism, cooperation, coexistence, and tolerance. This volume offers a "longue durée perspective" that traces the development of what Diouf refers to as Senegal's "Islamo-Wolof model", the "political, social, and cultural arrangements (infrastructures and ideologies) that have been supporting the operations of the colonial and the postcolonial states and providing the sources and resources for the legitimacy of their power" (ch. 1, n 27). This began in the French colonial period with the marabouts becoming vital intermediaries, religiously and administratively, between the colonial state and rural masses. Chapters deliver a variety of approaches grounded in different disciplines and methodologies and ranging from Senegal's past to the present day. Chapter 2 presents Souleymane Bachir Diagne's philosophical contribution on the assumed challenges presented to Muslim societies by secularization, which emerged as a criticism of Islam by nineteenth-century thinkers such as Ernest Renan who regarded Islam as incompatible with science. Diagne traces the foundations of the "spiritual socialism" of Senegal's first president Leopold Sedar Senghor and his prime minister Mamadou Dia. Senegal's founding fathers played a crucial role in defining the Senegalese state's laïcité (a specific French-inspired brand of secularism), which Catholic Senghor modeled after the intellectual discourse of Muslim elites such as Al-Afghani, Muhammad Abdu, and Muhammad Iqbal. Diagne concludes with a quote from Senegal's second president, Abdou