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Islamic Pathways Islamic youth associations and Muslim identity formation in Bamako, Mali Marieke Kruis Master Thesis African Studies African Studies Centre, Leiden University Supervisors: Dr. Benjamin Soares, Dr. Mayke Kaag May 2010 2 Contents Acknowledgement 5 1. Introduction: The construction of new Muslim identities 6 Islamic youth associations in Bamako, Mali 1.1 Muslim identity formation and the role of associations 9 1.2 The study of Islam: the danger of dichotomies 11 1.3 In the field: research setting and methodology 14 1.3.1 The field 14 1.3.2 Informants 15 1.3.3 Methodology 16 1.4 Outline of the thesis 17 2. Navigating youth: challenges and chances in Bamako 20 The stories of two young Islamic activists 2.1 The story of Mandjou 22 2.2 The story of Hawa 28 2.3 Navigating through different fields 32 2.4 Concluding remarks 36 3. The Islamic landscape of Bamako 38 Islamic youth associations in a broader perspective 3.1 The Islamic landscape of Mali in a historical perspective 39 3.2 Liberalization and modernization: 45 the fragmented nature of the Islamic community 3.3 The pursuit of unity: the creation of the Haut Conseil Islamique 46 3.4 The quest for unification of Malian Muslim youth: 49 the creation of UJMMA 3.5 Divergences and common ground amongst Islamic youth associations 51 3.6 A world of abbreviations: 57 The Islamic community as an interwoven social field 3.7 Concluding remarks 59 4. “Nous sommes pauvres” 61 Islam as an answer and a direction 4.1 The hardships of life in Mali and the answers of Islam: 62 Exploring the issue of poverty with Bintou 4.2 The activities of Islamic youth associations on a day to day basis 70 4.2.1Religious activities 74 4.2.2Educational activities 76 4.2.3Social/humanitarian activities 80 4.2.4 Leisure activities 81 4.3 A quest for knowledge and morality: 82 progress through education and purification 4.4 Problems in the Malian education system 87 and the response of Islamic youth associations 4.5 Linking personal piety to the development of society 90 4.6 Concluding remarks 93 3 5. Women and men in Islamic youth association 95 The abolition of the Cellule Féminine 5.1 LIEEMA’s national congress: the abolition of the cellule féminine 96 5.2 Challenges of young women in Islamic youth associations: 101 Female participation and the role of the family 5.3 ‘Prendre le voile’: between mistrust and respect 104 5.4 Contestations over the need for a cellule féminine 109 5.5 The formal and the informal: 112 gender roles and power in different domains 5.6 Feminine Islamic virtues and the complementarity of gender roles 116 5.7 Concluding remarks 120 6 Where ‘le monde Musulman’ and ‘l’Occident’ come in 122 Between transnational connections and local realities 6.1 Between the global and the local: 123 Islamic youth associations as a threshold to the world 6.1.1 UJMMA 124 6.1.2 LIEEMA 127 6.2 International connections: independence versus pragmatism 134 6.3 “Al Qaida? C’est un nom fantôme…“: The social realities of intégrisme 136 6.4 “L’Occident n’aime pas les Musulmans”: 140 challenging transnational stereotypes 6.5 Expanding the community : 146 the Umma and l’Occident as ambivalent social resources 6.6 Concluding Remarks 147 7 Conclusions 149 Notes 155 Bibliography 167 4 Acknowledgements During this research project I have been fortunate enough to receive the support and guidance of a range of people. Without their help this thesis would not have been possible. First, I want to thank my father for his constant support throughout my studies. Especially during fieldwork the interest and encouragement from home meant a lot. I want to express my gratitude to my friends and classmates in Leiden, Siri, Martina and Roos, who understood the struggles of research and shared in the pleasure of fieldwork in Africa. I also want to thank friends in Nijmegen who have been by my side during every phase of the project. I want to mention Rosalijne specifically for her encouragement during the writing process. At the Africa Studies Centre in Leiden I want to thank Dr. Benjamin Soares and Dr. Mayke Kaag for their guidance and encouragement in this project, and for their useful comments on my work. All shortcomings in this thesis remain my own. In Bamako I want to express my gratitude to Dr. Amadou Sow at l’Institut des Sciences Humaines for his encouragement in the field, and to Dr. Isaie Dougnon at the University of Bamako and Mr. Moussa Baba Sylla at l’ORTM for allowing me to make use of their connections. I want to thank Mahamadou F. Keïta for helping me out with practical arrangements and for his impeccable translations. I am grateful to Assimou Traore at the University of Bamako for introducing me to Bamanankan. Most importantly, I am grateful to my informants and friends in Mali who have shared their stories and welcomed me in their communities. While it is