Religious Agency, Memory and Travel Transnational Islam of Senegalese Murids in Helsinki
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Religious Agency, Memory and Travel Transnational Islam of Senegalese Murids in Helsinki Aino Liisa Marjatta Peltonen University of Helsinki Department of World Cultures Study of Religions Master’s Degree Programme in Intercultural Encounters Master’s Thesis April 2014 Supervisor: Tuula Sakaranaho CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 The comings, the goings and the settlement of Muridism .......................................... 1 1.2 Previous research on Islam in the Finnish religious landscape ............................... 5 1.3 Previous research on Muridism and migration .............................................................. 7 1.4 Research questions ................................................................................................................. 14 2 THE MURID BROTHERHOOD ............................................................................................ 16 2.1 The early days of Muridism ................................................................................................. 16 2.2 The structure of followership ............................................................................................. 20 2.3 From rural to urban and overseas .................................................................................... 22 3 RESEARCHING MURIDISM IN HELSINKI ........................................................................ 25 3.1 Unprecedented encounters create the field .................................................................. 25 3.2 The Murid disciple interviews ............................................................................................ 29 3.3 Ethical considerations ........................................................................................................... 31 3.4 Representational decisions ................................................................................................. 34 3.5 Navigating between different positions ......................................................................... 36 4 ANALYZING NARRATIVES OF TRANSNATIONAL ISLAM .......................................... 40 4.1 The relationship between transnationalism and diaspora ..................................... 40 4.2 Dimensions of religious agency and collective memory .......................................... 42 4.3 Narrative method of analysis .............................................................................................. 45 5 THE MURID RELIGIOUS GUIDES VISIT DISCIPLES ..................................................... 48 5.1 Migrant men on the Murid ‘path’ ....................................................................................... 48 5.2 Travelling guides foster consciousness of a Murid diaspora ................................. 52 5.3 Transnational network reaches Finland ........................................................................ 54 5.4 Prayers prevent from ‘getting lost’ ................................................................................... 59 5.5 Advice articulated by the religious guides ..................................................................... 62 6 LIVING OUT IDENTITIES AND MOBILIZING MEMORY .............................................. 65 6.1 Visits as a ritual space ............................................................................................................ 65 6.2 Agentic orderings of time ..................................................................................................... 69 6.3 Valued identities and contested stereotypes ................................................................ 74 6.4 Cultivating a religious memory .......................................................................................... 78 6.5 The ‘gift’ of travel ..................................................................................................................... 82 7 CONCLUSIONS ......................................................................................................................... 85 7.1 Key findings and discussion ................................................................................................ 85 7.2 Further research ...................................................................................................................... 90 8 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................... 93 8.1 Sources ........................................................................................................................................ 93 8.2 Figures ......................................................................................................................................... 93 8.3 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 93 8.4 Internet references ............................................................................................................... 100 9 APPENDIXES ......................................................................................................................... 101 9.1 A note on orthography ........................................................................................................ 101 9.2 Glossary ..................................................................................................................................... 102 9.3 Interview themes and questions for Murid disciples in English ......................... 102 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 The comings, the goings and the settlement of Muridism …Sometimes the cheikhs come here to spend a week with the disciples, we need that. They remind us of Cheikh Amadou Bamba, they remind us of our obligation, they remind us, you know, which way we need to take. (taalibe, Fr) In this study I approach present-day Sufi Islam of Senegalese Murids in Helsinki. The Murid brotherhood originated during the late 19th century around a Senegalese Muslim teacher Cheikh Amadou Bamba who remains today as the key reference to Murid belief, practice and organization as exemplified in the previous quote. By the 21st century, the Murid brotherhood, one of the most influential Sufi brotherhoods1 of West-African Senegal, has spread out through migrant disciples to all continents. Today’s Muridism takes an established form of transnational Islam. One way in which the brotherhood’s activities cut across nation states’ borders is its religious guides’ travel. The Murid brotherhood is organized around the city of Touba in Senegal from where the leader of the brotherhood, a descendant of Cheikh Amadou Bamba, coordinates its activities. Following in the footsteps of Cheikh Amadou Bamba, a number of descendant and allied religious guides travel to visit Murid disciples and the related religious associations in different cities across the world. This Thesis studies the visits that the travelling religious guides, here called cheikhs, pay to Murid disciples, here called taalibes, in Helsinki2. In the quote above, a Murid taalibe explains that the cheikhs remind the disciples which “way” they “need to take”. Through their temporary presence, the visiting cheikhs are able to guide the Murid taalibes at least on two levels: in their collective religious organization in a new society of settlement and in their individual religious lives. In this thesis, my aim is to analyze how Muridism is mobilized in yet another overseas location collectively as well as through individually lived Murid identities. In particular, I pay attention to the role 1 The other three most influential brotherhoods are the Xaadir (W), the Tiijaan (W) and the Laayeen (W). 2 See 9.2 Glossary for the most frequently used Wolof words. 1 the cheikhs’ visits as a social context have in this process. In order to grasp the meanings given for the encounters between the cheikhs and the taalibes I conducted ethnographic participative observation in the Murid taalibes’ homes in Helsinki during the cheikhs’ visits. Additionally, I carried out interviews with taalibes residing in Helsinki as well as with travelling cheikhs. I remain grateful for the Murid disciples’ willingness to initiate opportunities to meet their travelling guides. Finland has been an unusual destination for people from Sub-Saharan Africa and particularly for immigrants from the francophone West-Africa. This may be explained inter alia by a considerable geographical distance and an absence of historical ties. 27 654 African born residents lived in Finland in 2013. Over a third of these residents are Somalian born. (Statistics Finland 2014.) In 2005 the top ten countries for Senegalese migration were Gambia, France, Italy, Mauritania, Spain, Gabon, United States, Republic of Congo, Guinea-Bissau and Nigeria (Dilip & Xu, 2005). In 2013, there were 157 Senegalese born residents in Finland, of whom only 29 are women. Over a half of the Senegalese born residents lived in Southern Uusimaa, the most populous region of the country. (Statistics Finland 2014.) The majority of Muslims of African origin lives in the capital region (Martikainen 2013, 113). Similarly to Italy, the Senegalese immigrants in Finland seem to be mainly men migrating as individuals (for Italy see Riccio 2001; 2004). Senegal may be regarded as a Muslim country in a sense that most of its population is Muslim (see Sakaranaho 1998, 12) and therefore