While Islamic studies flourish in in anthropology is still perceived mostly as extrinsic to indigenous cultures. We need to resituate West Africa in our imagination by placing its historical links to Islam and the Mediterranean at the center of our view of it. Islam and West African Anthropology Mahir Şaul

West African anthropology carries the burden of a chasm between what is considered traditional or authentically African and Islamic. This reveals itself in ignoring Islam, misrecognizing the cultural legacy of Islam in today’s lives beyond self-professed , and exaggerating the contrast between the “pre” and the “post” in recent cases of conver- sion. A more balanced, historically informed understanding of contemporary Africa requires greater awareness of the central role of Mediterranean links and the canvas of meaning deposited by Islam. Sections on mobility and literacy provide a rapid survey of these themes, which are emblematic of what social anthropologists ought to bring to the forefront of their vision of West Africa, though typically they do not. A section on politics explores the framework for the impact of Islam, and a final section, on mimesis, discusses some cultural pro- cesses still at work. We need to reimagine West Africa, both to reach a new cosmopolitanism to transcend the we–they contrast, and to allow anthropology to make more significant contributions to the study of contemporary Africa.

In West African anthropology, a glass wall separates the small room reserved for Islam from the great hall exhibiting the ethnographic splendors of sub- Saharan cultures. Showcased in the small room are classical pioneers in (Copans 1980; Cruise O’Brien 1971), a younger generation of scholars on (Soares 2005), and milestones of northern , going back to the venerable name of S. F. Nadel (1946). There is no question of the quality of what is found there; the problem is how thoroughly the glass wall divides the two sides. Islam is relevant, one would think from the rest of the anthropologi- cal literature, only for the specialist of this religion, or for those interested in recent developments in limited areas of West Africa. What is genuinely African has nothing to do with it. The anthropologist interested in shrines, ancestors, cosmogony, or agriculture does not need to know much about it. It is as if the broader academic division of labor between the orientalist tradition, specializing in scriptural civilizations, and the ethnological tradi- tion, specializing in “native life,” is reproduced within anthropology itself.

- - - “divination I think the lack the think I 1 al-raml ( for “good omen,” also “fortune”), also omen,” “good for (Arabic al-fa’l The scant attention paid to Islam in the anthropology of Africa West For several centuries, Islam served as a template and vehicle for the In this respect, the work of social anthropologists of West Africa has between Muslim and non-Muslim specialists can account for such adoption such for account can specialists non-Muslim and Muslim between Fon-speakers among indigenization further its for and Nigeria, in and Mali in of the Republic of (Brenner 2000:153–162). The Ifa oracle became at some point a focus for resistance to Islam, suggesting how awareness of who are not Muslim. A novice in Nigerian studies would be surprised to dis to surprised be would studies Nigerian in novice A Muslim. not are who Ifa the that Yoruba: the on literature the in buried information certain cover from name its derives oracle that geomancy astronomical of type a with procedure basic its shares it that existed in Italy and France until at least the seventeenth and century, that Orunmila is possibly a Yoruba vocalization of Arabic by sand” (Morton-Williams 1966:407). The sharing of esoteric knowledge can be illustrated from literature on the the Yoruba, largest for any ethnic category in Africa. chapter The in Yoruba a widely used reader states in its reportsit although Christianity, and Islam omit will it that section religion areas two in percent 20 and 6 only were cults traditional of devotees the that those for also distorting is omission The 1965:574). (Lloyd studied author the resurfaces today, sometimes stripped of its overt religious significance, on all all on significance, religious overt its of stripped sometimes today, resurfaces cannot fully make sense of the ongoing sides of local social boundaries. We conversations in West Africa, between Muslims and non-Muslims, among of substratum this considering without Christians, among even or Muslims, many of Islamization thorough and rapid The connections. historical wider parts of the region, under colonial administrations unfriendly to Islam, is a would throw considerable light. topic on which earlier historical contacts near the center of our training and thinking—as a major ingredient of West and not as a “foreign” incursion. historical heritage, Africa’s Europe, Mediterranean, the and Africa West between traits many of exchange and people shaped created thus meanings of canvas The East. Middle the and content cultural This Muslims. confessed of ranks the beyond well milieus ited the contribution that anthropologists could make to the understanding the to make could anthropologists that contribution the ited African in participating from them hindered have and Africa, West modern of that weight effortthe intellectuals’ Given stereotypes. colonial overhaul to anthropology has had in all types of social and humanistic studies of West Africa, the issue has relevance beyond the borders of one discipline. I sug Islam putting by imagination, our in Africa West resituate we that here gest with the Mediterranean basin, Europe, and West Asia. with the Mediterranean West basin, Europe, and profoundly diverged from the work region. of this in past the historians, of component Islamic who the on focused have increasingly of interest in past cultural flows betweenWest Africa and the neighboring in introduced thinking of patterns of perpetuation unrecognized an is regions patternslim These have understanding. distort our and period colonial the Anthropological accounts of the colonial period exude the language of “first “first of language the exude period colonial the of accounts Anthropological baseline the at nod a most at finds one anthropology, typical In encounter.” links earlier of recognition little but trade, Atlantic post-sixteenth-century of

africatoday  Islam and West African Anthropology africatoday  Mahir Şaul ------here is a gloss for conversion, in introduction The tight separation of Islam and pre-Islam owes much to colonial Islam and traditional Africa are conceptually kept apart, even in set In French ethnography, the Dogon have a comparable status. The Continuing indifference to Islam in Yoruba anthropology can be illus be can anthropology Yoruba in Islam to indifference Continuing the recent episode of conversion. circumstances: the need to justify military occupation, and later the con cerns of political control, made European observers reluctant to recognize tury. A different kind of study on historical “memory” is conceivable in this in conceivable is “memory” historical on study of kind different A tury. in oppositions and borders, fluctuating interactions, past of echo the on area, this seemingly abandoned and yet remembered custom, on how the pagan was constructed by the presence of the Muslim and the extent this helps to understand the way self-confessed today’s neo-Muslims which imagine their non-Muslim forebears. Such a study would presuppose a continuum, tearing down the firewall between the historical “pre” and the “post” of ritual houses, sacred groves, initiations, secrets, and ritual prescriptions” that remember we hall!—until great the of indeed, worthy, How (2005:579). the mid-Atlantic coast people of Africa, West of which these few thousand are part, have included Muslims, and centers collaboration and trade well-documented of with century, thirteenth the Islamic since political power, among non-Muslims, Muslims, and Europeans since the seventeenth cen tings that are now predominantly Muslim. Berliner’s recent study in , Guinea, in study recent Berliner’s Muslim. predominantly now are that tings . . . speaking (e)thnographically . . . cultivators rice thousand “six among set practically unknown,” investigates what children of first-generation obser vant Muslims say about ritual practices that predate “the introduction of Islam” (2005:580. The word the 1950s; before then, the people were “great sculptors, ritual specialists, and drinkers of palm wine,” with a custom involving “invisible entities, thought, but assiduously avoided any reference to obvious connections to to According 2001). Tamari 1984; (Brenner Bandiagara in centers Islamic the Chris contemporary of impact the overlooked also they (2004:57), Beek van tian missionary activity on their Dogon interlocutors, thereby missing the opportunityresonated with this heritage. of exploring how it an erudite chapter on historical Islam anthropology in (2000) Peel’s heralds a new attitude. Marcel of subjects favored the were Mali of Manding-Bamana the and Dogon Griaule and his followers. Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen were fond drawing of parallels between their findings and ancient Egyptian and Greek trated with Apter’s highly acclaimed contribution on Yoruba religion (1992). (1992). religion Yoruba on contribution acclaimed highly Apter’s with trated had undergraduates of group A class. a in reading as book Apter’s used have I the task of preparing, from outside sources, a small report on the Yoruba. They encountered much discussion of Yoruba Muslims in the that resources they consulted (encyclopedias, websites, etc.), at such variance from the picture of their anthropological reading as the inclusion of upon the right literature. Let us hope whether they had hit to make them uncertain Islamic cultural connections complicates and deepens our understanding of understanding our deepens and complicates connections cultural Islamic developments. African West

------Faidherbe’s Faidherbe’s pioneering linguistic classification, combined with nine It would be credulous to attribute the transformation we are con We can contrast the ethnographic representation of West Africa startAfrica West of representation ethnographic the contrast can We of the West African savanna were distinct from those north of the Senegal River, and their specificity lay in that each linguistic communitywas pro trade trans-Saharan and Islam other. any from separate and original foundly places Amselle groups. ethnic of juxtaposition this on effect pernicious a had At the same time, Faidherbe produced considerable ethnographic and lin guistic work, and participated in policymaking, providing the foundation became time due in which Africa, sub-Saharan conceiving of way new a for 1996:117–150; (Amselle scholarship for fountainhead a and ideology colonial Manning 1998:12–14). societies the that conception novel the underlay ideas, racial teenth-century templating to the influence of one or two persons, but key individuals who imagina European in change sea this for signposts and servedprecursors as tion of West Africa can be identified. One of them the mid-nineteenth-century was Louisgovernor of Faidherbe, the embryonic colony of Senegal, mostly known as the person who set the stage for the aggressive policy of expansion to the interior, which came to fruition a generation after him. sources in the orbit of Islam. Conceptions had not yet changed at the dawn of the period of European explorations, for example, when René Caillié tra near now lies that Mali southeastern in area the north, to south from versed, the border with , armed with an approximate Arabic learned among the Brakna Moors and pretending to be a young origin (Caillié [1830] 1979). man of Egyptian ing in the end of the nineteenth century with European representations from from representations European with century nineteenth the of end the in ing West of representations pictorial Renaissance colonization. before period the Africans may have been fanciful, but made no clear distinction the Black between and the Moor, both presented in vaguely Islamic accoutrements (Mark 1974). This was consonant with the fact Mediterranean that from most or sources of Islamic what from derived Europe Africa West about knew Africa from the unsavory historical contest between east relocating it in and more fragrant west, exotic nature. As and well, Removal in humility present. and not self- was stake professional a if wonder should we criticism, and alien cardinally discovery the made history from study of subject the of all the more spectacular. in the encounter with Native Americans and Pacific Islanders), rather than under categories that made them old adversaries. Islam is to the sort not of reshaping involved amenable in romantic Griaule’s metaphysics of the and close too Muslims, Other. of kind different totally a represents it Dogon; too well known to Europe, served as cosmic foil against which Europeans defined themselves as world civilization (Eaton1993:2).The extirpation of Islam was for European observers a way of distancing the image of West West Africa’s connections to Africa’s neighboring West world areas. It was comforting to historyworld of stage the into bursting as subjects native the with of think established thinking of way (a domination colonial and exploration European

