DOCSLIB.ORG

Islamic Terrorism in the Sahel: Fact Or Fiction?

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Islamic Terrorism in the Sahel: Fact Or Fiction? ISLAMIC TERRORISM IN THE SAHEL: FACT OR FICTION? Africa Report N°92 – 31 March 2005 TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS................................................. i I. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 1 II. A WEST AFRICAN ISLAMIST PRIMER................................................................. 3 A. WEST AFRICAN SUFI ISLAM..................................................................................................4 B. THE SALAFIYYA: WAHHABIYYA AND THE GSPC..................................................................5 1. The Wahhabiyya........................................................................................................6 2. The GSPC ..................................................................................................................7 C. THE JAMA'AT AL-TABLIGH .....................................................................................................8 D. ISLAMIC NGOS...................................................................................................................10 III. POLITICAL SPECIFICITIES.................................................................................... 14 A. MAURITANIA: A PERMANENT PLOT? ..................................................................................14 B. MALI: THE THREAT FROM THE NORTH................................................................................16 1. The Tablighi Da'wa .................................................................................................16 C. THE QUESTION OF DR. KHAN..............................................................................................17 D. THE GSPC..........................................................................................................................18 E. NIGER: THE THREAT FROM THE SOUTH...............................................................................21 F. CHAD: THE QUESTION OF SECULARISM ..............................................................................22 IV. U.S. ANALYSIS AND POLICY.................................................................................. 25 A. GEOSTRATEGIC INTERESTS: OIL AND ISLAMISM..................................................................25 B. MILITARY TRAINING IN WEST AFRICA................................................................................27 1. Africa Crisis Response Force (ACRF) ....................................................................27 2. African Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI)..............................................................27 3. Operation Focus Relief (OFR).................................................................................28 4. African Contingency Operations Training and Assistance (ACOTA) ....................28 5. Coastal Security Program ........................................................................................28 6. Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI) .............................................................28 7. The Millennium Challenge Account (MCA)...........................................................29 C. THE PAN-SAHEL INITIATIVE ...............................................................................................30 V. RESPONSES AND PERCEPTIONS.......................................................................... 32 A. EUROPE ..............................................................................................................................32 B. SAHELIAN MILITARIES........................................................................................................33 C. SAHELIAN GOVERNMENTS ..................................................................................................34 D. SAHELIAN POPULATIONS ....................................................................................................34 VI. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................. 35 APPENDICES A. MAP OF SAHEL REGION ......................................................................................................36 B. GLOSSARY OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ................................................................37 C. ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP .......................................................................38 D. CRISIS GROUP REPORTS AND BRIEFINGS ON AFRICA...........................................................39 E. CRISIS GROUP BOARD MEMBERS........................................................................................41 Africa Report N°92 31 March 2005 ISLAMIST TERRORISM IN THE SAHEL: FACT OR FICTION? EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS The Sahel, a vast region bordering the Sahara Desert been seriously weakened in Algeria and Mali by the and including the countries of Mali, Niger, Chad and combined efforts of Algerian and Sahelian armed Mauritania, is increasingly referred to by the U.S. military forces. as "the new front in the war on terrorism". There are enough indications, from a security perspective, to justify The U.S. military is a new factor in this delicate balance. caution and greater Western involvement. However, the Its operations in the four countries are orchestrated by Sahel is not a hotbed of terrorist activity. A misconceived the European Command (EUCOM) headquarters in and heavy handed approach could tip the scale the wrong Stuttgart, Germany. In the absence of Congressional way; serious, balanced, and long-term engagement with willingness to fund a serious engagement by other parts the four countries should keep the region peaceful. An of the government, the Pentagon has become a major effective counter-terrorism policy there needs to address player by emphasising the prospect of terrorism, though the threat in the broadest terms, with more development military planners themselves recognise the inherent than military aid and greater U.S.