France and Islam in West Africa, 1860-1960

France and Islam in West Africa, 1860-1960
Author: Christopher Harrison
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2003-09-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780521541121

A major contribution to the social, political and intellectual history of the French West African Federation.

A History of Race in Muslim West Africa, 1600–1960

A History of Race in Muslim West Africa, 1600–1960
Author: Bruce S. Hall
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 359
Release: 2011-06-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 1139499084

The mobilization of local ideas about racial difference has been important in generating, and intensifying, civil wars that have occurred since the end of colonial rule in all of the countries that straddle the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. From Sudan to Mauritania, the racial categories deployed in contemporary conflicts often hearken back to an older history in which blackness could be equated with slavery and non-blackness with predatory and uncivilized banditry. This book traces the development of arguments about race over a period of more than 350 years in one important place along the southern edge of the Sahara Desert: the Niger Bend in northern Mali. Using Arabic documents held in Timbuktu, as well as local colonial sources in French and oral interviews, Bruce S. Hall reconstructs an African intellectual history of race that long predated colonial conquest, and which has continued to orient inter-African relations ever since.

Islam and Social Change in French West Africa

Islam and Social Change in French West Africa
Author: Sean Hanretta
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2009-03-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 1139477285

Exploring the history and religious community of a group of Muslim Sufi mystics in colonial French West Africa, this study shows the relationship between religious, social and economic change in the region. It highlights the role that intellectuals played in shaping social and cultural change and illuminates the specific religious ideas and political contexts that gave their efforts meaning. In contrast to depictions that emphasize the importance of international networks and anti-modern reaction in twentieth-century Islamic reform, this book claims that, in West Africa, such movements were driven by local forces and constituted only the most recent round in a set of centuries-old debates about the best way for pious people to confront social injustice. It argues that traditional historical methods prevent an appreciation of Muslim intellectual history in Africa by misunderstanding the nature of information gathering during colonial rule and misconstruing the relationship between documents and oral history.

Islam and Social Change in French West Africa

Islam and Social Change in French West Africa
Author: Sean Hanretta
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2009-03-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 0521899710

Exploring the history and religious community of a group of Muslim Sufi mystics in colonial French West Africa, this study shows the relationship between religious, social and economic change in the region. It highlights the role that intellectuals played in shaping social and cultural change and illuminates the specific religious ideas and political contexts that gave their efforts meaning. In contrast to depictions that emphasize the importance of international networks and anti-modern reaction in twentieth-century Islamic reform, this book claims that, in West Africa, such movements were driven by local forces and constituted only the most recent round in a set of centuries-old debates about the best way for pious people to confront social injustice. It argues that traditional historical methods prevent an appreciation of Muslim intellectual history in Africa by misunderstanding the nature of information gathering during colonial rule and misconstruing the relationship between documents and oral history.

Migration, Jihad, and Muslim Authority in West Africa

Migration, Jihad, and Muslim Authority in West Africa
Author: John H. Hanson
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 238
Release: 1996-10-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780253330888

John H. Hanson's pathbreaking study revises late-nineteenth-century colonialist assumptions about a West African Muslim social movement. Using indigenous Arabic manuscripts, travel narratives, and oral materials, Hanson assesses the meaning of a series of revolts against Islamic authority. The book investigates three political crises that took place at Nioro, a town in the region of Karta in the upper Senegal River valley, conquered during a military jihad or "holy war" by Shaykh Umar Tal. Although Umar and his successors steadfastly promoted jihad, Futanke colonists, defying their leaders, opted to remain settled on the lands they had seized; instead of going to war, the colonists devoted themselves to production of foodstuffs for sale in an increasingly vital regional economy. Incisive analysis of charismatic authority and its limits, as demonstrated by Umar and his son Amadu Sheku, illuminates patterns in the unfolding relations between leaders and followers.

Islam and the West African Novel

Islam and the West African Novel
Author: Ahmed S. Bangura
Publisher: Lynne Rienner Publishers
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2000
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780894108631

"Extending Edward Said's study of the Orientalist tradition in Western scholarship, Bangura traces the origins of contemporary misunderstandings of African Islam to the discourse of colonial literature. Western critics and writers, he observes, typically without access to Islam except through the colonialist tradition, have perpetuated unfounded, politically motivated themes.".