africatoday  Islam and West African Anthropology africatoday  Mahir Şaul - - - - - beads in the philosophy of millefiori politique des races for a similar pattern of planetary connections, which We should be careful to We distinguish what is proposed here from diffu One way to reorient this inherited image of West Africa is to bring multiple modernities, as Young (2003:2) puts it. Appadurai (1996) offered the the offered (1996) Appadurai it. puts (2003:2) Young as modernities, multiple suggestive expression “production of to locality,” point out that the global forces of economic integration and culture flows of our age do not seem to despite centuries, past In homogeneity. world of terminus a to us moving be The view I offer is instead one of historical exchange, absorption, adaptation, adaptation, absorption, exchange, historical of one instead is offer I view The because agency, to opposed been has Diffusion tandem. in developments and it seems to be underlain by an epidemiological model, as if the proclivity to spread is inherent in the cultural item itself. To choose, adopt, assimi I reason, this For contrarythe on require imitate or late, agency. of exercise am somewhat uncomfortable with the more recent image (of structuralist and bricolage ecstatic endlessly to home as Africa postmodern of inspiration) with West African discoveries includes snippets that are the ethnographic equivalent of tourists’ wonder at the encounter of African marketplace. stall-booth of a West irrevoca elements cultural tie to seems diffusion of vocabulary The sionism. receivers. the to foreign forever them keeping origin, of place alleged an to bly and continued in tandem up until the onset of colonialism, at the turn of anthro in style good as recognized be to came What century. twentieth the pology discourages the study of the traces and effects of this interaction, and they gradually sank into oblivion. Christopher Steiner (1994:127–128) valued become have beads trade European nineteenth-century how describes purchase enthusiastically expatriates and dealers, tourists, items: collector’s filled notebook field a many think I art. ethnic were they if as Africa, in them on the other. More we properly, should call it the Afro-Eurasian ecumene. the together bound transformativeinfluences of layers expanse, vast this In term the coined Curtin Philip recently, More people. of millions of destinies Atlantic Community started to take shape in the sixteenth century. Before the Atlantic munity was Com a Mediterranean Community, which had lasted much longer, back into our field of vision the region’s historical ties to the Mediterranean the to ties historical region’s the vision of field our into back connected Africa West Europe, southern and East Middle the Through world. concept the introduced (1963) McNeill historian The Eurasia. of rest the with of Eurasian ecumene, joining the Mediterranean rim with Greater China, India, and the Malay Archipelago on the one hand, and northern Europe administration administration that blended in French West Africa direct and indirect rule Africa black tribal of separation conceptual The manner. peculiar own its in concerncorollarythe practical in a had Mediterranean Africa from Muslim tried They threat. military as Islam with governments French and British of Muslims, other and Arabs from subjects Muslim African West their off cut to and to slow down the rate of conversion (for the French colonial world, see 2000:177). and Royer 2001; Triaud Conklin 1997; Harrison 1988; S¸aul Faidherbe Faidherbe at the head of a major lineage of thought, including the explorer Paul Lyautey, H. L. Ponty, W. as such writer-administrators Binger, Gustave Marty, and Maurice Delafosse, and the - - - - - Many West African Many languages West adopted these names not 2 In premodern times, the dry expanse of the Sahara slowed down con Islam arrivedAfrica more in than sub-Saharan a West thousand years For some West Africans, Islam has been for centuries the basis of a ago, following the westernmost of its between the Mediterranean coast threeand the interior: the trade routes leading major historical pathways cross shortest the Niger, central the to Morocco southern in Sijilmasa from River Niger central the In desert. the of environment inhospitable the of ing tacts between North and West Africa, but only in the manner of a porous membrane. It is no small detail for European history that much of the gold sup was Americas the of discovery the before Europe Western in circulating processes intellectual the was counterpart Its trade. African West the by plied present focus. Africa—my associated with Islam in West this instance of borrowing. We further know that the seven-day week did Mesopotamia. to traced be can and Christianity, or Islam with originate not It calendars. Christian and Jewish in and world, Arab the in adoption an is It has the same Africa status and in Euro-America. West In contrast, to think minds our free helping by liberating, be can elements these share we how of from a few layers of exoticizing filter. But the day-names used across the region are local Alamisa, Araba, vocalizations Talata, Ntene, ‘Sunday’, of Kari Juula: equivalents—in Arabic their Jejuma, and Sibiri. directly from Arabic, but from a neighboring African language, as they did for a stress vast “borrowing”number of words in of these Arabic origin. To cases would reveal that we place West Africa in a special space. The same seven-day week reached Europe with Christianity, but we do not think in existence of historical links, which make West Africa like any other place on earth. Consider the seven-day week, which is part of the reckoning of time in many areas of the African West savanna. Combined with a shorter areas), Moose in three-day areas, Juula and Senufo in (five-day week market which generates a longer cycle 35 (of, or say, 21 days), it shapes local ritual and agricultural calendars, and may no longer be associated with Islam. universal identity, as Christianity, mathematics, Africans Many identity. science, European of foundations the or considered are losophy Greek phi and Islamic including web cultural a in live Islam with identify not do who The being. their of parcel and part as experienced elements Mediterranenan focus should be not on the former foreignness of each element, but on the simple aggregation, but in original patternswhich original in but aggregation, simple behavior, and thought of forms.parent the of premodernany In to back at traced as be times, cannot locals a resource on which elements was availability of foreign present, the My trajectories. local in turns fateful in resulted sometimes and seize, could conclusion is that for all the communities and places of the past, we need to keep in sight that they also participated in a world-time, which has an their present. “active presence” in different different modalities of contact and economic process, economic as rhythms, varying at articula place, take did obviously culture of flow the and tion did the “production of The locality.” coalescence of features results not in

africatoday  Islam and West African Anthropology africatoday  Mahir Şaul - - - - script. It was only in the early seventeenth cen seventeenth early the in only was It script. kufi and the and madhab In what follows, I focus on four themes from the . Africa. West of history the from themes four on focus I follows, what In Thus, in its earliest and most important phase of expansion, Islam anthropologists need to remember to modify their toward Africa. West The third inherited is a detour on politics, highlighting disposition cultural processes other than opposition or conversion. The fourth, mimetic appro priation, complements the discussion on politics. The whole represents an see Moraes Farias 2003:303.) With this connection, influences from Egypt and the Middle East started flowing toWest Africa constituting directly, a influence. Mediterranean and Islamization of layer recent more recognizably east, and west from influences Islamic (Burkina-), region Volta the In Manding and Hausa, met and blended. Two of these are mobility and literacy, which seem emblematic of what together in the Western end of the Maghrib, including adherence to the tury that a more central route of connection to the Middle East opened up, starting from and Tripoli reaching Hausa country in what is now northern Kat Agades, Ghat, Murzuk, through stages arduous long, of way by Nigeria, view; this qualify may inscriptions lapidary on research (New Kano. and sina, lands. Through the movement of ideas and people, and through conversions, conversions, through and people, and ideas of movement the Through lands. Gambia and Senegal upper the through southward, disseminated then Islam valleys. When it reached the rainforest, it spread eastward again, through a corridor borderline (Levtzion 1968:10–18). along the forest and savanna moved in West Africa mostly from west to east, and in two parallel lines brought were that preservedfeatures it development, this In progression. of area, Islam became acclimatized, generated its own distinctive scholarly toward east and west in the grass conventions and institutions, and spread ------Pilgrimage to Mecca by West African Muslims continued in subse Any discussion of traveling Muslims has to start with the hajj, the important enough to be written about include an episode of hajj. A belt of Chad Lake from stretches origin African West of groups kinship and villages permanentlyto origin its owing Sea, Red the to to route en pilgrims settled 1990:201). (Stewart traffic centuries-long this to testimony a Arabia, from or pious men, not only from the towns of the southern Sahara or the Sahel, but Sahel, the or Sahara southern the of towns the from only not men, pious savanna southern the of part the and region, Volta the , from also included and now Benin. in In Côte the d’Ivoire, seventeenth Ghana, Togo, and eighteenth centuries, from the Bandama River to towns that the had Volta an valleys, important Islamic presence, such as Kong and organized Bouna, caravans of pilgrims (Boutillier 1993:347). were who Muslims African West nineteenth-century and eighteenth- many The biographies of informative Arab account of the visit, written by al-Umari, who went to Cairo twelve years after the event, can be found in Levtzion and Hopkins (1981:268–273). con political and economic with oscillating numbers their centuries, quent and scholars means: modest more of people were these of most and ditions, therefore familiar, but without the larger cultural context, it appears as a sin a as appears it context, cultural larger the without but familiar, therefore performedwho rulers Songhay and Malian six of one was Musa event. gular the holy act, all within the span of three centuries. In Islamic history this subjects their than inclined less rulerswere Muslim because remarkable, is to perform the hajj. On his way to Arabia, Musa amazed the population Anecdotes of lifestyle. his of opulence the and retinue his of size the with Cairo of his passage eventually found their way to European sources; the most another image, a multitude of stable cultures, which the task of anthropology anthropology of task the which cultures, stable of multitude a image, another to paragraphs few a dedicate to worthwhile is it time, a at one describe to is Africa. travel in precolonial West pilgrimage to Mecca. Malian ruler Mansa 1324–1325 Musa’s pilgrimage to is and venues, popular numerous in described been has Islam of city holy the Europe is a standard observation in the specialist literature. Not (Eickelman too topic this long on volume beautiful a edited anthropologists two ago, mobility the although Africa, West truefor also is This 1990). Piscatori and of both Muslim and non-Muslim has been downplayed in common percep tions. Since the stories of the “discovery” of the African interior by Euro to backdrop as serving natives, stationary omission by imply explorers pean convince the reluctant by the force of syllogism. the reluctant by the convince Mobility The high propensity of Muslims, throughout centuries, to move to distant lands in numbers that are startling from the perspective of premodern incursion incursion into the historical and ethnographic literature, perforce idiosyn cratic; it aims to add resolve onto the desire for a new perspective, which I hope is already felt by many in the scholarly community, rather than to

