Religious Authority and the State in Africa

OCTOBER 2015 1616 Rhode Island Avenue NW Washington, DC 20036 202-887-0200 | www.csis.org Lanham • Boulder • New York • London 4501 Forbes Boulevard Lanham, MD 20706 301- 459- 3366 | www.rowman.com Cover photo: Religious Flickr user Rod Waddington (both church and mosque are located in Uganda) Authority and the State in Africa A Report of the CSIS Africa Program ISBN 978-1-4422-5886-0 1616 Rhode Island Avenue NW Washington,Ë|xHSLEOCy258860z DC 20036v*:+:!:+:! EDITORS 202-887-0200 | www.csis.org Jennifer G. Cooke Richard Downie Blank Religious Authority and the State in Africa EDITORS Jennifer G. Cooke Richard Downie A Report of the CSIS Africa Program October 2015 Lanham • Boulder • New York • London —-1 —0 —+1 594-62763_ch00_3P.indd 1 10/27/15 11:38 AM About CSIS For over 50 years, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has worked to develop solutions to the world’s greatest policy challenges. Today, CSIS scholars are providing strategic insights and bipartisan policy solutions to help decisionmakers chart a course toward a better world. CSIS is a nonprofit organ ization headquartered in Washington, D.C. The Center’s 220 full- time staff and large network of affiliated scholars conduct research and analy sis and develop policy initiatives that look into the future and anticipate change. Founded at the height of the Cold War by David M. Abshire and Admiral Arleigh Burke, CSIS was dedicated to finding ways to sustain American prominence and prosperity as a force for good in the world. Since 1962, CSIS has become one of the world’s preeminent international institutions focused on defense and security; regional stability; and transnational challenges ranging from energy and climate to global health and economic integration. Former U.S. senator Sam Nunn has chaired the CSIS Board of Trustees since 1999. Former deputy secretary of defense John J. Hamre became the Center’s president and chief executive officer in 2000. CSIS does not take specific policy positions; accordingly, all views expressed herein should be understood to be solely those of the author(s). © 2015 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-4422-5886-0 (pb); 978-1-4422-5887-7 (eBook) Center for Strategic & International Studies Rowman & Littlefield 1616 Rhode Island Ave nue, NW 4501 Forbes Boulevard -1— Washington, DC 20036 Lanham, MD 2 0706 0— 202-887-0200 | www . csis . org 301 - 459 - 3366 | www . rowman . com +1— 594-62763_ch00_3P.indd 2 10/27/15 11:38 AM Contents Acknowl edgments iv Introduction: The Intersection of Religion and Politics in Africa 1 Jennifer G. Cooke 1.o P liti cal and Religious Pluralism in Senegal 10 Jennifer G. Cooke 2. Politics, Religious Engagement, and Extremism in K enya 29 David Throup 3. Religion and the State in Uganda: Co- option and Compromise 49 Richard Downie 4. The Politics of Ethno- Religious Balancing and the Strug gle for Power in Nigeria 65 M. Sani Umar 5. Demo cratic Reform and Islamic Revival in the Republic of Niger 86 Sebastian Elischer 6. Evolving Attitudes toward Secularism in Tanzania 100 Richard Downie About the Authors 116 —-1 —0 —+1 | III 594-62763_ch00_3P.indd 3 10/27/15 11:38 AM Acknowl edgments ennifer Cooke, director of the CSIS Africa Program, managed this proj ect, authored the JSenegal case study in this report, and coauthored the introduction with Richard Downie, Africa Program deputy director and author of the Tanzania and Uganda case studies. CSIS would like to thank Sebastian Elischer, assistant professor of comparative politics at the University of Florida, for authoring the Niger case study; David Throup, a se nior associate with the CSIS Africa Program, for authoring the K enya case study; and M. Sani Umar, a professor of history at Ahmadu Bello University, for authoring the Nigeria case study. The studies in this volume are based on fieldwork undertaken in 2013 and 2014 to the six countries included, as well as desktop research and interviews with U.S.- based experts. CSIS would also like to thank David Baker and Hanif Tuwa for their contributions to the Tanzania fieldwork and Abdoul Aziz Dieng for contributions to the Senegal fieldwork. As part of the proj ect, CSIS cohosted with George Mason University’s Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies a day- long conference on Islam in Africa in March 2013, and CSIS is grateful to the center’s director, Peter Mandaville, and to the many speakers and partici- pants in the conference for their insights and analyses. The proj ect team is also grateful to the many individuals who agreed to be interviewed as part of the research and to CSIS Africa Program staff and interns, including former program coordinator and research associate Farha Tahir and current program coordinator Benjamin Hubner. Finally, the CSIS Africa Program extends its warm thanks to the Henry Luce Foundation, whose generous support made this proj