AFRICA Being a paper presented at the International Symposium on the event of celebration of the 14 th Hejira Century of Islam in Africa hosted by the International University of Africa (original) (raw)
Islam in Africa/Africans and Islam, Journal of African History v. 55 no.1
This essay discusses some of the recent trends in the scholarship on Islam and Africa that contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the historical relationship between African Muslims and the global ecumene of believers. Rather than looking at the faith as an insular African phenomenon, this piece examines the links between Africans and the wider community of believers across space and time. Such an approach has important ramifications for our understanding of the dynamics of Islam. However, it also challenges many of the assumptions underpinning the geographic area studies paradigm that has dominated the academy since the Second World War. This essay suggests the adoption of a more fluid approach to scholarly inquiry that reimagines our largely continental attachment to regions in favor of a more intellectually agile methodology where the scope of inquiry is determined less by geographic boundaries and more by the questions we seek to answer.
Islam in Africa/Africans and Islam
The Journal of African History, 2014
This essay discusses some of the recent trends in the scholarship on Islam and Africa that contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the historical relationship between African Muslims and the globalecumeneof believers. Rather than looking at the faith as an insular African phenomenon, this piece examines the links between Africans and the wider community of believers across space and time. Such an approach has important ramifications for our understanding of the dynamics of Islam. However, it also challenges many of the assumptions underpinning the geographic area studies paradigm that has dominated the academy since the Second World War. This essay suggests the adoption of a more fluid approach to scholarly inquiry that reimagines our largely continental attachment to regions in favor of a more intellectually agile methodology where the scope of inquiry is determined less by geographic boundaries and more by the questions we seek to answer.
The Past and Present of African Islam
Religion Compass, 2008
Among Muslims across the African continent, there is a noticeable turn towards greater compliance with globalizing norms of Islamic behaviour. Beginning from this widespread observation, this article interrogates the changes that lie concealed under the veil of homogeneity. It identifies a complex pattern of identity formation and power politics, cultural conservativism, marginalized syncretism and symbolic exchange. The emergence of a public sphere has propelled the production of Muslim identity formation in the service of established elites and youth searching for an authentic approach towards Islam. But a turn to Islam also takes a conservative and isolationist turn that thrives in the context of the failure of modern schooling and economy, and provides a haven of dignified marginalization around the great cultures of the past. A syncretist approach to Islam and African cultures is pushed to the background. But there is reason to believe that such an approach thrives on the margins of the society. A global politics of identity and globalization provide the context for a continued exchange of Islamic symbols among Africans in general. The politics of resistance is accompanied by the politics of identity and global conflicts.
Introduction: Islam and Muslim Life in West Africa – Practices, Trajectories and Influences
De Gruyter eBooks, 2022
Islam has become one of the main themes of research in African studies in the last two decades. In academic engagement with West Africa, in particular, only a few topics have attracted more interest and contributions. Consequently, the literature has grown diverse, multidisciplinary and engaging, while examining topics such as pietism, gender relations, authority, activism and, increasingly, violence and security. On the ground, Islam is highly visible in the media and at the centre of public life because of so-called jihadi attacks on state institutions, widespread religious entrepreneurship, the emergence of new authoritative figures and a dynamic challenge to traditional power structures that shape the experiences of being Muslim. What can we learn from these developments? What dynamics do they draw attention to? What new and local research perspectives are they inspiring? What do these perspectives add? This volume is informed by these questions and adds to a history of academic engagement with Islam in West Africa. Inspired by a locally framed agenda, it offers the floor to scholars from the region, providing them with visibility and urging them to elaborate on their insights. As the initiators of major political entities (e.g. Ghana, Mali, Macina, Songhay, Sokoto), Muslim communities in West Africa have been shaped by their encounters with European imperialism, which organized their lands into possessions, protectorates, territories and then colonies. Imperialism was a process of social subjugation that led to the establishment of the modern state: an institution that subordinated political logic to its regulatory power. Prior to European imperialism, however, Muslim traders and scholars developed ties and connections across and beyond West Africa, illustrating the fact that Muslims have regularly engaged in educational networks, economic exchanges and cooperation beyond the confines of their polities. While historic ties with the Maghreb, Egypt and the Hijaz contributed to the making of Muslim West Africa, connections with modern
The paper is presenting a brief history of Islam in Africa. It includes the contribution of Islam in Africa in terms of it impact on languages, cultures, civilization and education.