africatoday 10 Islam and West African Anthropology africatoday 11 Mahir Şaul - - - The wanderlust ignited by the performance of the hajj finds its paragon paragon its finds hajj the of performance the by ignited wanderlust The Pilgrims brought back from the hajj world news, fresh knowledge, Most pilgrims who went overland passed through the great cosmopoli great the through passed overland went who pilgrims Most In In the days before the modern means of travel, a journey to the holy contacts, objects, and occasionally persons. Mansa Musa returned from his pilgrimage in the company of jurists and scholars, and an Andalusian poet and architect, Abu Ishaq al-Sahili, who built him a mosque palace of and the Timbuktu great (Levtzion 2000:68–69). At the end of the fifteenth in the person of ibn Battuta, who in 1325 set out of his native for Tangier visits later years twenty-nine accomplish to travel, to continued but Mecca, 73,000 forty-fourof total in today estimated an lying lands for to countries, miles through land and sea (Dunn 1986:3), making him the greatest known traveler of premodern times. bul to conceal that he was Christian, but his cover was blown when a man Timbuktu of gate the at Turkish in him with conversation a engage to tried (Barth 1857–1858:4:404–405). Grosz-Ngate (2006) discusses other examples of this erudite encounter explorer’s with well-traveled coevals, including a one who could tell stories about the man who addressed him in Greek, and English from his stay in Bombay. targeted a closer Mediterranean seaport, from which they sailed part of the the or Istanbul, Morocco, Arabia. to caravan overland an joining before way, ports of the Levant were common transit points for them, as Clapperton ([1829] 1966:206) discovered in Sokoto. Underestimating the cosmopolitan connections of West Africans could have unforeseen consequences for the nineteenth-century European explorers. In the last leg of reaching Timbuktu, Heinrich his Barth pretended to trip be a before Muslim from Istan region region not so many years ago, I met elderly Marka Muslims who desired a Mecca. to pilgrimage a than dearly more Jerusalem to pilgrimage tan center of Cairo. In 1817, Hutchinson encountered in Kumasi a Muslim over victory Nelson’s at eyewitness an been apparently had who Jenne from others Some 1968:200). (Goody coast Egyptian the off 1798 in fleet French the that that would allow one to continue the but journey, also to take advantage of could but life-turning a event, was hajj The scholars. famous of teaching the in stay The career. scholastic eminent locally a crown to undertaken be also vari to visits hajj, initial the after involved, usually itself Arabia) (West Hijaz Jerusalem to pilgrimage minor a with augmented commonly was It cities. ous (ziyara), which houses the second-holiest shrine for Muslims. In the Volta lands lands was naturally quite different from the hajj package deals of Al- today. these how and followed travelers the routes the describes (1972:92–113) Naqar developed over the centuries; Birks 1978 focuses on the twentieth century. From West Africa, it took five to It way. the of eight out totally today appear might that lands to detours large with years to accomplish resources the earn the to order journey, in partly stopovers, extended and frequent involved At present, relative to population West Africa sends as high a rate of pilgrims pilgrims of rate a high as sends Africa West population to relative present, At to Mecca as any Islamized region in the world, and irrespective of income (Bianchi 2006: 61–63). differences ------“.” On the same Muslims day, across the world typically sac The hajj has a profound impact on the sense of the self. In addition to The hajj has a profound impact on the Religious Religious innovations and interpretations diffused from the Hijaz, a universal tradition. Even in the daily routine of turning an toward the Kaaba observant in prayer reorients and Muslim, resignifies local space by tribal fragmented the from distance long a expanse, global a of part it making world of ethnography. mand to Abraham to sacrifice his son. West In Africanfrom colonial Frenchtimes, this inherited festival carries the remarkable name Tabaski—a marvelous glimpse at the underground rivers that connect Hebrew-Greek the from derivation Berber Afro-Eurasian a be to seems it because cultures, Pasch rifice a lamb, joining in imagination the pilgrims who reenact the story of and community single a to belonging of sense their refreshing and Abraham he entered this buildingto remove its tribal idols and The Kaaba restore covenant stands purity. with for the God’s Muslim community. its original In pilgrimage, Muslims live intensely a return to the sources of Islam with of mindful “more become They kindred. worldwide of experience sensory a God’s indifference to their differences” (Bianchi 2006: 45). The hajj rituals end with the Feast of Sacrifice (Id al-Adha), commemorating God’s com United States, a small African-American community maintains close ties to ties close maintains community African-American small a States, United 1995:93). the Senegalese brotherhoods (McCloud facilitating the circulation of ideas, it sharpens the feeling for global build com cube-shaped the pilgrimage, the of focus The Muslims. among munity ing called Kaaba, was built, according to Muslim tradition, by the Prophet Medina, in exile his from returned Prophet the When Abraham. munity around him, which at the time of the investigation was in full swing full in was investigation the of time the at which him, around munity North in originated had which Tijaniyya, leaders. younger under growing and Africa, became in the nineteenth century the most important Sufi order in West Africa, largely aided by the hajj connections to the Hijaz. It is now a major intellectual export of Africa: West in in the Turkey 1950s, Tijaniyya the in state; Europeanizing the opposing in vanguard the assumed adherents Faso, I met an elderly religious leader of Bisa origin, Mahamudu, who had gone to hajj with a passport issued for him in Cameroon in 1930. He had spent in Arabia eight years to continue his teacher originally advanced from Masina, education who introduced him under to the way a of Tijani teacher, well–known a became Mahamudu return his Upon 1984). (S¸aul yya com ruralnew a Tijaniyya founded and conversions, numerous stimulated established an advanced school in Gao. an advanced school established which continued to be a center for the transmission of ideas, also from one West African to another, well into the twentieth century. In Medina and Riyadh, several African teachers held schools, which Stewart 1988:197; (Harrison pilgrims sub-Saharan served with popular particularly as hospices 1990:201). In 1978, during fieldwork in southern Moose country, Burkina century, century, the Songhay ruler Muhammad Askia met in Cairo, on his way to Mecca, the scholar al Suyuti, who introduced Askia him Muhammad country, to his to returned he the when and 2000:70), Abbasid (Levtzion caliph