-European collaboration. dangers in a purely military counter-terrorism program. There are disparate strands of information out of which a With the U.S. heavily committed in other parts of the number of observers, including the U.S. military, have world, however, Washington is unlikely to devote read the potential threat of violent Islamist activity in the substantial non-military resources to the Sahel soon, four Sahelian countries covered by the Americans' Pan- even though Africa is slowly gaining recognition -- not Sahel Initiative (PSI). There is some danger in this, but in least due to West Africa's oil -- as an area of strategic this region, few things are exactly what they seem at first interest to the West. The resultant equation is laden with glance. Mauritania, which calls itself an Islamic republic, risks, including turning the small number of arrested harshly suppresses Islamist activities of any kind, while clerics and militants into martyrs, thus giving Mali, a star pupil of 1990s neo-liberal democratisation, ammunition to local anti-American or anti-Western runs the greatest risk of any West African country other figures who claim the PSI (and the proposed, expanded than Nigeria of violent Islamist activity. Those who Trans-Saharan Counter Terrorism Initiative (TSCTI) believe poverty breeds religious fanaticism will be still under consideration in the U.S. government) is part disappointed in Niger, the world's second poorest country, of a larger plan to render Muslim populations servile; whose government has maintained its tradition of tolerant and cutting off smuggling networks that have become Sufi Islam by holding to an unambiguous line on the economic lifeblood of Saharan peoples whose separation of religion and the state. livestock was devastated by the droughts of the 1970s and 1980s, without offering economic alternatives. To The prospects for growth in Islamist activity in the region avoid creating the kinds of problems the PSI is meant to -- up to and including terrorism -- are delicately solve, it needs to be folded into a more balanced balanced. Muslim populations in West Africa, as approach to the region, one also in which Europeans and elsewhere, express increasing opposition to Western, Americans work more closely together. especially U.S., policy in the Middle East, and there has been a parallel increase in fundamentalist proselytisation. However, these developments should RECOMMENDATIONS not be overestimated. Fundamentalist Islam has been present in the Sahel for over 60 years without being To the U.S. Government: linked to anti-Western violence. The Algerian Salafi Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which lost 1. Establish a healthier balance between military and 43 militants in a battle with Chad's army in 2004 after civilian programs in the Sahel, including by: being chased across borders by PSI-trained troops, has Islamist Terrorism in the Sahel: Fact or Fiction? Crisis Group Africa Report N°92, 31 March 2005 Page ii (a) opening USAID offices in the capitals of 9. Focus development aid in the north on two sectors, Mauritania, Niger and Chad; -- livestock and tourism -- both of which need significant investments in infrastructure, beginning (b) tailoring significant development programs with roads, to become viable. to nomadic populations in northern Mali, with emphasis on roads and livestock Dakar/Brussels, 31 March 2005 infrastructure (wells and regional slaughterhouses); and (c) promoting tourist infrastructure in such historic places
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Ancient and Modern
    Ancient and Modern: What the History of Religion Teaches Us About Contemporary Global Trends Philip Jenkins Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Humanities at Pennsylvania State University Distinguished Senior Fellow at Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion ARDA GUIDING PAPER Ancient and Modern: What the History of Religion Teaches Us About Contemporary Global Trends Religious developments in the contemporary world attract a great deal of scholarship drawing on a wide range of methodologies — ethnographic, economic, and sociological — but the historical component is still not as prominent as it should be. Certainly modern scholars have traced the historical origins of modern conditions, for example in terms of the Christian missions that created the flourishing churches of Africa and Asia, or the contemporary rise of Islamic fundamentalism. Having said this, surprisingly little work on contemporary conditions draws on the vast and flourishing scholarly literature concerning religion in earlier centuries, in the ancient, medieval and early modern worlds. Historians dwell in one academic world while scholars of contemporary religion inhabit another, and the two sides have little contact.1 Yet such a separation is unfortunate, in that the earlier history contains a vast amount of information and case-studies that are highly relevant to contemporary conditions. More important, perhaps, these studies tell us repeatedly that contemporary trends that we believe to be modern and unprecedented are in fact no such thing, and that they have often appeared in earlier eras. It is futile, then, to try and explain these supposed novelties in terms of strictly modern developments. Moreover, contemporary scholarship often describes processes that assume a historical trajectory, but often, the historical pattern is assumed rather than demonstrated.