Abstract Islamic Civilization Africa KLISC Conference Rev May 2016
Anyone acquainted with Africa's rich social history cannot deny the fact that Islam – as a dynamic religious tradition-has indeed been an integral part of its identity. In fact, it was Ali Mazrui, the Africanist, who powerfully described this dimension when he highlighted the continent's triple heritage (of which Christianity and African Religious Tradition also form a part). Though Khalid Diab, the Egyptian-Belgian journalist, significantly remarked that, " Islamic Civilization is so hard-wired into Europe's cultural, social and intellectual DNA that it would be impossible to expunge its influence " (Al-Jazeera 8 Jan 2015), one is of the view that Africa neatly fitted that profile since it – more than any other continent-tangibly reflect that. Indeed when one scans the length and breath of the continent, one comes across various types of evidence that points to the fact that Muslims left behind their footprints in almost every sector of the continent. These have since become part of Africa's continental heritage and most of them have fortunately been preserved by its numerous nation-states. For example, when traveling through central Africa one finds many scholarly manuscripts that have yet to be edited and that cover different themes. And when moving to East Africa's coastal regions one comes across numerous historical sites/towns such as Kilwa that are clearly reminiscent of Muslim influence. And as one travels further south of the continent, one finds ample proof that point to the Muslims' presence. All of these perceptibly demonstrate that one cannot sidestep the Muslim contribution to this continent's identity. So the purpose of this presentation is fivefold: the first is to conceptualize the term 'Islamic Civilization' that intends to act the essay's theoretical frame; the second is to briefly reflect upon the continent's social history south of the Sahara; the third is to comment on the rich Islamic manuscript collections and other heritage items that contributed towards the making of this civilization continentally; the fourth is to narrate in summarized form the status of Timbuktu as an educational centre; and the fifth is to tabulate the challenges that the continent currently faces in its attempt to preserve and protect its heritage items such as manuscripts from those who wish to destroy them.
The African Roots and Transnational Nature of Islam
Journal of Islamic Studies and Culture, 2015
Most works dealing with Islam and Africa trace the roots of their connection to the first Hijra when two groups totaling more than 100 Muslims fled persecution in Mecca and arrived in the Kingdom of Axiom (modern-day Ethiopia) in 614 and 615 AD, respectively. A few works would begin with the story of Bilal ibn Rabah or Bilal al-Habashi, the former enslaved Ethiopian born in Mecca during the late 6 th Century (sometime between 578 and 583 AD) and chosen by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) as the first Muezzin (High Priest, or Caller of the Faithful to prayer) of the Islamic faith. More recent sources would add the fact that the African/Black Saudi Arabian Sheikh Adil Kalbani is now the Imam of the Grand Mosque of Mecca. This chronology misses the African roots of Islam: i.e. the story of the Egyptian Hagar or Hājar (in Arabic), the second wife of Abraham or Ibrahim (in Arabic). It also misses the fact that Luqman The Wise, who wrote the 31 st Sura of the Qur'an, was an African. Today, Islam is practiced everywhere and has emerged as the fastest growing din (meaning in Arabic "way of life," as Islam is more than just a religion) in the world. The African flavor to Islamic practices is evident in the Americas, the Caribbean, and many European countries with significant concentrations of African Muslims. Using Transnational Theory, this paper analyzes the challenges African-centered Muslims face in these majority-Christian states in terms of the concept of the sovereign state and the difficulties that this poses. Thus, the following aspects are examined: (a) defining new Africancentered Muslim actors, (b) modes of change African-centered Muslims encounter, (c) factors impacting success of African-centered Muslims, and (d) challenges for the role of the state in dealing with African-centered Muslims. Before doing all this, however, it makes sense to begin with a brief discussion of Transnational Theory, with its attendant concept transnationalism, and Africancentrism for the theoretical grounding of this essay. As I state in my essay titled "A Time Series Analysis of the African Growth and Opportunity Act: Testing the Efficacy of Transnationalism" (Bangura, 2009), transnationalism is defined as the heightened interconnectivity between people around the world and the loosening of boundaries between countries. The concept of transnationalism is credited to Randolph Bourne, an early 20 th Century writer, who used it to describe a new way of thinking about intercultural relationships. Scholars of transnationalism seek to show how the flow of people, ideas, and goods between regions has increased the relevance of globalization. They argue that it makes no sense to link specific nation state boundaries with, for instance, migratory labor forces, transnational corporations, international
