If
Western perceptions of Middle Eastern peoples and Islam—preserved in and
fuelled by an immense corpus of cultural and academic production—have been,
and still are, characterized by a mixture of fear, fascination, loathing, and
awe, the least we can say is that these perceptions were generated by and
continuously adapted to an actual relationship between East and West. Although
this relationship was often soured by violence and suspicion, it was also, in
many instances, marked by cultural and economic exchange.
The
popular and academic “making” and “imagining” of Africa, as David
Robinson explains in Muslim Societies in African History, was shaped by a
very different experience. Until colonial times, images of sub-Saharan Africa
were primarily the product of wild speculations about a dark and mysterious
unknown. When contact was eventually established, the cultural and historical
interest in the colonized was determined by political, economic, and
“civilizing” motives to such an extent that the academic study of the
colonized peoples and their cultures became a natural extension of these
interests. For political convenience and lack of knowledge, (sub-Saharan) Africa
was declared the orphan of history. Perceived backwardness was taken as
sufficient proof of millennia of stagnation, so from then on, the “white
man” would be the custodian of Africa’s past, as well as its future.
Furthermore, as Islam was considered superficial and imposed on “black”
Africa, the study of African Islam as a powerful social and political agent was
excluded from the early discipline of African Studies.
One
of Robinson’s primary objectives in Muslim Societies in African History
is to bridge the ancient schism between the study of Islam and the study of
Africa brought about by the isolated development of the respective disciplines
of Oriental and African studies. The work is much more than a mere summary of
the current state of academic knowledge and the debate on Islam in Africa as the
flap advertises. Robinson’s quest to reunite African history with one of its
most powerful agents has become a landmark (re)formulation of the complex
mechanisms and processes through which Islam has been appropriated,
internalized, and continually reconceptualized in the face of change by Muslim
communities all over Africa. The author’s use of English as well as
(translated) Arabic and African texts and his inclusion of both local and
national case studies provide the work with a multi-perspectivity that many
earlier works on the topic lack.
Robinson’s
work is occasionally marred by the lack of textual and theological accuracy that
result from the long separation of the scholarly domains of the Arabist and the
African historian. For example, Swahili folk traditions about the Prophet’s
journey through the seven heavens are described as Sufi-related extreme
veneration of the Prophet, rather than being identified as a widely shared
orthodox belief, related in the 17th surah of the Qur’an, Al-Israa’.
Likewise, Robinson inaccurately describes the Islamic legal principle of qiyas
(analogy) as “a method through which precedents of other religions and
cultures can be incorporated,” rather than a concept that was primarily
applied internally to Islamic primary sources.
Such
minor inaccuracies, however, are limited to the introductory chapter on the
fundamental institutions of Islam and do not in any way devaluate the
fascinating case studies that so aptly illustrate the book’s main objective:
to show the countless ways in which African communities have made Islam their
own.
The
variety in scope of the seven case studies allows for a dynamic as well as
profound impression of the myriad ways in which African communities have made
Islam indigenous. The first two chapters focus on the national level; the first
in a context where Muslims formed the majority and the second where they formed
a minority in a Christian state—Morocco and Ethiopia respectively.
The
chapters that follow are temporally and geographically more limited in scope and
therefore allow for a more subtle impression of the conditions and odds for
Islamization on the local level. We get a glimpse of the theological concepts
developed by the 19th century Muslim traders living among the “pagan”
Ashanti, to justify their residence in non-Muslim lands; we share in the
struggle of the 18th century Fulani `Uthman dan Fodio as he waged his jihad
against the corruption and oppression of the local Hausa rulers, and we follow
the subsequent birth of his African caliphate built upon its own unique Islamic
pedagogy and an exclusivist interpretation of the concept of dar
al-Islam.
In
late 19th century Buganda, we witness how, in a small rural community, Islamic
proselytizing experiences a temporal success to eventually be cut short by the
arrival of the technologically advanced Europeans accompanied by an aggressive
Christian missionary movement. In Turko-Egyptian-British dominated Sudan, we see
how one charismatic preacher succeeds in mobilizing a large anti-colonial army
by assuming the role of the Mahdi (Messiah) and presenting his struggle as a
reenactment of the events of the time of the Prophet Muhammad. In the final case
study of the Muridiyya brotherhood in the French colony of Senegal, we see how
the quietist Sufi leader Amadou Bamba, through a balance between silent
resistance, collaboration, and a spiritually motivated distaste of worldly
power, built one of the most influential and durable Islamic movements on the
African continent.
Undoubtedly,
the importance of this publication goes beyond its uniqueness as the first
undergraduate textbook to cover the historical spread and appropriation of Islam
in Africa in such a comprehensive manner. Robinson’s elaboration on the
historical misconceptions that informed the establishment of the
institutionalized study of African peoples and cultures, and his
multidisciplinary approach is an important impetus for the formulation of a new
framework to study Islam in Africa. With his “snapshots” approach, he sets
an example for how such a framework can be applied to real historical
communities.
The
greatest strength of Robinson’s case studies lies in the questions they raise,
questions that are still acutely relevant to Muslim communities today and are at
the center of global debates about Islam, both inside and outside Muslim
communities. What role does Islam play in the integration of Muslim minorities
in non-Muslim lands? Are Muslim minorities in need of new concepts and
applications of Islamic law? What is the meaning of and what are the conditions
for militant jihad? How does foreign domination affect the development of
Islamic thought?
It
is time for both Muslims and Western scholars of Islam to further investigate
the local answers to these questions formulated by the African traders among the
Ashanti, the revolutionaries of Hausaland, or the quietist laborers of the
Muridiyya brotherhood. There is a lot there to be discovered.
**Rahma Bavelaar
is a staff writer and editor of the IslamOnline.net Art &Culture page. She holds an MA in African Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, UK. You can reach her at
shabeel02@yahoo.co.uk.
