Islam and Social Change in French West Africa

Abstract

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.

“The Truth about the Desert”: Exile, Memory, and the Making of Communities among Malian Tuareg Refugees in Niger

“…It shows the tension between the Bellah-Ikan's version of history and that of historians stemmed from the fact that scholars focused on the perspective of the freeborn Tuareg. As such, Ahiyou's account substantiates the insights found in studies (Comaroff/Comaroff 1991;Comaroff/Comaroff 1992;Comaroff/Comaroff 1997;Hanretta 2009;Olivier de Sardan 1976) that have sought to address the narratives on which researchers, as well as colonial and postcolonial administrators, rely are not part of an objective historical analysis. Such analysis should, instead, be taken, as scholars suggest, as the working memory of a process of domination to the benefit of specific social segments.…”

Obodji Soboa, chef supérieur des Abbey en Côte d’Ivoire coloniale

“…De nombreux travaux ont été consacrés au cheikh Yacouba Sylla ; voir par exemple Hanretta (2009). 9.…”