africatoday 12 Islam and West African Anthropology africatoday 13 Mahir Şaul - - - - - societies of Manding- and Senufo-speaking areas of Mali and Mali of areas Senufo-speaking and Manding- of societies jo Pursuit of knowledge was an important motivation for travel. Muslims Muslims travel. for motivation important an was knowledge of Pursuit Within West Africa, Within West long-distance trade and migration mixed people, Travel Travel created a two-way traffic. The canvas of Islamic civilization For many non-Muslim West Africans, Mecca became a religious icon. icon. religious a became Mecca Africans, West non-Muslim many For illustrates this mobility 1967a). (Wilks He was born but in edu Timbuktu, east miles thousand a (about Katsina from came mother His Jenne. in cated of Jenne), where his father conducted trade trips. Before reaching the age of nine, he had traveled with his tutor more than 600 miles. Then he spent a friends that they had left behind (Binger [1892] 1980:1:421). friends that they had left behind (Binger placed a high value on the peripatetic tradition of education, and aspiring scholarship for Travel another. to master renowned one from went scholars resulted in diffuse networks of acquaintances, friends, and soulmates, and of biography The innovations. and news of diffusion rapid the for accounted family, clerical a to century eighteenth the in born boy a al-Siddiq, Bakr Abu blood persons, undertaken with clear motives, which can be recovered from recovered be can which motives, clear with undertaken persons, blood memory. Migrant communities in West Africa predate European colonial ism. In 1888, the French explorer Gustave Binger encountered around the town of Wahabu, Burkina Faso, numerous immigrants Bakel, areas more from than 800 miles to the west, who had arrived and so recently that they gathered around his men to ask about news of the relatives and always transitory; some of them settled down and left descendants in the the between scattered places in today heard claims proud in evinced as area, Sahel and the rainforest. explaining the wide dispersion of Manding-, Hausa-, and Jerma-speakingcommunities. These movements were amorphous not drifts slow, of popu lations blind to their fate and trajectory, but planned actions of flesh-and- 2000:191). In 1822, Englishmen in Cape Coast received an elderly merchant merchant elderly an received Coast Cape in Englishmen 1822, In 2000:191). hailing from Astrakhan, who had crossed West Africa starting and at passing through Ghat, Agades, Tripoli Katsina, Kano, Jenne, Timbuktu, Kong, Bouna, and Salaga, to end up as guest of the Asantehene in Kumasi (Wilks 1967c). West of Kano, he had seen two other Europeans of undetermined nationality, who had had a boat accident on the Niger. Visitors were not lian cities of West Africa from the Middle East, Spain, and North Africa, including renegade Christians, as in the case of Judar army, Pasha’s which in cities, Sahelian The 1591. in sultan Moroccan the for Timbuktu occupied turn, maintained trade and scholarly relations with localities in the south British first the century, nineteenth early the In 1976). (Stewart savanna ern (Peel Constantinople and Tunis from traders met Lagos visiting missionaries Mecca in the in Mecca below. will be discussed Burkina Faso encouraged not only Africans to travel abroad, but also outsiders to travel to West Africa. After Mansa Musa returned from his hajj, the Alexandrian merchant Saraj al-Din followed to claim a debt from extended scholars, him. and Traders, adventurers a arrived in the great Sahe loan that he had Oduduwa, Oduduwa, the mythical father of all , for to example, have is arrived said from Mecca (Chazan and Abitbol 1988:31). References to - - - - - What is most commonly known about writing in West Africa is the Kabora, and commercial diasporas extended out of them after the eleventh recently, More 2000:426). Reichmuth 2000:3; Pouwels and (Levtzion century the Arabic collection of the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana that resulted from manuscript-collection drives since the 1950s scholarship carried out in Sahelian cities, the first solid account of which was provided by Heinrich Barth (1857–1858:4: efforts ch. translation the 66). to thanks Timbuktu period, authors colonial the in known better became of scholars such as Octave Houdas and Maurice Delafosse (for an update, see Hunwick 1999). Other important centers of literacy Africa, existed such as the fabled in Gana, and on West the Niger valley Ja (Dia), Gao, and a setting that includes not only Arabic writing for at least three centuries new whole a of invention local the also but one, than more for English and non and literate about write to appropriate more be not it Would alphabet. literate persons, rather than cultures or societies, and the different uses to speaking without lifetime, a in evolve may which literacy, put people which of centuries? of Islamic writing in African West culture history (1968, 1971) stimulated of slant curious the displays this of some but work, anthropological further ofdiscussionuses the on glass.Bledsoe’s theof emptyhalf focusingthe on literacy among the Mende of , for example, stresses how they reinterpretedandadapted ittotheir owncultural environment (1986:204). only absorbing of capable organism, self-contained a as then appears Culture elements that it can completelydigest withoutitself changing, and thisin ing that can be called “interiority,” which, according to Ong (1982), resulted resulted (1982), Ong to according which, “interiority,” called be can that ing in achieved fully technology, print then and solitaryreading,writing, from Europe during the nineteenth In century. premodern settings, the interac Watt and Goody nature. different a of was literacy and orality between tion (1968) provide an extended discussion of this issue with emphasis on sub- Saharan Africa and Asia. Goody’s pioneering writings on the significance ity, that is as fundamentally preliterate, nonliterate, illiterate, or whatever. whatever. or illiterate, nonliterate, preliterate, fundamentally as is that ity, What has been said so far already suggests that Africa this West effect, image taking started is schooling postcolonial inaccurate. and colonial Before had a type of literacy that did not conform to our current norms, but the comparison is anachronistic. The ideal of universal primary education, or feel a on based are programs, literacy adultcontemporary of objectives the 1968:240), which included some very young members. We will return to Abu Abu to return will We members. young very some included which 1968:240), in a moment. biography Bakr’s Literacy Sub-Saharan Africa in general is often treated as the quintessence of oral year in Kong, and went to Bouna for further education. In all these places, he places, these all In education. further for Bouna to went and Kong, in year humor remarked Marty Paul investigator Colonial in-laws. and relatives had ously that belonging to Islam was like belonging to a touring club (Goody

africatoday 14 Islam and West African Anthropology africatoday 15 Mahir Şaul

- - - ), which ultimately derive from Arabic but were but Arabic from derive ultimately which ), ε b ε s ) and ‘write’ ( ‘write’ and ) kala It is ironic that literacy has such a low profile in anthropologists’ In precolonial West Africa, literacy was the specialty of a minute sources at their disposal. From them and modest clerks, the use of Arabic writing passed to communities that did not care to have members who had mastered the technique, but valued it as fetishized elements in shrines and masks, as the ubiquitous charms or writing-water potions. imagination of West Africa because it had such an important role religious in history of the the region. Greenberg (1946:10) remarked that in West practices ritual native on influence its and Islam of implantation the Africa, did not take place through intensive contacts following from the massive Africa): North in happened it example, for (as, population foreign a of influx they resulted from the spread of literacy and books. The native scholarly class adapted, and adapted to, what they found in the written and printed is the aide-mémoire pages on family traditions, previously in Arabic, now even preserve, jealously heads house many that French, schoolboy in mostly for words includes vocabulary core Bobo The them. read to unable are they if ‘read’( most probably adopted from Juula. seemed, such records would servewould records such seemed, noticed I too, Occasionally future. the in been perhaps has papers for reverence This notebook. my at glance worried a intensified by the mysteries and misuses suffered in a century of dealings in rooted also is it that convinced am I but governmentbureaucracies, with precolonial associations. I interpret in the same light the regret, frequently reported in the West counterpart Its Africanist down. them literature, write to how that know not traditions did ancestors the have because been lost with in the 1980s had not been to any kind of school, but kept a carefully wrapped package of documents—ancient tax records, have may prescriptions—that armypapers, old discharge letters, cards, expired tion identifica belonged to a grandfather or great-uncle; or a man would produce, from the bottom of a trunk, a tattered notebook, in which his father had a student it hoped, They years. particular farmin his of location the on notes scribble humble villagers. Restricted literacy is not limited Africa, to West but also thought generally not are which “civilizations,” great many of characteristic of as “preliterate,” because literacy can influence social and economic pro all-purpose. or widespread being without attitudes common affect and cesses This last point was brought home to me thinking on an observation I often interacted I people elderly Many Faso. Burkina in farmers Bobo among made minority and of the type that Goody dubbed “restricted.” This qualifier can can qualifier This “restricted.” dubbed Goody that type the of and minority lit of uses the to or persons literate of number the to refer to understood be could who people of number The issues. different raise that eracy—concepts read and write, while very low in the general population, was high within the everywherein scattered was minority this and particularcommunities, savanna. It provided specific services to many people, frequently including (Levtzion (Levtzion 1968: xviii-xix) and studies in role its and by Africa West in writing of centers the of sense better a us historians gave in northern Nigeria economic history. political and

- - - - - Among the clerical Juula, as among settled Fulbe Muslims, most men most Muslims, Fulbe settled among as Juula, clerical the Among Literacy was rehearsed on wooden tablets, like the ones much used It is therefore important to shake the simplified view thatIslam and An important conglomerate of clerical groups in West Africa stemmed stemmed Africa West in groups clerical of conglomerate important An and a significant number of women learned to read. In the nineteenth cen tury, Binger ([1892] 1980) found that in Kong and Bondoukou, few persons were unable to read Arabic. The same was true in Salaga (Wilks 1968:167). the risk of defilement. One ofrelevance the of best trans-Saharan illustrations trade with of the the Mediterranean, continuing Atlantic even trade after gained in the importance, is that paper in the the In late. quite interior until channel this through supplied of be to continued Africa West eighteenth century, most paper available in Ashanti, for example, was not of north European make, but of Italian origin (Wilks, Levtzion, and Haight 1986:203). Umar Tal. Early in the colonial period, Marty argued that the Muslims of Côte d’Ivoire were “more orthodox even than in North Africa” (Harrisson 1988:127). expen and scarce was paper Writing education. Qur’anic traditional in today sive, and the impermanence of the palimpsest was considered safer against ficially as a foreign religion. Influences went in all directions. The view from from view The directions. all in went Influences religion. foreign a as ficially south the from first arrived groups Muslim that is region Volta Western the from then and (Maraka), northwest the and from then and (Malinke-Juula), the east, but following a southern route—Zaberma, mixed with Hausa ele ments that strengthened Islamic learning. An overlapping Islamic impact hegemony religious Amadu’s Sheku from derived century nineteenth the in Hajj Al of jihad the of followers Tukulor the from later and Masina, the over while scholars of major reputation gravitated to famous centers (which added added (which centers famous to gravitated reputation major of scholars while to their éclat), clerics of humbler learning filled up the areas in between, providing services with fewer resources. to populations literacy diffused from the Sahara contact zone in the north to the south in super and late Islam met Africa “black” that or manner, uncomplicated an It rested on an economy of farming and herding, conducted mostly by slave by mostly farming conducted of herding, economy and an on rested It labor and supplemented with trade. Under their influence, learning centers arose in far-flung corners. They introduced Islam and later strengthened it pres Their 1979:28–31). Sanneh 15, 1968: (Levtzion Kano as east far as even ence brought literacy to places far from the hubs of mercantile activity or logic: central-place of sort a assumed literacy them, with authority; political when they migrated to the Upper Senegal valley and mixed with Manding- to was emulation, and dispersion by that, tradition a created They speakers. have tremendous impact in a vast swath of the savanna along the northern edge of the rainforest. From there, small groups of them arrived, known as tradition This me. to interest greatest of area the valleys, Volta the to Juula, as life neutrality, political piety, scholarship, Islamic and literacy combined small enclaves among non-Muslims, and the provision of services to them. from from the city of Ja, century, thirteenth the on in identity the historical their middle acquired they but Niger. speakers They were originally Soninke-