not possible to thank them all individually, I want to express my gratitude to Mohamed, Bakary, Afi, Oumou, Manda, Sori, Fabou and Nana for their friendship and their willingness to open up their networks. I want to thank Salimata, Mariétou, Dramane and Tahirou for their daily companionship, which made my time in Mali even more enjoyable, and helped me get through the few difficult moments. Finally I want to express my deep gratitude to Brahima Camara, Amadou Traore, Mariam Sangare, and their families, for turning Bamako into a home, and for helping me find my way in the city, its culture, its language and its busy streets. Aw ni ce. 5 1. Introduction: The construction of new Muslim identities Islamic youth associations in Bamako, Mali « En effet, les associations sont un moyen de transformer le monde. Et leur foisonnement symbolise aucun doute un processus de transformation du monde. » (Deliège, 2007:104) In the early 1990s, after the coup of March 26, 1991 brought an end to 23 years of autocratic rule under general Moussa Traoré, Mali experienced political liberalization policies that opened up a vast new space for organizations, associations, unions and other official and unofficial nongovernmental groups to blossom (Sanankoua, 1991:I). Within this space Malians have created a flourishing environment of associational life. The numerous plaques and signs that enliven Bamako’s street scene do not only direct passers-by to shops, schools, medical services, government buildings and international NGO headquarters, they also point out the presence of numerous associations, unions and other kinds of civic organizations. These official and officious structures regroup and represent different groups of people with common interests: women, men, workers, farmers, the unemployed, students, youth, the elderly, the handicapped, Christians, Muslims and so forth. This thesis is about young Muslim men and women in Bamako who have come together in Islamic youth associations. These associations are an important phenomenon to study in relation to modernity. The notion of modernity is an important but complicated one. As the term is often used, in academic literature and in the field, it is necessary to further investigate what modernity stands for in the framework of this thesis. Recent studies of modernity in Africa have moved away from classical modernization theory and its unilinear vision of ‘modernization’ in which all societies were perceived to be moving towards standards of modernity that were set in ‘the West’ (Geschiere, Meyer & Pels, 2009:1). Attempts to make room for cultural particularity with regard to the notion of modernity have led some authors to the exploration of the existence of ‘local’, ‘parallel’ or ‘multiple’ 6 modernities (see Hefner, 1997, Larkin, 1997, Spitulnik 2002). Yet these relativistic notions have also been criticized, as they corner Africans again, this time in their own version of modernity (Geschiere, Meyer & Pels, 2009:1-2). Some scholars (see Englund & Leach, 2000) have argued to stay away from the notion of modernity altogether. However, as Geschiere, Meyer and Pels (2009:1) point out modernity has become part of the African vocabulary and can therefore not be easily brushed aside. Although clear-cut definitions are misleading, the notion of ‘modernity’ seems to refer to “a basic sense of living in a new time, implying an opposition between ‘us’ as radically divorced from ‘tradition’, and ‘others’ who are still backward or not yet developed” (ibid, 2009:2). In this view Islamic youth associations seem to be at the heart of several modern processes and developments. First, the existence of many of these associations in urban Mali today is the direct result of the political liberalization of the early 1990s. In addition, they benefit significantly from globalising forces such as mass media and communication technologies and have proliferated in urban environments. While urbanisation is a process that accelerated within the colonial context, the influence of modern western notions has been particularly strong in the postcolonial period through development and aid programs. Between the early 1980s and late 1990s the Malian state-dominated economy has been liberalised under pressure from Western donors. Within this period four major Structural Adjustment Programs (SAP’s) were implemented by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that aimed at privatisation and the liberalisation of trade. The results of these SAP’s have been mixed, even at a macro-level, and Mali remains one of the poorest countries in the world with western aid associations very present (Gutelius, 2007:59-60). In spite of considerable western intervention and the promises of western modernity, most Malian youth have been forced into marginal social, economic and political roles.
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