Côte d’Ivoire, un islam d’expression française à la fois tangible et restreint

Abstract

International audienceL’article étudie l’évolution des formes de l’islam d’expression française en Côte d’Ivoire depuis leur émergence dans les années 1970 et leur expansion sur les quinze dernières années. Il pose l'hypothèse heuristique d’un islam francophone à double entente, dans la mesure où il apparaît à la fois tangible par sa visibilité croissante notamment dans l’espace public et simultanément restreint par certaines contraintes qui en limitent l’usage dans divers contextes locaux, intimes et écrits. Pour cerner ces ambivalences, l’approche méthodologique privilégie les questionnements sur les analyses catégoriques et une démarche éclatée plutôt que synthétique. Pour enrichir et nuancer les propos, elle confronte aussi le regard d’un militant et intellectuel musulman ivoirien et celui d’une chercheuse en sciences sociales.The article questions the changing forms of French-speaking Islam in Côte d’Ivoire since they first coalesced in the 1970s, with emphasis on the past fifteen years. It argues that French-speaking Islam is a double-edged phenomenon insofar as it appears both tangible with its increasing visibility in public space, and concurrently restricted due to constraints limiting its development in certain local, private and written contexts. To explore these ambivalences, the methodology puts emphasis on questioning as opposed to categorical analyses, and on case studies as opposed to synthesis. The article also crosses the viewpoints of a Muslim militant-cum-intellectual and a researcher in social sciences in the hope to enrich and nuance the inquiry

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