    [Show full text]
  • Religion & Spirituality in Society Religión Y Espiritualidad En La
    IX Congreso Internacional sobre Ninth International Conference on Religión y Religion & Espiritualidad en Spirituality in la Sociedad Society Símbolos religiosos universales: Universal Religious Symbols: Influencias mutuas y relaciones Mutual Influences and Specific específicas Relationships 25–26 de abril de 2019 25–26 April 2019 Universidad de Granada University of Granada Granada, España Granada, Spain La-Religion.com ReligionInSociety.com Centro de Estudios Bizantinos, Neogriegos y Chipriotas Ninth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society “Universal Religious Symbols: Mutual Influences and Specific Relationships” 25–26 April 2019 | University of Granada | Granada, Spain www.ReligionInSociety.com www.facebook.com/ReligionInSociety @religionsociety | #ReligionConference19 IX Congreso Internacional sobre Religión y Espiritualidad en la Sociedad “Símbolos religiosos universales: Influencias mutuas y relaciones específicas” 25–26 de abril de 2019 | Universidad de Granada | Granada, España www.La-Religion.com www.facebook.com/ReligionSociedad @religionsociety | #ReligionConference19 Centro de Estudios Bizantinos, Neogriegos y Chipriotas Ninth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society www.religioninsociety.com First published in 2019 in Champaign, Illinois, USA by Common Ground Research Networks, NFP www.cgnetworks.org © 2019 Common Ground Research Networks All rights reserved. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the applicable copyright legislation, no part of this work may be reproduced by any process without written permission from the publisher. For permissions and other inquiries, please contact [email protected]. Common Ground Research Networks may at times take pictures of plenary sessions, presentation rooms, and conference activities which may be used on Common Ground’s various social media sites or websites.
    [Show full text]
  • Path(S) of Remembrance: Memory, Pilgrimage, and Transmission in a Transatlantic Sufi Community”
    “Path(s) of Remembrance: Memory, Pilgrimage, and Transmission in a Transatlantic Sufi Community” By Jaison Carter A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Mariane Ferme, Chair Professor Charles Hirschkind Professor Stefania Pandolfo Professor Ula Y. Taylor Spring 2018 Abstract “Path(s) of Remembrance: Memory, Pilgrimage, and Transmission in a Transatlantic Sufi Community” by Jaison Carter Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology University of California, Berkeley Professor Mariane Ferme, Chair The Mustafawiyya Tariqa is a regional spiritual network that exists for the purpose of assisting Muslim practitioners in heightening their level of devotion and knowledges through Sufism. Though it was founded in 1966 in Senegal, it has since expanded to other locations in West and North Africa, Europe, and North America. In 1994, protegé of the Tariqa’s founder and its most charismatic figure, Shaykh Arona Rashid Faye al-Faqir, relocated from West Africa to the United States to found a satellite community in Moncks Corner, South Carolina. This location, named Masjidul Muhajjirun wal Ansar, serves as a refuge for traveling learners and place of worship in which a community of mostly African-descended Muslims engage in a tradition of remembrance through which techniques of spiritual care and healing are activated. This dissertation analyzes the physical and spiritual trajectories of African-descended Muslims through an ethnographic study of their healing practices, migrations, and exchanges in South Carolina and in Senegal. By attending to manner in which the Mustafawiyya engage in various kinds of embodied religious devotions, forms of indebtedness, and networks within which diasporic solidarities emerge, this project explores the dispensations and transmissions of knowledge to Sufi practitioners across the Atlantic that play a part in shared notions of Black Muslimness.
    [Show full text]
  • Experiencing Islam: Women's Accounts of Religious Equality And
    Experiencing Islam: Women’s Accounts of Religious Equality and Inequality in Senegal Senior Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the School of Arts and Sciences Brandeis University Undergraduate Program in Anthropology Janet McIntosh, Advisor Undergraduate Program in International and Global Studies In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of the Arts by Nelly Schläfereit May 2015 Copyright by Nelly Schläfereit Committee members: Janet McIntosh – Anthropology Anita Hannig – Anthropology Kristen Lucken – International and Global Studies Declaration This senior honors thesis is submitted for review by the Anthropology Department of Brandeis University for consideration of departmental honors to Nelly Schläfereit in May of 2015. With regard to the above, I declare that this is an original piece of work and that all non-cited writing is my own. Acknowledgements I would like to take a moment to thank all of the people who have been directly and indirectly involved in producing this senior honors thesis. First, I would like the thank the entire department of Anthropology at Brandeis who made it possible for me to undertake this project despite the fact that I was planning on studying abroad during the fall semester. I would especially like to thank Professor Janet McIntosh, my primary advisor. Thank you for supporting me throughout this process, encouraging me when I had difficulties moving forward, and always making time to offer me your invaluable advice. Thank you also to Professor Anita Hannig for being my second reader, especially considering you were not officially on campus this semester. I was lucky to have my second reader so involved throughout the research and writing process, and I appreciate all of your advice and edits.
