Newsletter of African Studies at Bayreuth University
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Vol. VIII 2009 NAB Newsletter of African Studies at Bayreuth University Interview with Abdulkader Tayob, BIGSAS Heinrich Barth Professor The fi rst ten scholarship hol- Muslims and Islam in Africa ________________________________ 2 ders of the newly-established Tanzanian-German Centre for TGCL Postgraduate Studies in Law The Tanzanian-German Centre for Postgraduate Studies in Law ___ 8 (TGCL), a joint project of the BIGSAS Universiti es of Dar es Salaam BIGSAS stati sti cs _________________________________________ 7 and Bayreuth (arti cle page 8). 18 months in the ‘pursuit of excellence’ ______________________ 11 BIGSAS Colloquium: Advanced work in progress ________________ 13 Interview with Abraham Brahima, junior fellow ________________ 14 Exhibiti ons António Ole – Hidden Pages _______________________________ 16 PigaPicha _______________________________________________18 Guests ____________________________________________________ 20 Personalia _________________________________________________ 23 Publicati ons ________________________________________________ 26 Reports ___________________________________________________ 32 In Brief ____________________________________________________ 45 Alumni: Paulin Oloukpona-Yinnon ______________________________ 46 Announcement _____________________________________________ 47 Editors’ note _______________________________________________ 48 Interview FK: There is a long tradition of a very strong element coming Madrasat Manazil al-Abrar, Mam- brui (Photo: Seesemann) reform Islam in Northern Af- from people who are study- rica. Do you think that in sub- ing the sciences. They are ap- Africa means non-violent and Saharan Africa you find com- plying the logic of the natural non-militant Sufism. If you parable ideas – comparable sciences to the Islamic texts. use “African Islam” one has to African ideas? I’ve described them as a mod- be careful because it is such a ern Islamic paradigm. There is loaded political topic. African AT: I don’t think these devel- [a] shift from people who are Islam is also being used by opments are African, they are studying in modern Islamic African nationalists. They use very much connected with glo- schools, sometimes with a ra- African Islam in order to speak bal Islamic developments but tional understanding of Islam. in a nationalistic sense of Af- at the same time also connect- Sometimes, with a very little rica as being distinctive. That ed with modernization. knowledge about Islam, they is also a political discourse just cut out a few things. in South Africa among indig- FK: What do you mean by mod- Muslims and Islam in Africa enous African people. They ernization? FK: That sounds very eclectic. speak about African Islam but they speak about it as distinct AT: By modernization of Islam AT: It is very eclectic. I would Franz Kogelmann: Your re- as well. At the moment they are ments elsewhere. One of the big from Indian Islam. I mean basically a rationaliza- say it is a result of globaliza- search is focused on Muslim separate streams but in the fu- issues is the representation of public spheres in Africa and ture I will combine them. Muslims in a nation state. A lot modern Islamic thought. How of the conflicts in Africa take an Interview with Abdulkader Tayob do these two important issues FK: You are a South African place because the state is not come together? Muslim. Is there a South Afri- Islamic. Muslims have to agree can Islam or is there even some- on how they present them- FK: How about African Muslims? tion of Islam. With a kind of tion. It started in India with Abdulkader Tayob: They rep- thing like an African Islam? selves to the government. On rational structure in the name Maudoodi and the other stream resent my two skills. In work- those kinds of lines we began AT: African Muslims might be of Islam what happens is that comes from Muhammad Ab- ing on South Africa I was try- AT: Islam in South Africa is to see important similarities. a better term. African socie- the importance of Sufism is duh in Egypt. Then we have a ing to get a more comparative very diff erent to other regions The notion of African Islam is ties link up with cultural tradi- undermined, the importance lot of West Africans who stud- approach to African Muslim in Africa because it emerged problematic. It has a political tions. If you look at East Africa of a spiritual experience is ied during the two wars. Some societies. In that sense there only in a context of European meaning. [It was] first used by you have spirit possession. You actually replaced by an atten- of the ideas came to South Af- is a lot to be said about Mus- cannot separate spirit posses- lim publics in the 20th century, A lot of the confl icts in Africa take place sion rituals from Islam and By modernizati on of