Islam and cultural changes in modern africa
the parnassus university of uyo journal of cultural research, 2010
Islam's first contact with Africa was with Ethiopia rather than Egypt and the rest of North Africa. After the initial military phase in North Africa, Islam spread through the population movements and trade. Another factor that helps the spread of Islam in Africa is its adaptability culture where the customs and usages of a society are accommodated to some extent. The paper argues that Africans before the colonial had established Qur'anic schools throughout the continent and some of their languages like Hausa and Fulfulde were being written with Arabic alphabets. The paper further states that Islam had been introduced in the Hausa states as early as 14th century, but by the early 19th century it had little influence on the life of most of the inhabitants. The ruling class who would not want to see their power and authority curtailed by the Shari’ah vigorously opposed the reform of Shehu Uthman and this led to combatant Jihad and subsequent establishment of the Sokoto Caliphate. The system worked vine for a while but the degeneration later set in. The remnant of the degenerated caliphate was what the British had fought with and conquered. The paper concludes that Islam though less widely distributed geographically, but the main political and social forces in the whole continent. Today Islam is probably the fastest growing religion on the African continent, and the proselytization is undertaken by the African Muslims themselves and through peaceful means. Their Jihad is not terrorism; terrorism is under no circumstances permissible in Islam.
The history of Islamic studies in sub-Saharan Africa is as old as the history of Islam in the region itself, and this dates back to the 4th/5th AH10th/11th CE –century. Barring some minor variables, the philosophy, curricula, institutions, and goals of Islamic studies had historically remained the same in all Muslim societies; the discipline is intended to produce spiritual guides, moulders of public morality, and custodians of the intellectual tradition of Islam. Colonialism in sub-Saharan Africa, which spanned the period between the 18th and the 20th centuries, affected the concept, scope, curricula, teacher-student relationships, women education, public and state policies, attempts at reforms and other aspects connected with Islamic studies at all levels. My paper will give a brief analysis of this as a prelude to my investigation into the main theme. “Faced with the challenge of modernity, many Muslims today, rather than accommodate themselves to the age-old fudges … have resorted instead to a kind of textual puritanism. . . . naive literal readings are soldered onto modern preoccupations with the menaces of Zionism, globalisation, and feminism…” (Netton 2006: 127-28). Modernism and Globalisation are just two of several contemporary ideational concepts that have affected the entire philosophy and operation of Islamic studies in the last few years, not only in sub-Saharan Africa, but throughout the Muslim world. The inroad made by salafism from the second half of the 14thAH/20thCE century, the 1979 Iranian Islamic Revolution, the outbreak of liberal democracy which saw the withering of authoritarian regimes and the introduction of modernist, globalist values, the availability of new media facilities for teaching, learning and general information, and finally, the aftermath of the 2001/9/11 cataclysm in the US, have all thrown up new challenges for Muslim societies. The challenges provoked the process of repackaging and reorientation of the philosophy, contents and utilitarian values of Islamic studies at formal and informal levels, viz, at madrasas, intermediate centres of study, and tertiary institutions among others. For my presentation, I intend to take Nigeria as an example and illustrate the specific responses of the Muslim society and the State to these developments. The new media facilities have produced e-learning and e-muftis and the latter are not necessarily experts in the traditional Islamic sciences from which the authority of the traditional ‘ulamā’ derived in the first place. On the whole, it will be established that Islamic studies, as a field of inquiry and engagement in sub-Saharan Africa, has always responded to changing circumstances, and has, through local, cultural dynamics, mediated the shortcomings of Western models to suit local environments. My paper will be divided into 2 parts. Part One will be historical. It will give an account of the origins and development of Islamic studies from the earliest times till the emergence of contemporary challenges of modernity and globalisation. The second part will situate the responses of the Nigerian intellectual tradition to these challenges and will suggest ways for further improvement within a global context.