Islam and Political Contestation in the Sahel: Protests, Riots, and Jihadist Insurgencies in Mauritania, Niger, and Mali
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ISLAM AND POLITICAL CONTESTATION IN THE SAHEL: PROTESTS, RIOTS, AND JIHADIST INSURGENCIES IN MAURITANIA, NIGER, AND MALI By IBRAHIM YAHAYA IBRAHIM A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2018 1 © 2018 Ibrahim Yahaya Ibrahim 2 To my Mom, Oumou Halilou and my Dad, Yahaya Ibrahim 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many people contributed to this research either directly or indirectly. My deepest gratitude goes to my parents, who invested in my education from young age and supported me every step of the way. I also benefited from a warm social and intellectual environment at Madrasatu Sabiloul Houda in Zinder. My sincere appreciation to its founder, Cheikh Chouaibou Abdullah Saleh, who has shown me a quasi-parental level of support. I could not have attended the University of Florida’s Graduate School without the help and generous mentorship of Leonardo A. Villalòn. It has been the greatest honor of my life to be his student. Leonardo A. Villalòn has advised me, assisted me, inspired me, and encouraged me throughout my doctoral journey in ways that words could hardly describe. Certainly, this dissertation could not have been written without his guidance. I will be forever grateful for his immense generosity, kindness, and unyielding support. Over the last six years, I have been fortunate enough to be part of the Sahel Research Group and to regularly attend the Sahel Seminar meetings. I have enjoyed the collegial and stimulating intellectual atmosphere in these settings. This dissertation would not have looked the same without the valuable insights that I gleaned from various conversations that I had with friends and colleagues at the University of Florida. I thank, in particular, Mamadou Bodian, Daniel Eizenga, Sheldon Wardwell, Fiona Mclaughlin, Amanda Edgell, Abdoulaye Kane, Renata Serra, Alioune Sow, Sarah Mckune, Olivier Walther, Benjamin Burgen, Marjatta Eilitta, and John Hames. I wish to also thank all the members of my dissertation committee for their valuable inputs: Aida Hozic, Paul Lubeck, Benjamin Soares, Sebastian Elischer, and Benjamin Smith. I have benefitted tremendously from being able to discuss my work with a number of other 4 colleagues that include Rahamne Idrissa, Zekeria Ould Ahmad Salem, Alex Thurston, Pierre Englebert, Boukary Sangare, Jaimie Bleck, Abdou Samad Yahaya, Jean-Hervé Jezequel, Vincent Foucher, and Mollie Zapata. My dissertation field research was made possible through a funding awarded by the Minerva Initiative as a part of a larger research project to study institutional reform, social change, and stability in the Sahel region. This Minerva project partly supported my doctoral studies. I also benefited from several fellowships and awards, including the Fulbright scholarship, which funded my master’s degree, the University of Florida Graduate School Doctoral Dissertation Award, and several other grants generously awarded by the University of Florida’s Center for African Studies and the Center for Leadership. I extend my sincere appreciation to all these institutions. I was welcomed and assisted by many people during my field research. I wish to extend my heart-felt gratitude to Ibrahim Laouali, Salif Ibrahim Maiga, Mahamane Ibrahim, Oubeid Imijine, Gueladio Diabira, Meyine Mouhamedoun, Aboubacar Maiga, Hamidou Magassa, and Moulaye Brahim. I interviewed too many people to be able to list each and every one of them. I thank them all for their valuable insights. Other people helped me in various ways and deserve special acknowledgement: Firdaoussi Issa Mano, Salissou Rabo, Maman Mousbahou Yahaya, Ashley Leinweber, and Soumana Cisse. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................4 LIST OF FIGURES .........................................................................................................................9 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................................10 ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................................12 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: CONTESTING ON BEHALF OF ISLAM IN THE SAHEL ................14 Islamic Contestation on the Rise ............................................................................................17 The Question ...........................................................................................................................20 The Theoretical Argument ......................................................................................................22 Definitions of Some Key Concepts ........................................................................................29 Islamic Ideology ..............................................................................................................29 Insurgency, Riot, and Protest ...........................................................................................30 Research Design and Methodology ........................................................................................32 Case Selection: Why Mali, Mauritania, and Niger? ........................................................32 Motivation Method and Data Collection .........................................................................35 Structure of the Dissertation ...................................................................................................37 2 ISLAMIC POLITICAL CONTESTATION: GLOBAL PATTERNS AND LOCAL VARIATIONS ........................................................................................................................42 Culturalist and Structuralist Approaches to Islamic Contestation ..........................................43 “Ideas Matter”: Global Islamic Ideologies and Islamic Contestation ....................................50 Objectification and the Quest for A New Framework for Interpreting Islam .................51 Typology and Attribute of Islamic Ideologies .................................................................55 Hermeneutical Approaches to Islamic Doctrine: Innovation through Maqasid al- Sharia ...........................................................................................................................61 The Role of Islamic Political Ideologies in Political Contestation ..................................65 “All Politics is Local”: Local Context and the Emergence of Islamic Entrepreneurs ............68 Social Movement Theories ..............................................................................................70 Variations in the Structures of Local Contexts ................................................................73 Interaction between Ideology and Local Context and the Construction of Collective Action ...........................................................................................................................75 Participation of Individuals in Contestation ...........................................................................78 Determinants of Individuals’ Participation in Islamic Contestation ...............................79 Tentative Profiles of Participants in Different Form of Islamic Contestation .................82 Conclusion ..............................................................................................................................84 6 3 THE NATURE OF THE STATE AND PROCESSES OF ISLAMIZATION IN THE SAHEL ...................................................................................................................................86 The Nature of the State in the Sahel: Neither “Sahelian” nor “State” ....................................88 Trajectories of the Sahelian State: Juxtaposition of Formal, Informal, and Hybrid Institutions....................................................................................................................89 Democratization and Divergent Outcome: Inter-State Variations ..................................94 The Dynamics of Islam in the Sahel .......................................................................................97 Process of Islamization in the Sahel ................................................................................98 Democratization and Re-Islamization ...........................................................................102 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................107 4 THE CONTEMPORARY DYNAMICS OF ISLAM AND THE STATE IN THE SAHEL .................................................................................................................................109 A Brief History of Islamic Political Contestation in the Contemporary Sahel .....................111 Local Contexts and Patterns of Contestation in the Sahel ....................................................114 Sahelian Capital Cities and the Participatory Context of Political Contestation ...........116 Sahelian Rural Periphery and The Insurrectional Context of Political Contestation ....120 Sahelian Secondary Cities and the “Compliant Context” of Political Contestation .....123 Expressions of Different Islamic Ideologies in the Sahelian Public Sphere ........................126 Pietist Muslim Activists in the Sahel .............................................................................128