africatoday 16 Islam and West African Anthropology africatoday 17 Mahir Şaul - - - - With With Islamic education came the love and possession of books. In Letters were also important in large-scale commerce. Specialists of Muslims used Arabic writing to keep personal records, notes of birth,of notes records, personal keep to writing Arabic used Muslims in the beginning of the mostly books, colonial four or three possessed who people period had villages unimpressive in northern Ghana, even small, printed; and in Côte d’Ivoire, every cleric had included up to two hundred works (Marty 1922:274–275). a library, a few of which lot of horses to the French enemy Samori—which caused a shock when the when shock a caused Samori—which enemy French the to horses of lot French seized the pertinent Arabic correspondence written in hand Widi’s and Royer 2001:66). (S¸aul the Leo sixteenth Africanus century, wrote that manuscripts in Timbuktu, brought from North Africa “sold for more money than any other merchan dise” (quoted in Goody 1968:219). Libraries were not limited to the Sahel: such as horses, slaves, and bales of kola nuts, were sold not in the markets, such as horses, slaves, and bales of kola connec personal through warehouses, or homes merchants’ major of out but importantwith suppliers distances, large across happened it of Much tions. quantities in stock sending letters of offer to potential buyers, who were few in number. Thus, we know that during the French colonial conquest of the westernWidi of Barani, Volta, an ally of the French, tried to sell one tices were crucial in zones such as the western where Volta, long-distance unstable alliances formed the basis of regional political life. The standard opening formula in the letters of the clerks expressed clearly the commu nicative role: “Praise to God, who gave us the paper as messenger and the pen as tongue.” African precolonial economic West life know that the highest-value goods, accounts, or to make travel itineraries, place orders for goods, and organize others. to provided also they 1968:209–210)—servicesthat (Goody caravans letters how clear make explorers European of Nineteenth-centuryaccounts safe insured another to leader military or religious one from introduction of prac These 1980:1:331–332). [1892] (Binger diplomacy for served and passage king, Naaba Dulugu (Skinner 1966:177). The late nineteenth century French century nineteenth late The 1966:177). (Skinner Dulugu Naaba king, of sway the under completely Ouagadougou of naabas the depicted explorers their Muslim counselors (Levtzion 1968: 163–170). Like their relatives and sent and court, their in imam official an had they Dagomba, in counterparts century nineteenth the of course the in where schools, Qur’anic to sons their several of them learned more than basic reading. could converse with its Muslims in Arabic. Political men, merchants, and dignitaries who could not write employed the services of a Muslim cleric. The Asantehene Osei Tutu Kwame, like his counterparts in the Sudanic zone, kept correspondence with scholars and other political figures (Wilks 2000:105). Ouagadougou—that other capital that colonial intrigue painted with remarkable longevity as a pagan stronghold—had by the end eighteenth of the century not only a Muslim community, but even a Muslim Even Kumase, a precolonial West African capital that the popular mind does does mind popular the that capital African West precolonial a Kumase, Even the in community Muslim well-established a had Islam, with associate not eighteenth century. In 1820, the British consul in Kumase, Joseph Dupuis,

------Unexpected evidence for the proficiency of precolonialWest African Colonial Colonial observers dismissed West African Qur’anic schools because Reading Reading can be mastered at varying levels of skill, and the ability to hesitant Arabic, filled with stock phrases and quotes from the Qur’an—an destined not but group clerical a to belonging man a of indicative education from adult an as taken Pular-speaker, another Said, ibn Umar scholar. a be to more had had century, eighteenth the in later (Senegal) Toro Futa native his dozen African Muslims who arrived in early North America, but some of these cases are highly Suleiman instructive.Diallo was Ayuba a Fula, born around 1700 and captured about the age of thirty somewhere south of In River. Maryland, where he was brought, he composed in Arabic that officer Company African Royal a impressed so which liberty, for plea a (Curtin passed had years two before country native his to returned was Diallo but script correctMaghribi a reveal letters Diallo’s 1994:690). Gomez 1967; Islamic education is coming to light in slaves brought pioneering to America. research A manual on on the Muslim medical treatment of slaves from 1811 stated that many of those who came from Senegal could “con few a only of names the know We 1994:695). Gomez in (quoted it” write to preting, and discussing passages from the Qur’an and other texts. These prac These texts. other and Qur’an the from passages discussing and preting, tices transformed the expressive possibilities in those languages, sharpened the sense of some of their words in a technical direction, facilitated finding and establishing translation equivalents between them, and, most avail impor origin Islamic of reasoning of modes and themes, stories, made tantly, able to non-Arabic speakers and non-Muslims—points documented for the 2002). (1996, Tamari of observations detailed the in period contemporary the the Rousseauian spirit of our schools, and students provided a considerable should we but household, farmand master’s the in work physical of amount lit settings, premodern other in As efficacy. teaching to as judgment reserve eracy was only one component in a broader education, which relied heavily on verbal rhetoric and memory. A central part of religious training in West Africa was reading aloud and, in local languages, closely translating, inter Cairo (Goody 1968:220, 242). Cairo (Goody 1968:220, these at the primary level relied heavily on copying, unison repetition, and grammar and language Arabic teach systematically not did and learning, rote until an advanced stage, which few students reached; most local languages were not committed to script. This pedagogic tradition accords poorly with of the region, in northern Ghana too, one found in addition to readers and Goody in Wilks and Goody by prepared list the (see authors Arabic copyists these of most Although 1986). Haight and Levtzion, Wilks, and 1968:241–261 such scholar, accomplished an syntax, and lexicon Arabic poor reveal works Al also lived Hajj in Umar, Salaga; he was a specialist of pre-Islamic Arabic poetry (which he translated into Hausa with an art that deeply impressed R. S. Rattray) and the author of a book on epistolary styles, later printed in compose compose is yet another matter. That Timbuktu and the cities of the Sahel had scholars producing books is commonly known, but at the other end verse in the Arabic language, . . . and some are sufficiently instructed even

africatoday 18 Islam and West African Anthropology africatoday 19 Mahir Şaul - The most compelling evidence is provided by Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, whom whom al-Siddiq, Bakr Abu by provided is evidence compelling most The The spectacular nineteenth-century political movements led by Muslim leaders in forceful Africa—Usman West dan Fodio in Sokoto, Seku Amadu in Masina (inner delta of the ensuing partly period colonial the of developments complex the Niger), 2000)—and and Al–Hajj Umar Tall (Robinson remarks that these places are located in an area larger than the portion of the the of portion the than larger area an in located are places these that remarks certainly Ocean, Atlantic the and River Mississippi the between States United manage. can fourteen-year-olds our of most what than more Politics into Excursus An Arabic characters. He was manumitted and taken to England, where he made made he where England, to taken and manumitted was He characters. Arabic the chant to ability his Qur’an and the of knowledge his with impression an is that rhythm and intonation, pronunciation, exact the “with prayer to call used of from Cairo to list Constantinople, and from long Belgrade to a Delhi” (Renouard supplied and Arabic, in autobiography an wrote He 1836:109–110). (1997:21) Austin another. one to them connecting Africa, West in placenames we we have already met. He was captured and sold into in Bouna when he was barely fourteen, and spent most of the rest of his life in servitude in Jamaica (Wilks 1967a). Three decades later, he met a magistrate who hap pened to know some Arabic and “was not a little surprised to see [Arabic] written with some neatness and great rapidity by a negro slave” (Renouard Africans other with Arabic in correspondence out carried Bakr Abu 1836:101). in spelt English in employer his of accounts the kept and World, New the in was able to teach Pular, and perhaps some Arabic, to his numerous children. children. numerous his to Arabic, some perhaps and Pular, teach to able was He left behind a manuscript including rules about prayer, ritual ablution, assertions of the faith, and some enigmatic pages, which may have produced in response been to the needs of the local Muslim community or may have originated in Africa (Martin 1994). the hazards that attended scholarship; he had been captured while on an extended trip along the Atlantic coast, hundreds of miles away from home, trying to purchase paper (Austin 1994:115–125; Gomez 1994:691). Bilali, another Fula from Futa Jallon, was a plantation driver in Sapelo Island, off the coast of Georgia, and spiritual leader of the African Muslims who lived on the island (Austin 1997:85–111; Gomez 1994:695–699). It seems that he a former slave in the United States, all penned in a beautiful handwriting a Kaba, Lamin contemporary, His 1994:688–689). Gomez 1997:129; (Austin parentage, Maninka and Sarakole mixed of Jallon Futa from scholar Jakhanke ended up in North Georgia. He left a description of his education in West Africa under male and female teachers, including an influential aunt “who was much more learned than himself,” and illustrates story dictated His curriculum. advanced the his constituted names had which books, of thirty advanced education. His writings include several letters in Arabic, Qur’anic Arabic, in letters several include writings His education. advanced was that Bible Arabic an from sections memory, from wrote he that passages given to him in captivity, and the only extant autobiography in Arabic by - - - - The unstable boundary among Muslims, “pagan allies,” adherents, Muslim dispersion in West Africa was generally premised on the exis the on premised generally was Africa West in dispersion Muslim group going by the name Jawara (Sakai 1990). The Marka were Muslims, but Muslims, were Marka The 1990). (Sakai Jawara name the by going group gun, flintlock a holding horseback on arrived had who ancestor, Jawaras’ the said: “I do not perform the ritual prayers.” The four groups made a blood pact, which still serves as a kind of charter for the town. The first three opponents, and hosts, is illustrated in ancient the town foundation of Ja, traditions already mentioned of as the the origin of phylum. The the town had an unsurpassed reputation for Islamic Jahanke-Juula learning, but its local traditions reveal it as a site of accommodation and cohabitation. It was established by four groups: two of these were Marka, but of distinct origins, the third consisted of Bozo fishermen, and the last was a warrior that Jahanke or Juula clerical families were “politically neutral.” They often They neutral.” “politically were families clerical Juula or Jahanke that them who hosts, local of “guests” the outsiders, perennial as place a in fitted This pluralist. simply but anti-Muslim, nor Muslim neither be would selves historical situation is well described for northern Côte d’Ivoire by Launay as such norms personal on based identity Muslim to it contrasts who (1992), piety and observance, become common in the last few decades. which has in unstable temporary balances within this heterogeneous political mix, capable of producing duel-like eruptions between the big players, but more well the favoring banditry, and raid small-scale of economics the were typical neither generally were Muslims milieu, this In isolated. the over connected rulers nor ruled: they constituted autonomous nuclei, perceived by others primarily as technical specialists, ready to offer their services, and valued and respected for that reason—another way of articulating the observation sovereignty. sovereignty. This is a political situation that strains our imagination and our analytic because vocabulary, it is so unlike the notions of the political groups village self-administering savanna, the of much In inhabit. we world of limited political scale maintained long-distance solidarities with power ful merchants, warlords, and other distant villages, often against their own resulted alliances Translocal S¸aul1998). see example, specific a (for neighbors Muslim alike. Therefore, I sketch here some elements of political organiza political of elements some here sketch I Therefore, alike. Muslim the intelligible render and region the in common more much were that tion initially associated content discursive and practices ritual of interpenetration with different communities. tence of multiple nodes of power, most of which did not rest on territorial West West African and history, for most of its surface area, including zones said to be controlled by jihad leaders, up to the years of colonial conquest wars, that is the turn of the twentieth century (besides the fact that the violent reform movements also targeted primarily other self-professed Muslims). a foreign incursion tendency to see Islam as By reinforcing anthropologists’ upon “traditionalists,” this view inhibits an understanding of the cultural non- and Muslim for presence important an such Islam made that dynamics from from this history have encouraged a simplified political according view, to which conflict generally involved Muslims on oneside and non-Muslims on the other. This view is fundamentally wrong, for the longest stretch of

