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IslamOnline.net Art & Culture Page Presents: Muslim Cultures in Africa: Snapshots of a Diverse Continent Although roughly half of the inhabitants of sub-Saharan Africa are Muslim, neither the patterns of (historical) Islamization nor the ways in which African communities have integrated Islam into their cultural practices and translated their religious sentiments into artistic expression are very well known. This lack of knowledge and interest, which has historically marked both the West’s and the Arabs’ engagement with “Black” Africa, can be traced to deep-rooted preconceptions and prejudices that have their roots in the precolonial period and in many cases have persisted into the present. A very persistent prejudice is the idea that sub-Saharan Africa has been only recently Islamized and that African Muslims are not as “orthodox” as Muslims from the Islamic “heartlands.” Considering that many parts of Africa were in fact in contact with Islamic religion and culture from its very inception (think of the exile of some of the Prophet’s followers in Ethiopia) or at least from the first few decades after the death of Prophet Mohammad through trade, migration, missionary activities, and conquest, these kind of generalizations do not stand the test of historical and contemporary scrutiny. To challenge the misconceptions about Islamic culture in Sub-Saharan Africa and contribute to a greater understanding of and familiarity with the wealth of African-Islamic cultural and artistic expressions, the IslamOnline.net Art & Culture Page presents the special page Islamic Culture in Africa: Snapshots of a Diverse Continent. The page will be regularly updated with a variety of materials such as articles, interviews, audio files, and photo galleries that reflect the diversity of African-Islamic religious expression. |
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