The History of Islam in Africa

The History of Islam in Africa
Author: Nehemia Levtzion
Publisher: Ohio University Press
Total Pages: 605
Release: 2000-03-31
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0821444611

The history of the Islamic faith on the continent of Africa spans fourteen centuries. For the first time in a single volume, The History of Islam in Africa presents a detailed historic mapping of the cultural, political, geographic, and religious past of this significant presence on a continent-wide scale. Bringing together two dozen leading scholars, this comprehensive work treats the historical development of the religion in each major region and examines its effects. Without assuming prior knowledge of the subject on the part of its readers, The History of Islam in Africa is broken down into discrete areas, each devoted to a particular place or theme and each written by experts in that particular arena. The introductory chapters examine the principal “gateways” from abroad through which Islam traditionally has influenced Africans. The following two parts present overviews of Islamic history in West Africa and the Sudanic zone, and in subequatorial Africa. In the final section, the authors discuss important themes that have had an impact on Muslim communities in Africa. Designed as both a reference and a text, The History of Islam in Africa will be an essential tool for libraries, scholars, and students of this growing field. Contributors: Edward A. Alpers, René A. Bravmann, Abdin Chande, Eric Charry, Allan Christelow, Roberta Ann Dunbar, Kenneth W. Harrow, Lansiné Kaba, Lidwien Kapteijns, Nehemia Levtzion, William F. S. Miles, David Owusu-Ansah, M. N. Pearson, Randall L. Pouwels, Stefan Reichmuth, David Robinson, Peter von Sivers, Robert C.-H. Shell, Jay Spaulding, David C. Sperling with Jose H. Kagabo, Jean-Louis Triaud, Knut S. Vikør, John O. Voll, and Ivor Wilks

The End of Empire in French West Africa

The End of Empire in French West Africa
Author: Tony Chafer
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2002-06-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1845206304

In an effort to restore its world-power status after the humiliation of defeat and occupation, France was eager to maintain its overseas empire at the end of the Second World War. Yet just fifteen years later France had decolonized, and by 1960 only a few small island territories remained under French control.The process of decolonization in Indochina and Algeria has been widely studied, but much less has been written about decolonization in France's largest colony, French West Africa. Here, the French approach was regarded as exemplary -- that is, a smooth transition successfully managed by well intentioned French politicians and enlightened African leaders. Overturning this received wisdom, Chafer argues that the rapid unfurling of events after the Second World War was a complex , piecemeal and unpredictable process, resulting in a 'successful decolonization' that was achieved largely by accident. At independence, the winners assumed the reins of political power, while the losers were often repressed, imprisoned or silenced.This important book challenges the traditional dichotomy between 'imperial' and 'colonial' history and will be of interest to students of imperial and French history, politics and international relations, development and post-colonial studies.

Colonial and Post-colonial Governance of Islam

Colonial and Post-colonial Governance of Islam
Author: Marcel Maussen
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2011
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9089643567

Colonial and post-colonial governance of Islam" is een heldere weergave van de kansen en belemmeringen voor de islam vanuit een bestuurlijke benadering met speciale aandacht voor de voortdurende strijd rond de codificatie van islamitisch onderwijs, religieuze autoriteit, wetgeving en praktijk. De auteurs onderzoeken de overeenkomsten en verschillen van de islam in het Britse, Franse en Portugese koloniale bestuur. Zij maken gebruik van hun expertise om de aard van de regelgeving in verschillende historische periodes en geografische gebieden te analyseren. Deze studie opent nieuwe mogelijkheden voor mondiaal onderzoek naar studies van de islam.

Religion, Media, and Marginality in Modern Africa

Religion, Media, and Marginality in Modern Africa
Author: Felicitas Becker
Publisher: Ohio University Press
Total Pages: 406
Release: 2018-02-02
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 082144624X

In recent years, anthropologists, historians, and others have been drawn to study the profuse and creative usages of digital media by religious movements. At the same time, scholars of Christian Africa have long been concerned with the history of textual culture, the politics of Bible translation, and the status of the vernacular in Christianity. Students of Islam in Africa have similarly examined politics of knowledge, the transmission of learning in written form, and the influence of new media. Until now, however, these arenas—Christianity and Islam, digital media and “old” media—have been studied separately. Religion, Media, and Marginality in Modern Africa is one of the first volumes to put new media and old media into significant conversation with one another, and also offers a rare comparison between Christianity and Islam in Africa. The contributors find many previously unacknowledged correspondences among different media and between the two faiths. In the process they challenge the technological determinism—the notion that certain types of media generate particular forms of religious expression—that haunts many studies. In evaluating how media usage and religious commitment intersect in the social, cultural, and political landscapes of modern Africa, this collection will contribute to the development of new paradigms for media and religious studies. Contributors: Heike Behrend, Andre Chappatte, Maria Frahm-Arp, David Gordon, Liz Gunner, Bruce S. Hall, Sean Hanretta, Jorg Haustein, Katrien Pype, and Asonzeh Ukah.