    [Show full text]
  • Searching for the Origin(Al) on the Photographic Portrait of the Mouride Sufi Saint Amadou Bamba À La Recherche De L’Origin(Al)
    Cahiers d’études africaines 230 | 2018 Photographies contestataires, usages contestés Searching for the Origin(al) On the Photographic Portrait of the Mouride Sufi Saint Amadou Bamba À la recherche de l’Origin(al). Le portrait photographique du Mouride saint sufi Amadou Bamba. Giulia Paoletti Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/etudesafricaines/22096 DOI: 10.4000/etudesafricaines.22096 ISSN: 1777-5353 Publisher Éditions de l’EHESS Printed version Date of publication: 1 June 2018 Number of pages: 323-348 ISBN: 978-2-7132-2742-4 ISSN: 0008-0055 Electronic reference Giulia Paoletti, “Searching for the Origin(al)”, Cahiers d’études africaines [Online], 230 | 2018, Online since 01 June 2020, connection on 06 January 2021. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/ etudesafricaines/22096 ; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/etudesafricaines.22096 © Cahiers d’Études africaines Giulia Paoletti Searching for the Origin(al) On the Photographic Portrait of the Mouride Sufi Saint Amadou Bamba* The portrait of Amadou Bamba1—the founder and leader of the Mouride Sufi brotherhood2 from 1883 to 1927—is possibly the most popular and widely reproduced image in the history of art and photography in Senegal. It can be found virtually everywhere across Senegal and its diaspora, from Dakar to New York, from Touba to Beijing. Replicated in a variety of mediums, it resurfaces in unsuspecting and improbable spaces: taxis, street walls, home interiors, barbershops, art galleries and elsewhere. This single black and white photograph is ubiquitous, continuously copied and visually quoted. The dis- semination of this image makes it the perfect example of the reproducibility of photography,3 one of its signature features that unsettles any preoccupation * For valuable comments on earlier versions of this article, I would like to thank S.
    [Show full text]
  • Baay Fall Sufi Da'iras
    Baay Fall Sufi Da’iras Voicing Identity Through Acoustic Communities Julia Morris ALL PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR EXCEPT WHERE OTHERWISE NOTED nder the flickering glow of the street lamps right as she incorporates ouza into the dance, one of the hottest of a Dakar banlieu, the da’ira (religious asso- styles on the Dakar scene.3 ciation) of Baay Fall1 spiritual guide Sëriñ Another taalibe takes over as the lead vocalist. “Jërejëff Bamba” Saliou Fall2 begins to gather. The interlocking (“Thank you Bamba”), shouts a taalibe; “Waaw, Mame Cheikh rhythms of the xiin drums sound through the Ibra Fall” (“Yes, Mame Cheikh Ibra Fall”) interjects another. A night, calling Baay Fall Sufi disciples or taal- group rap begins, “Who loves Sëriñ Saliou Fall? Put your hands ibes to come together and sing their faith. A speaker dangles from in the air!” Sëriñ Saliou stands up and begins to dance to the Ua tree branch, emitting a scratchy whir, through which a woman’s syncopated drumbeats and hypnotic rhythms of the dhikrs, arms voice reverberates, chanting the sacred Baay Fall dhikr (religious waving in the air. The Yaay Fall go wild, rushing up to dance chant of remembrance) Sam Fall, giving thanks to Allah. The by his side. Two groups take shape: men and women sepa- dhikr vocalist, the dhikrkatt, moves smoothly between chants, rately dancing in a fever of religious song. Fists hit the air. The with the xiin drum ensemble altering their rhythmic accompa- melodic repetition creates a hypnotic effect. In the glow of the niment accordingly. As the soloist’s voice weaves melodic lines streetlights, the frenzied movement of bodies, the soundscape in praise of Allah and Cheikh Amadou Bamba—the founder of of drum and song, taalibes become more and more a part of the the Mouride Sufi brotherhood—she clutches multiple mobiles in religious groove (Fig.