africatoday 20 Islam and West African Anthropology africatoday 21 Mahir Şaul , and , kafu , and Person and , or jama’a jamaana ) housed in a structure in the boliw followed by a long trail of wives, in this context can be rendered more : the coexistence of various social units, tirailleurs, , a likely derivative of Arabic of derivative likely a , oligarchy heterarchy jamaana What is meant by This account is nearly identical with many others we find further south south further find we others many with identical nearly is account This that it was unique to West Africa, and as we develop a proper vocabulary, we shall discover its kindred in other places and ages, including perhaps in modern situations, but in West Africa, it served as an incubator for Islam and the legacy of cultural fluidity. and file made up of African mistresses, and hangers-on, carrying babies, equipment, cooking utensils, and food. All these groups, which interact, clash, and at times merge, are stratified internally; they appear like microcosms of the larger society that engulfs them. Our conventional tools of political analysis do not make it easy to theorize about this social pattern:nor really not quite a democracy, think not do I monarchy. and centralization of antipode the also but anarchy, which are not of the same nature, but among which a strict equivalence is up farther there, confederation village a here, house man’s big recognized—a slave his with walls fortified his behind living renown great of man-of-arms a influentialarmy, cleric-scholars, merchants turned military entrepreneurs, and we can throw in, if we wish to take account of late nineteenth-century realities, a French column made up of a few European officers with a rank dignitaries called dignitaries of institutions democratic the with practice the associates (1968–1975:1:69) words the of meaning The Maghrib. the of Berbers the colonial of casualty early an were referred, they which to practices social the government, served and the debris to buttress the canton administration. precisely with the term in the savanna, in places that do not have as high a reputation for Islamic and clerics, Muslim shrines, local of keepers among interplay learning.The an invited or self-imposed group of war specialists influence, Malinke-Juula under savanna southern the of is towns and districts common. In many we find an oligarchic administrative structure with periodic assemblies of commit to Islam, because for them “any submission meant humiliation.” The “king” of the fighters originally owed his occult strength tomagic potion, abut one of jarthe imams of broke it and put an end to that (Sakai 1990:234). Thus, the town remained an “entanglement as the author guarded the memorygroups that jealously origins, or, of their of alliances,” of and interdistant.” puts it, “interdependent attacks, abused their rule, and were cruel, yet Ja never ruled any other place, place, other any ruled never Ja yet cruel, were and rule, their abused attacks, and no memories of its fighting, or being subjugated to, the famed Gana or Songhay empires, exist. These attacks must have been, then, small-scale raids on nearby places. Although the town welcomed clerics, the fighters kept their assortment of power objects ( middle of the town, and maintained a sacred grove incorporating a shrine. not would they but confected, clerics the that amulets the of use made They were offered, in sequence, the rulership but they refused, and it fell upon the upon fell it and refused, they but rulership the sequence, in offered, were Jawara. The Jawara sought out clerical families, who took up residence in organized Jawara the that say families clerical the of members but town, the - - - are balls of a ε g ε D was known as a Muslim specialty.

ε g ε d Although Muslim clerics’ thaumaturgic abilities were a major reason Where public authority was constituted around a center defined by a When When Muslim clerics moved in this social landscape from the role of them desirable. They administered oaths and ratified important agreements. agreements. important ratified and oaths administered They desirable. them For example, in most places the administration of oaths that involved the absorption of overnight rest to left and water and flour millet with made a dough for stiff Muslim holidays, such as Id Ashura, al-Adha, and Id the al-Fitr, birthday of 1993:350; (Boutillier all for festivities public into them turning prophet, the Skinner 1966; Wilks 1966). Conversely, imams trade participatedfor protection provided or in 1992:140), (Mark Senegambia in initiation ceremonies caravans (Sanneh 1979:189). made also services counseling and letter-writing, diplomacy, allure, their of their inner state. A leap into religious conviction is, however, a outcome, impelling a break with possible the past. In any case, joint or overlapping praxis should be kept distinct from common faith, but not underestimated as a mode of behavior with its own social force. In Kumasi, Ouagadougou, or Bouna, leaders used the divination powers and war charms of Muslim clerics, as did other war specialists in West Africa. They participated in ruler, ruler, Muslim presence was felt in the shared social space, irrespective of how the politically powerful presented themselves in religious terms. We proceeds religion that premise the behind leave we if better this understand from faith. Peel (2000:195–205) presents a thought-provoking of discussion how, among nineteenth-century Yoruba, participation in public ritual, the use of private services, or even adopting the clothing style, can bring people closer to identifying with Muslims, without effecting a change in government appealed to them to obtain war charms, because the Karantao but war, this understand to crucial are intricacies These allies. old their were unified a constituted Muslims that assumes one if sense make will it of none the or side one on all were they that front, cultural) facto ipso (and political other side: every side to every conflict had its own Muslims. ried names such as Isaka, Yisu, Davuda, which betray Muslim inspiration. colonial the against war a of leaders became league this of members 1915, In province neighboring the government,in agitate to went them of some and impress to Muslims, be to pretended they compunction, Without Kudugu. of their newfound allies. Meanwhile, the Karantao government, supported yet the some colonial non-Muslim villages fighting against the colonial in the mid-nineteenth century, Mahamudu Karantao started a movement described as jihad, but many of his partisans were non-Muslim Ko villag ers. His enemies, in turn, were supported by the famous Muslim clerics of the towns of Da and and Jinakongo Royer (S¸aul 2001:53–60). A center fighter prestigious of set of a by guided league, Marka a was him to opposition matched that reputation a with shrines public and personal holding families their fighting skills, yet the early colonial descendents of these people car sidecast sidecast to that of main protagonists, political divisions were still not nec essarily all drawn along religious lines. In the Muhun (Black Volta) valley

