Colonial Control, Nigerian Agency, Arab Outreach, and Islamic Education in Northern Nigeria, 1900–1966

Women's Education in the Muslim World

“…Protestant missionaries in sub‐Saharan Africa were particularly active in establishing schools and educating local populations, converting many to Christianity in the process (Frankema ; Nunn , ). However, many areas that are Muslim‐majority today, such as northern Nigeria, did not benefit from the legacy of schools built by missionaries (Platas ; Thurston ). In addition, many Muslims were reluctant to send their children to missionary schools, out of fear that they might be converted to Christianity, relying instead on local Quranic schools, many of which provided few learning opportunities aside from memorizing and reciting the Quran (Launay ; Moore ).…”

NGOization of Islamic Education: The Post-Coup Turkish State and Sufi Orders in Africa South of the Sahara

“…Islamic education increasingly continued to be a conduit for transregional flows of people and ideas during and especially after colonialism. With decolonization, Nasser's Egypt set the stage for a new wave of Arab outreach to Africa south of the Sahara that has shaped the field of Islamic education in important ways (Thurston 2016). Attended by students from south of the Sahara for centuries, Al-Azhar University in Cairo became the main actor of Egypt's diplomatic and Islamic mission in Africa (Ahmed 2001).…”

“…Returning graduates of universities in Arab countries began to reform Islamic education in West Africa in the 1940s (Brenner 2000;Thurston 2016). The reformists modernized Islamic learning by combining the content of the classical Qur'anic education with the form of the colonial school, therefore challenging the hegemony of both the colonial project of education and the Sufi brotherhoods that dominate Qur'anic education (Launay 2016).…”