    [Show full text]
  • Cyber-Sufism Stéphane A
    Cyber-Sufism Stéphane A. Dudoignon To cite this version: Stéphane A. Dudoignon. Cyber-Sufism. Sufi Institutions, 2020. hal-03089115 HAL Id: hal-03089115 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03089115 Submitted on 27 Dec 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Stéphane A. Dudoignon, “Cyber-Sufism” in A. Papas, ed., Sufi Institutions , Leiden: Brill (HdO), 2020, pp. 405–14 Among widely circulated misconceptions of Sufism are imaginations of this ensemble of ini- tiatory traditions as a form of social withdrawal, encouraging people to turn their backs on social responsibility and commitment, in order to retreat into a private world of devotion (e.g., Algar). However, the expansion of Sufism in cyberspace from the mid-1990s onwards suggests the ability of Sufis to utilise increasingly multidirectional media for the reinvention of gnostic practices and sociability, while showing themselves intensely active on the soci- ocultural, educational if not even political levels — within either Muslim-minority or major- ity societies, and against very diverse socioeconomic backdrops. Conversely, the Internet’s very evolution, especially after the irruption of the social media (alias ‘social networks’) since the mid-2000s, has exerted, together with the continuing demographic changes of this period, a deep impact on the ongoing transformation of Sufism itself (on the significance of this his- torical moment for the Middle Eastern internet in general, see Gonzalez-Quijano, Commu- nautés Virtuelles, 196).
    [Show full text]
  • Staging Touba: the Performance of Piety
    Journal of Religion in Africa 48 (2020) 312-346 brill.com/jra Staging Touba: The Performance of Piety Kate Kingsbury Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada [email protected] Abstract Touba, in Senegal, is the equivalent to Mecca for Sufi Mouride Muslims, who embark on an annual pilgrimage called Le Grand Magal to celebrate the founder of their faith, Cheikh Amadou Bamba. When devotees describe their sacred city they frequently com- pare Touba to heaven, juxtaposing it to the materiality and chaos of other Senegalese cities, as though it was distinct from these lieux. Yet Touba shares many similarities in terms of its economic importance with other metropolises. Mourides despite pre- senting themselves as a united religious community, have differences of opinion and even praxis. This paper explores the imagination of Touba and the Mouride order by Mourides, positing that the sacred sites of Touba comprise a stage for the performance of piety and the generation of a particular Mouride ontology through which they see Touba, their order and the world. Keywords Senegal – Touba – Mourides – Pilgrimage – Magal – Africa – Religion In 1887, a Senegalese Sufi saint wandering across the arid sands of the Sahelian desert on a mystical retreat to find God, sought respite from the blistering sun, recount hagiographic tales. In the middle of the arid wilderness he came across a lone baobab tree. Reclining against its trunk in the shade of its canopy, it is said that he experienced a hierophanic vision. The angel Gabriel soared down from the heavens to deliver a divine message to the sitting Sufi.
    [Show full text]
  • Competing Narratives on Transnational Islam
    ajiss32-3-final-for-hasan_ajiss 6/12/2015 9:11 AM Page 92 Review Essay What’s in a Movement? Competing Narratives on Transnational Islam Books Reviewed: M. Hakan Yavuz, Toward an Islamic Enlightenment: The Gülen Movement (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013); Joshua D. Hen - drick, Gülen: The Ambiguous Politics of Market Islam in Turkey and the World (New York: New York University Press, 2013); Sophia Pandya and Nancy Gallagher, eds., The Gülen Hizmet Movement and Its Transnational Activities: Case Studies of Altruistic Activism in Contemporary Islam (Boca Raton, FL: BrownWalker Press, 2012). What makes the ideas of an Islamic scholar from the heartland of eastern Ana - tolia relevant to more than 150 countries across the world? To some, it is the authenticity, dedication, activism, sincerity, and solidarity of the participants in what Fethullah Gülen, the inspiring figure behind the movement, has called the “volunteers movement” or simply hizmet (service). This global movement provides opportunities for education, promotes intercultural dialogue, supports democratization and human rights, and connects businesses and activists for community partnership. To others, there is something sinister, something more than meets the eye, and hence it is a “project” with ulterior motives ranging from creating an Islamic state to serving the interests of Israel, the United States, and the Vatican. When there is such disagreement, a social theory per - spective becomes critical to sorting out all of these competing and conflicting explanations. The three books under review provide various kaleidoscopes to make sense of such convoluted interpretations and raise interesting questions for future work in the burgeoning literature.