Islam I mean particularly post-colonial and unique Islamic symbols. It is because the state is not Islamic post-cold war societies after linked up with the whole deep basically a rati onalizati on of Islam the period of attempted lib- sense of African traditions as eralization. The other skill is imperialism and colonialism the French (Islam noir) during well as with Islamic symbols tion to detailed behaviours. It rica from studying in Mecca, languages. I come with a back- and it doesn’t have a pre-coloni- the colonial times in order to or Islamic ideas. The prob- becomes much more outward. but also, importantly, not only ground in Arabic and classical al history. I think that my own speak about Islam in Africa that lem with it is that it assumes The mystical linkages of such from Mecca - also from local Islamic studies. I have always experience has been my obser- was very diff erent from white a common culture across Af- traditions are broken. You basi- traditions, by which I mean kept abreast with ideas and vations of South Africa after Islam, the Islam of the Arabs. rica? I don’t think so. Africa is cally can go into the book: you modern schools. Once people developments written in Ara- the end of Apartheid in 1994. After 9-11 this idea has been too much an invention. It’s too open the Qur’an [and] you read are cut off from the traditional bic and, to some extent, in Urdu I began to see similar develop- picked up again: that Islam in much of an imagination. it for yourself. Thirdly there is education you get a modern 2 NAB Vol. VIII - 2009 NAB Vol. VIII - 2009 3 Interview Interview form of Islamic reform. As I are often quite weak method- bally. The same ideas are being alism and also the reactions to establish an Islamic state. this desire for order to be able said, it includes ways of under- ologically. Modern education produced but there are local to the uncertainties created Power was central to Islamic to come to the underlying standing texts – opposed to the creates a much more rational developments. by lower economic growth, ideology. The case of Senegal forces. The utopia promises Islamic scholars – but there is understanding of Islam. one-party states, no changes shows that the secular has an ideal society. Utopia works also a way in which Islam be- FK: How old are these ideas? anymore and nothing is work- been imposed by the colonial because it is not realistic – you comes very much part of your FK: The Islamic reform move- ing. In Muslim societies people regime and Muslims want to don’t have to deal with the re- sense of identity. ment initiated by Muhammad AT: Some of these ideas were started to say Islam is the an- find their own way i.e. an Is- ality, the conflicts are too big Abduh in Egypt at the end of already circulating among swer in the 1970s. The attrac- lamic approach to an Islamic because of the deep political FK: Doesn’t that mean that it the 19th century manifested smaller groups of people be- tion for East [African] Muslims designed state. and economic crises. Islamists is a by-product of the coloniza- that Islam is a rational religion. tween the two wars. When was that they blamed the prob- and some established Islamic tion, a reaction against Euro- the major changes came I see lems on the fact that the state FK: Why is this Islamic or Mus- scholars argue that Islamic law pean imperialism? AT: In one extreme you have them connected to the emer- was controlled by Christians. lim way so attractive? – Sharia – solves all problems Abdulkader Tayob BIGSAS Heinrich Barth Visiti ng Professorship Abdulkader Tayob was the fi rst BIGSAS Heinrich Barth Visiti ng Pro- The BIGSAS Heinrich Barth Visiti ng Professors take an acti ve part in the intellectual life of Bayreuth fessor. He is professor of Religious Studies (Islam, African Publics University and BIGSAS and engage in the following academic acti viti es. They: and Religious Values) at the University of Cape Town and director • Hold two public lectures during his or her stay on topics connected to the BIGSAS Research Areas. of the Centre for Contemporary Islam. He has published exten- • Off er a seminar for BIGSAS doctoral students and postgraduate students of the University of Bay- sively on Islam and Muslims in South Africa and on Muslim public reuth. The seminar qualifi es as an offi cial university course. spheres in Africa. Since 2008 he has held the Research Chair: Islam, • Parti cipate in a special workshop or colloquium with BIGSAS Principal Investi gators and doctoral African Publics and Religious Values. He is also the editor in chief students. The workshop should provide a forum for research dialogue within one or more of the of the Journal for Islamic Studies. Between November 2008 and BIGSAS Research Areas (depending on the discipline of the visiti ng professor), in which the visiti ng January 2009 he was BIGSAS Heinrich Barth Visiti ng Professor.