ect pos si ble. -1— 0— +1— IV | 594-62763_ch00_3P.indd 4 10/27/15 11:38 AM Introduction: The Intersection of Religion and Politics in Africa Jennifer G. Cooke Overview In the last de cade, U.S. policymakers have been increasingly open to exploring religious issues at a broad policy level. There has been stronger emphasis on the role of religion in post-conflictengagement,andU.S.assistanceprogramminghasgivengreaterattentionto religious actors in peace- building and ser vice delivery. In policy and security analyses pertaining to Africa, however, issues of religion are most often looked at through the relativelynarrowlensofconflictorviolentextremism,withverylittleattentiontothe broader po liti cal and religious contexts in which they play out. This study, undertaken with the generous support of the Henry Luce Foundation, examines how religious and po liti cal dynamicsintersectandinfluenceeachotherinsixverydifferentcountrycontextsand describes how these interactions are changing as pressures for po liti cal liberalization mount and as pluralism and competition in both the po liti cal and religious spheres increase. The countries examined— Kenya, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, and Uganda— offer examples of how religious actors and institutions are asserting themselves in po liti cal life, from grassroots mobilization to national debates around constitutionalism, justice, religious pluralism, and human rights. They also offer illustrations of how po liti cal actors variously accommodate, confront, co- opt, or instrumentalize religious institutions and actors to further po liti cal ambitions and strategies. Each of the countries studied is for vari ous reasons an impor tant regional player and partner to the United States and a target of expanding U.S. engagement. It is all the more impor tant, therefore, that U.S. policymakers more fully understand and account for the evolving landscape of religious institutions and the role they play in shaping po liti cal discourse and state responses. It is also hoped that close examination of these par tic u lar cases will offer lessons and insight appli- cable more broadly in Africa—or at least guidance for how to analyze and understand these trends in dif fer ent country contexts. —-1 —0 —+1 | 1 594-62763_ch01_3P.indd 1 10/27/15 2:27 PM Context and Par ameters of the Study R eligion and faith are profoundly impor tant to the vast majority of people living in sub- SaharanAfrica.Globalsurveysconfirmthedepthofreligiosityonthecontinent:veryfew Africansarereligiouslyunaffiliated,andagreaterproportionofpeopleinAfricaconsider religion very impor tant in their lives than in any other region of the world.1 It is not sur- prising then, that religious actors and institutions have been power ful forces in shaping po liti cal development and outcomes on much of the continent. Indeed, in much of Africa it is impossible to understand the pro cess of modern state formation without taking religious dynamics and institutions into account. Yet despite considerable attention to the role that ethnicity and ethnic identity play in shaping po liti cal outcomes in Africa, there has been relatively little analy sis of the impact that religious communities and institutions have had in this regard. There has been even less comparative analy sis on how religion and religious communities themselves have been shaped by po liti cal forces over time. The intersection of politics and religion has played out in very dif fer ent ways across Africa, depending on the constellation of social, cultural, historical, and po liti cal factors that are unique to any one state and which themselves evolve over time. The last quarter century has seen profound social, economic, and po liti cal change across Africa, with the pace of change accelerated by rapid demographic shifts, globalization, new technologies and networks, and the rising expectations of a predominantly young population. The end of the Cold War and the demise of apartheid in the 1990s galvanized African citizens and civil socie ties to push for demo cratic reform within their own countries, triggering popu- lar protests that in many African states culminated in the introduction of multiparty elections and expanding opportunities for po liti cal engagement. Demo cratic progress sincethepoliticalopeningsofthe1990shasbeendecidedlymixed:insomecasesincum- bent regimes have taken on the trappings of democracy— multiparty politics and regular elections—as win dow dressing for the continuation of authoritarian rule. In others, demo- cratic consolidation has been slow and prone to setbacks and regression. Nonetheless, this second wave of in de pen dence did herald a new era of broader po liti cal engagement, bring- ingawiderfieldofcompetitorsintoplay,andemboldeningcitizensandpoliticallyengaged civil socie ties to demand more from their governments.

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