africatoday 22 Islam and West African Anthropology africatoday 23 Mahir Şaul

------ε g ε d s to help him in his projected wars (1880s), they malam One implication is that we can err by projecting to the past opposi In West Africa, adherence or conversion to Islam has not been a unidi a been not has Islam to conversion or adherence Africa, West In The prayers, charms, and other clerical services were prohibitively what Shaw (2002:82–88) presents in another example from the mid-Atlantic the from example another in presents (2002:82–88) Shaw what prac certain of origin non-Islamic or Islamic the debating keep People coast. tices, in which their own collective identities now hang. From a historical perspective, both sides of the divide are saturated with Islamic elements. identity, although otherwise they are part of a mass of non-Muslim farmers. non-Muslim of mass a of part are they otherwise although identity, Because of this eventuality of past adherence to Islam, Goody (1968:216) maintained that no the group to it through in and Islam, to West links intellectual account Africa into taking without could be exhaustively studied Graeco-Roman and Semitic civilizations of the Mediterranean. tions or negotiations of religious belonging as currently observed. This is Levtzion (1968: 142–144) and Bravmann (1974: 128) report similar cases in northern Ghana and western Côte d’Ivoire. From the performock a of recording video a possess I village Faso), Burkina province, (Kossi of Nemena performed who Those funeral. a during prayer and ablution Muslim of mance ances their that believe that families of members were Bwamu-speakers, it, tors were Muslims, and maintain this memory as a distinctive part of their which are the topic of the next section. differs historically it which in way principal the process—perhaps rectional central The mind. our in Islam with associated solidly more areas world from practic mostly are who Bobo-Dioulasso, of houses Zara the of one of shrine over built been have to said is 1925, before so not were but now Muslims ing the manuscript Qur’an of their ancestor who also bears a Muslim name. could afford! When the denizens of farming villages appeared in the battle field guarded only with ancestor and shrine medicines, against adversaries endowed with Islamic furnishings, it was themselves because of the latter’s state-of-the-art they mystical technology, rather than could not avail back fall to had intrusion.They cultural foreign “resisting” for preference a adoptions, mimetic the behind lying reason one equivalents, homegrown on costly. costly. A manuscript in Hausa reports Babatu asked that his when the Zaberma leader demanded a payment of “one hundred head of cattle, one hundred sheep, hundred one and cowries, thousand one and million one goats, hundred one slaves” (Pilaszewicz 1992:72)—certainly not a price many political actors gruel in front of witnesses, with a copy of the Qur’an and other Islamic para Islamic other and Qur’an the of copy a with witnesses, of front in gruel cleric administering The occasion. the of solemnity the to phernaliaadding was sometimes the only Muslim in the scene, somewhat like a European profession legal the notaryof member certifying only public the contract, a in a roomful of participants, with the important difference that in the the were state) the (not cleric the by warranted sanctions spiritual the oath, the agreement binding. principal force making slight fermentation. They are normally consumed as a thick liquid after the the after liquid thick a as consumed normally are They fermentation. slight balls are mashed in water. When prepared for an oath, a Muslim specialist kneaded the dough while reciting prayers over it, and the parties took the - - - - - , sacrifices are made made are sacrifices , Allah

in the Mawri community Mawri the in bori la ilaha illa ilaha la and ends with with ends and bi ‘ism Allah ‘ism bi Another example of “Islam on both sides” is provided by the traditions traditions the by provided is sides” both on “Islam of example Another of Niger studied by Masquelier feel threatened by the advances of Islam, but Islam, of advances the by threatened feel Masquelier by studied Niger of they forged techniques “borrowing mostly from colonial and Islamic reper wearing spirits, their for mosques building instance, signifiers—for of toires French army uniforms, or positioning their bodies as if they were sitting at In this section, I elaborate on conflict with Muslims as one possible path to path possible one as Muslims with conflict on elaborate I section, this In Ghimbala the of followers the among that observed Gibbal influence. Islamic but Islam, to counterbalance a as appear water-spirits Mali, northeast of cult, the practice is infused with conscious references to Islam. Every ceremony with starts Medina, from come have to said are genii many Mecca, of direction the facing of devotees The 1994:138). (Gibbal on so and philological efforts in Europe to recover pre-Christian cultural monuments the peasantry. out of the fragments recorded among Mimetic Appropriation that would miss another significant point, the cultural context inwhich they took their present shape. Can we reconstruct a pre-Islamic traditional refreshingly field this of history critical (2002) Jansen’s them? of out baseline suggests information Enough influences. Islamic of layer recent the stresses further that the Islamic elements in the Kamablon complex are constitu tive, not superficial accretions. It would be trite to attempt weeding them out in the hope of arriving at an ur-culture, as were the nineteenth century oneself, because is there a European who would not recognize Adam and Eve? Eve? and Adam recognize not would who European a there is because oneself, Qur’an, the from declamations with end and start ceremonies Kamablon The and their centerpiece, the Sun-Jara recitation, is shot through and through pioneer the in out pointed was as Qur’an, the and Mecca to references with ing article of Conrad (1985). One could try to sort out what in these tradi “extra-Islamic”—but of sense the “Manding”—in or Sudanic” “West is tions (Niane1975 [1962]) mentioned the Islamic connections, perhaps even origin, origin, even perhaps connections, Islamic the mentioned [1962]) (Niane1975 of course the in when reached is absurdity of summit The sanctuary. this of pro also is footnote, a to according (which, “Arama” certain a about story a world, the of couple original the “Awa,” companion his and Adama) nounced 1995:155, (Ganay names these for etymologies Malinke with provided are we 159). How much of this was willful dissimulation, one unavoidably asks one contingent upon current conditions. There is no pagan essence that is essence. against Muslim set ontologically of “Mande” in the upper Niger. The story of Sun-Jara (or Sun-Jata) and the septennial renewal ceremonies of the sanctuary of Kamablon in southern Mali are the subject of researcher African many an only pioneers, publications the among but (Dieterlen 1968), Meillassoux 1955, 1995; 1959; Ganay Shaw Shaw calls the local discussions a two-hundred-year-old “argument”; thus, we which experience, historical framing of forest the to attention brings she should not lose sight of for the trees of the boundary-setting discourse, this

africatoday 24 Islam and West African Anthropology africatoday 25 Mahir Şaul

- - - - “mosque,” and the parallels to misiri societies of the Bamana-Senufo area are jo A more complex case is the development of entire para-Islamic ritual First let us consider single traits, like the triangle in ornamental Mimesis is an expressive act, but often enough it draws its energy from from energy its draws it enough often but act, expressive an is Mimesis of this sort. The profusion of Islamic references in the famous Komo-Kono societies, the assertion that they have been brought from Mecca, the fact that their shrine houses are called and inversions of Islam saturating their ritual practices have perplexed robes, and baggy trousers puckered at the waist were earlier. The fez then entered the ritual paraphernalia of Dagara farmers (Goody 1962:70). Cur rently in Ghana, the robes, the baggy trousers, and the fez are redefined as traditional, and politicized to assert ethnic belonging as opposed to Akan and coastal identity. complexes. In my opinion, the conversion to Islam. or power, protective Muslim evokes it because assumed was which design, making which reform, administrative Ottoman the of headdress the fez, the its way down from Fezzan through the Hausa corridor became among the embroidered turbans, as office, chiefly of badge the Mamprusi and Dagomba from what lies beyond the Thus, boundary. imaginative assortments come into existence with items emulated from Islamic, Christian, scientific communities, without the originalmeanings attached, yet or unan medical ticipated effects are not precluded. The mind is not a closed system and, as possibilities. unsuspected to way the lead can too praxis imitative copraxis, Skinner (1966:183) provides the telling example of a non-Muslim diviner who, following the logic of his own procedures, prescribes for a patient Stewart (1994) draw attention to antisyncretism, the attitude of erecting a hard boundary against another religion. should We still make a distinction between people’s attitude and the cultural content they are wielding. The Hanukkah of (Think itself. boundary the than variable more be may content to desire the to obstacle no be may Antisyncretism !) alternative as detached elements of copying enthusiastic by self the of reservoir the enrich interprets the adoption of European and Islamic elements in African ritual inchoate, remain feelings When imitated. the disvalues that inversion an as dis not should we but phenomenon, the of dimension one be well may this regard the awe and fascination that tend to go along with emulation. From what Bayart (1993) called “extraversion” follows a that quest promise efficacy for over the techniques world, uninhibited by prejudice. Shaw and does not satisfy the young, who are converting in large numbers to obser vant Islam—instead of ratifying the testimony of a small number of spirit mediums nostalgic about the way things were thirty years ago and setting Manichean “starkly a called journal this in book the of reviewer the what up Islam” (Robertsopposition of bori to 2003: 138). the desire to make one’s own the élan of a powerful other. Kramer (1993) desks” desks” (2001:292, 296). A pity not much is made of this observation. The study would have gained a different historical dimension if it had explored the two sides of the debate—asking, for example, why this mimesis now - - - - - warrior sonangi societies can be seen as anti- jo societies, which the Muslims invariably loathed, it is it loathed, invariably Muslims the which societies, jo exists in association with masking in the Black Volta region, Do is associated with masking in many places in northern Côte d’Ivoire d’Ivoire Côte northern in places many in masking with associated is An earlier generation of French scholars had seen in the North Afri In Bobo-Dioulasso, some actors I interviewed asserted not only that The links between the spectacular masquerade traditions of West Moraes Farias (1989) interprets these Meccan origin legends as charts do can masquerades “pagan survivals,” or even an older religion that had gone had survivals,”that “pagan religion masquerades older can an even or like sounds interpretation This Islam. with competes still and underground case, African North the in Africa: sub-Saharan for made one the of reverse the ous similarities to those encountered in West Africa: in morphology (disguise (disguise morphology in Africa: West in encountered those to similarities ous inseparable), carrier and mask making body, naked the to attached materials in function (appropriation by youth groups), and in spirit (secrecy of prepa rations, playfulness of the performance, ritual efficacy). In Morocco, these masks are specifically associated with Islamic holidays (Hammoudi 1993); follow others the and are, groups Islamic of those only Volta, western the in the seasonal agricultural calendar. masking is compatible with Islam, but that local Muslims invented masking masking invented Muslims local that but Islam, with compatible is masking previously not had they where places to masks of styles certain diffused and beside is assertions such of accuracy historical literal The 1997). (S¸aul existed frame interpretive broader a in them of make to we are what but point, the numer have that traditions masking discover I Morocco. to now turn I work? word word of activity of zone the to corresponding Faso, Burkina in and groups, who patronized Islamic clerics without being exclusively followers of Islam. described non-Muslim, decidedly majority in are that groups farming among but 1980), Moal Le 1957; (Capron Bwa the and Bobo the for detail greatest in and other peoples. Tyefo, found also among Tussian, Africa and Islam bring up a different issue. Bravmann (1974) stated first that first stated (1974) Bravmann issue. different a up bring Islam and Africa West African masking traditions could be compatible with Islam, and the idea was elaborated by Mark (1992) and Prussin (1986). Masks are and adorned triangles or 2001:100), Tamari 138; 1992:132, (Mark prayers Muslim with amulets, and masquerades are associated with Muslim celebrations (Brav the that noted (1987) Green 1992:111). Launay 1983:69; 1974:166–177, mann the practices of the of practices the hard to avoid the that conclusion, at some however, level of discourse they also had antagonistic intent. Some of these , built with the very elements of perceived Islam, by emulation and 1997:17–19). inversion (S¸aul Prophet introduces him to the ways of Islam. Later, Jigi discovers the chief repudiates riches, ritual latter’s the by lured and Mecca, of magicians the of his allegiance to the Prophet. He returns to Mali with the goods provided of name The 1947). (Traoré camels forty-seven onto loaded magician, the by literally “Jigi who went to Mecca.” this hero in fact means with together Taken plurality. religious and cohabitation for non-Muslims by observers (Henry 1910:130–134). “The founder of African magic,” the famous famous the magic,” African of founder “The 1910:130–134). (Henry observers Makanta Jigi, brought his esoteric knowledge from Mecca. In one version the There incest. for penance as Mecca to travel to decides he legend, the of