    [Show full text]
  • Muslims, Moriscos, and Arabic-Speaking Migrants in the New World
    Mota, Thiago Henrique. 2020. Muslims, Moriscos, and Arabic-Speaking Migrants in the New World. Latin American Research Review 55(4), pp. 820–828. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25222/larr.1197 BOOK REVIEW ESSAYS Muslims, Moriscos, and Arabic-Speaking Migrants in the New World Thiago Henrique Mota Federal University of Viçosa, BR [email protected] This essay reviews the following works: Between the Middle East and the Americas: The Cultural Politics of Diaspora. Edited by Evelyn Alsultany and Ella Shohat. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2013. Pp. ix + 334. $41.95 paperback. ISBN: 9780472069446. Forbidden Passages: Muslims and Moriscos in Colonial Spanish America. By Karoline P. Cook. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016. Pp. 261. $45.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9780812248241. More Argentine Than You: Arabic-Speaking Immigrants in Argentina. By Steven Hyland Jr. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2017. Pp. ix + 304. $65.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9780826358776. Islam and the Americas. Edited by Aisha Khan. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2015. Pp. vii + 331. $32.00 paperback. ISBN: 9780813060132. Crescent over Another Horizon: Islam in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Latino USA. Edited by María del Mar Logroño Narbona, Paulo G. Pinto, and John Tofik Karam. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2015. Pp. ix + 344. $60.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9781477302293. The Mexican Mahjar: Transnational Maronites, Jews, and Arabs under the French Mandate. By Camila Pastor. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2017. Pp. ix + 352. $29.95 paperback. ISBN: 9781477314623. Syrian and Lebanese Patrícios in São Paulo: From the Levant to Brazil. By Oswaldo Truzzi. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2018.
    [Show full text]
  • Remittances and Development Within Senegal's Muridiyya Rebecca F
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by DigitalCommons@Macalester College Macalester College DigitalCommons@Macalester College Political Science Honors Projects Political Science Department 5-4-2009 The rP oblem with Eating Money: Remittances and Development within Senegal's Muridiyya Rebecca F. Sheff Macalester College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/poli_honors Part of the Economics Commons, Geography Commons, International and Area Studies Commons, and the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Sheff, Rebecca F., "The rP oblem with Eating Money: Remittances and Development within Senegal's Muridiyya" (2009). Political Science Honors Projects. Paper 18. http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/poli_honors/18 This Honors Project is brought to you for free and open access by the Political Science Department at DigitalCommons@Macalester College. It has been accepted for inclusion in Political Science Honors Projects by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Macalester College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Problem with Eating Money: Remittances and Development within Senegal’s Muridiyya Rebecca Sheff Advisor: David Blaney Department of Political Science Macalester College May 4, 2009 ABSTRACT Contemporary development theory is poorly equipped to understand remittance-based development occurring in transnational spaces that partially escape the control of the state. An extended case study of the Muridiyya, a Sufi brotherhood in Senegal, reveals how collective remittances from Mouride transmigrants become tools for community-level development when channeled through transnational religious associations. I argue that remittance-based development projects transform the political, economic, and social contexts in which they are embedded, including the relationship between the Muridiyya and the state.
    [Show full text]
  • The Mourides of Senegal: Work,A Gospel Solidarity of & God
    The Mourides of Senegal: Work,A Gospel Solidarity of & God Islamic religiosity is a pends on a fierce devotion of who believe, obey God, obey the phrase that often conjures up im- the talibee or, follower, to one’s messenger and those in authori- ages of patriarchal societies, con- marabout, or spiritual leader. ty” (4:59), the belief that material servative, bordering repressive Marabouts are descendants of achievements are manifestations moral tenets, angry demonstra- Mouridism’ founder, Amadu of spiritual blessing, and the firm tions, and even violence. With Bamba, and each marabout has belief that marabouts have the an estimated 1.6 billion Muslims their own following within spe- ability to understand and inter- in 2013, there are individuals cific geographic regions in Sene- pret the divine. Also, a central and clerics whose teachings and gal. The marabouts are organized practice for Mourides is addiya, adherents fit elements of these in a powerful hierarchy, their or donation to the religious order. descriptions, but many Muslim seniority based on their relation Traditionally, addiya took shape sects express their religiosity in to Amadu Bamba; the Grand as one day’s labor in a field ded- very different ways. The Mou- Marabout stands at the apex. The icated to the marabout; however, rides, a Sufi Sunni sect indig- deep reverence that followers of a due to the expansion of Mourid- enous to Senegal, is a growing marabout have for his ndiguels, ism into non-rural economies, religious order with prodigious or commands, is particular to addiya now can take the form financial resources and a strongly Mouridism and is at the heart of of a cash donation.
    [Show full text]