africatoday 26 Islam and West African Anthropology africatoday 27 Mahir Şaul

- - - - - spirits in Islam, nor the otiose high god jinn A topic that deserves more sustained theoretical attention by anthro Are these similarities between North Africa and Western Sudan to question is the growth of “inner conversions,” the popularity of the obser “de-ethnicizing” for calls clamorous the and Islam, of variety pious and vant Islam. At one of level, scheme larger the in this are, language even and development culture that boundaries, demonstrates social the contingency of understand regional flows that stand intermediate between West theof conditions present the localwith contact greater and establish and global, the Africa without escapist romanticism. This freedom, among other things, may also lead to new research questions. where places in Islam to conversions of tides massive of rise the is pologists distinct but related A minorities. small only constituted Muslims previously West Africa’s historical individuality is lost Africa’s in West the mental map of scattered ethnic labels, which in anthropology still keeps us under its sway in subtle Medi the to connections past Africa’s West Placing ways. unmistakable but terranean world and its Islamic legacy right at the center of our conception of Africa is crucial to overcome this microcosmic vision and broaden our horizon. We need to free ourselves from the petrified “pre” of tradition, substantive research, but it is not vital at all for the argument I present here. present I argument the for all at vital not is it but research, substantive has area circum-Mediterranean the from Africa West separating way, Either Africa. distorted North our understanding of both and West Conclusion (and mediated by the actions of Muslims)? or should we think of them as belonging to an earlier cultural matrix, in which both regions participated (antedating Islam)? Note that not all features under that Islam period and the West in African contact from resulted have to likely are share conceptions review—not, for example, the African cosmogonies. The issue can perhaps be clarified with more of West tradition. These speculations do not take away anything from the dramatic do not take away anything tradition. These speculations achievement of West African mask celebrations; my historical the purpose to is weirdness simply exotic of to skies ethereal the from down them bring humanity. home base of our common be attributed to adoption in times within the framework discussed here the Islamic elements are ignored or declared foreign. pre-Islamic Hammoudi from survivalremarks as primarily Morocco in masks the discussing that holidays. Muslim to tie intrinsic their meaning, present their distorts times For me, the unsuspected affinity between African West masking traditions festi Moroccan The vista. historical new a opens Africa North of those and groups peasant of celebrations calendar of set the of part indubitably are vals found all around the Mediterranean rim countries, such as the carnival Islam Islam was declared central, and the folkloric elements that seemed incon African sub-Saharan the in paganism); (antique foreign declared were gruent case, a sort of paganism (animism, fetishism) is declared central, whereas - - - - The larger point is that we need Africa to in relocate our West imagi Responses to changed circumstances may be rooted in history in intri in history in rooted be may circumstances changed to Responses and to the centuries of interface with neighboring regions that deposited them. It is worth giving thought to whether we want to shift what we read with priority and what we assign in our classes, how in these decisions we practically reform ourselves as we form others, either to perpetuate or to that exist mostly in the regret may of tycoons diamond their or presidents being that magic—ignoring lost, through resistance or wishful analyses of be need its to most be successful wary manipulators. We of the magnifying glass that distorts difference into strangeness, and go back square, to the the market, public the Friday mosque, and the university more resolute reorientation requires classroom. attention to the elements A of the West African cultural substance, not only their social and communicative uses, largely failures rooted in the incommensurability of the flat conception of Mudimbe history. “our” of verticality stratigraphic the with cultures African is an eminent scholar and author, but he had little consideration for Islam in African cultural We need history. to take his advice and go further. Yes, anthropology should not be the science of the obscure and the arcane, of salvage from the last pagan ritualist, underground possession rites, secrets lies much anthropological discourse. We absorbed a hardened version this opposition of that blocks the way to an empathic connection with interlocutors and a true our curiosity in their mundane lives. Reinserting West Africa in the nexus of Eurasian history would make it less alien. We need as Islam in take to us enable would which cosmopolitanism, new a reach to heritage. Islamic the of part as Africa West and heritage common our of part are aestheticization” and “ethnologization called (1994:62) Mudimbe What expansion of Islam. These are broad anthropological perspectives, research which in different could kinds inform of settings, and could find other, equally stimulating no ideas in the literature that deals with doubt we Africa. in West the intersection of Islam and non-Islam nation. This plea goes to the heart of the we–they contrast, which under one more misery of this finite world, and not as the eschatological disaster that sympathetic outside observers retrospectively suppose it was. Stewart (1990) suggests that when colonial governments took over the judicial and who leaders Muslim for opened was space clerics, Muslim of functions legal brotherhoods Sufi the for and experience, mystical on message their focused they promoted, which became the prime movers in the twentieth-century processes and the meshwork of signs inherited from past centuries? of signs inherited and the meshwork processes cate ways, which will not be articulated by the actors. for Take, example, the reaction to colonial domination. Triaud (1997:17) presence proposes of small, that “encysted” the communities of Muslims, close to holders power as counselors and technical specialists but politically subordinate, as occupation colonial experiencing to Africa West in people many prepared things, fleeting realities. Changes of religion and language become gateways gateways become language and religion of Changes realities. fleeting things, occurring are which transformations, other of concomitant a worlds, new to but simultaneously, what is the connection between the specifics of these

africatoday 28 Islam and West African Anthropology africatoday 29 Mahir Şaul

. . ouis frica, L ’day’. ’day’. n all On A ondon: osette, osette, L fricanist Chicago: . A ssociation ssociation yawm lammarion. A F Africa Today Africa Minneapolis: ssociation ssociation in . vols. 5 vols. A . anneh, and anneh, aris: aris: S P . . tudies S Islam et Sociétéset Islam Sud au pp. pp. –99 179 ssociation ssociation for Lamine A frican A ast, Last, nthropological nthropological ress. A arts of the lecture were presented in arts presented of the lecture were ambek served as commentator. commentator. as served Lambek merican riaudjournalthe and isher, Murray Murray isher, A Modernity at Large, T F . J. J. H. ouis oberts. his version incorporates the responses stimulated stimulated responses the incorporates version his outledge. T annual meeting of the of meeting annual th ocality. ocality. In L 48 ork: R Y Hunwick, . O Travels and Discoveries in North and Discoveries Africa and Central Travels al-ahad, al-itnain, al-talata, al-khamis, al-arbi’a’, al-jum’a, as-sabt. ongmans, & R ongmans, ress. . Khartoum: Khartoum P University wendolyn Gwendolyn Mikell, its president-elect, Bennetta Jules-R ress. roduction of P annual meeting of the rd obinson, J. J. obinson, Vers un multiculturalisme français: l’empire de la coutume la de l’empire français: multiculturalisme un Vers he R . . these are simply the ordinal numbers, which qualify the word T ), where Michael where 2005), November The Pilgrimage Tradition in West Africa: An Historical Study with Special Reference Study with Special AnReference Historical Africa: in West Tradition Pilgrimage The Black Critics and Kings: The Hermeneutics of Power in Yoruba Society ovember November 2004. I extend my thanks to the president of the association, 996 ENTS African Muslims in Antebellum America: Transatlantic Stories and Spiritual Struggles Spiritual and Stories Transatlantic America: Antebellum in Muslims African . . avid David jum’a, M , . (in .C. 997 D oup. 1 oup. L . 1 . rjun. 1996. D rabic, rabic, the names are A A ed., rev. and condensed. New and condensed. rev. ed., LEDGE eorgia, eorgia, in nd he naming of the days of the week is similar in Hebrew. of the week he naming of the days reen, L Green, Brown, ongman, G W llan llan niversity, and in a panel of the of panel a in and University, niversity of Chicago P University I see no need here to review the vast literature by historians on the Islamic past of West West of past Islamic the on historians by literature vast the review to here need no see I L 2 to the Nineteenth Century the Nineteenth to but for the record, in addition to but the the for authors record, mentioned in the text, who mostly are relevant Jean-L mention me let region, Volta the to Sahara du Brenner. Except for T In niversity of MinnesotaUniversity P ndrew. ndrew. 1992. Clark, its awards chair, A A Henry [Heinrich]. –1858. 1857 NO 1. 2. K nthropology nthropology to the 103 tlanta, tlanta, pter, pter, mar. 1972. ‘Umar. l-Naqar, mselle, Jean- mselle, ppadurai, ppadurai, ustin, ustin, his article started its life as a distinguished lecture invited by the REFERENCES NOTES AC A A and its other officers, for the honor and the opportunity. P the opportunity. the honor and for and its other officers, racia Gracia Indiana Barth, A A

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