1--> , - 1· 71;e /Vlazmiana Collection ch best refi::re icc , ork on Africa. '.s _ . • Afncana L1branans Council, USA & Library ot Congress (Ini:11a) 'f Africa;s Ab<lul Samed Bem,uh, ,.he committed P= Afr'.rnnis,, has given us ,he w,4 ' navigate the mind ofAli Mazru1, one of Afncas greatest rhmkers. Nor only/lo we IQ have a book that leads us inrn rhe valley of knowledge; we have rhe key co open rhc mi door ro che scholarship of the fomrc and the bright Africa. C dawn char awairs Throug this collccrion, we will cLscover inreUecmal prudence, srimularing words. meo cal vinuosi ry, and profound insights. Toyin Faiola, University ofTcxas ar Ausrin,_ l'JS/\ Experience Edited by Ali A. Mazrui Patrick M. Dikirr . .: Robert Ostergard Jr. I 111 Michael Toler and Paul Macharia 9 788120 740853 £ 29.95 US$ 49.99 STE LING PUBLISHERS PVT LTD This volu11 about the· experience the Proph, religion, v STERLING PUBLISHERS PRIVATE LIMITED asylum to A-59, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase-II, New Delhi-110020. from pers• Tel: 26387070, 26386209; Fax: 91-11-26383788 Islamic N- e-mail: [email protected] Muslims· www.sterlingpublishers.com Egypt. Contents This voh: ' upon Afr Preface and Acknowled ents vu Muslim l gm African Impact on Muslim History: A Prelude geograpb Introduction: The ................................................................................ ix revival o Ali A. Mazrui politiciz: Africa's Islamic History, AFRICA'S RELIGIOUS CANVAS: AN OVERVIEW both col Experience: Culture, and Politics © 2009, Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd. 1. Islam, Christianity, and Africa's Indigenous Faiths: Is Islam ISBN 978- 81-207-4085-3 African Demographic Introduction ................... .-..................................................... 3 Christia Amadu Jacky Kaba influen< AND SPREAD OF ISLAM IN AFRICA relation HISTORY interpe1 2. Islam in Africa's Experience: Expansion, Revival, and African Radicalization a positi ............................................................................... 13 All rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, Ali A. Mazrui paroch stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, 3. The Sp'read oflslam and Arab Culture in West Africa in the nostalg mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written Eleventh Century: Impact on African-European Relations counte 31 permission of the publisher. Brahim El Kadiri Boutchich .......................................................... a force Christianity in Uganda: Conflict, Dialogue, and irretrie 4. Islam and for Partnership radical Search James Ndyabahika ..................... : .................................................. 47 This v 5 Indian Muslims in South Africa's History: Continuity and Change questi Goolam Vahed ............. :................................................................ groun Index by Abdul Samed Bernath better POLITICAL ISLAM AND AFRICAN POLITICS 73 6. Afrabia: Evolutionary Convergence between Africa and the Arab World Ali A. Mazrui ............................................................................. 109 7. Ethnoreligious Pluralism and Democratization in Nigeria: PRINrEo IN INDIA The Politics of the Shari'a Siraj Abdulkarim Barau ............................................................. 124 Printed and Published by Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi-110020. 72 Africa s Islamic Experience: History, Culture, and Politics 40. Louse Pirouet, "Refugees an in d from U ganda in the Post-Colonial Period," in Uganda Now: Between Decay and Development, ed. H. B. H ansen and Edward Twaddle (Kampala: Fountain Publishers, 1995), pp. 239-253. 41. A Century ofChristianity in Uganda 1877-1977, ed. Tom Tuma (Nairobi: Uzima Press, 1978), pp. 122-124. It is expedient to state one fact of interest. Muslim or Christian Health Centers have made an impact and produced 5 imme asurable results at the grassroots level. 42. Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a virus that breaks down the Indian Muslims in South Afric·a's History: !mmune sys_tem of the body and essentially causes AIDS (acquired nnm odefiae cy syndrome). As it is so well known in U ganda, it is a ph ic;tl condmon ys Continuity anp Change resulting from the progressive destruction of immunity in the body by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. See Laurenti Magesa "AIDS and survival in Africa: A tentative Reflection," in Moral Ethical Issues in African Christianity GooLAM VAHEo ed. J. N. K. Mugambi and A. Nasimiyu-Wasike (Nairobi: Initiatives Publishers, 1992) pp. 197-216. 43. J ames Katorobo, Education for Public Services in Uganda (New York: V antage Press, 1982), Muslims p. 13; Deogratius M. Byabazaire, The Contribution ofthe The majority oflndian arrived in Natal between 1860 and 1911 as Christian Churches to the Development of Western Uganda 1894-1971, contract indentured workers or pioneer traders. Indentured migration (Frank urt:_ Peter Lang, 1979), pp. 63-78; A Wandera, Early Missionary lasted between 1860 and 1911, by which time 152,641 Indians had come to Education zn Uganda: A Study ofthe Practice and Purpose ofIndigenofts Natal. Approximately seven to ten percent (10, 000-15,000) were Muslim.' Education in Uganda (Kampala: 1971), pp. 130-142; A. R. Nsibambi, "The The indentured Muslim population was characterized by diversity of Politics of Education in U ganda 1964 -1970," Uganda Journal (1976), pp. 58- religious tradition, caste, language, ethnicity, and culture as migrants were 82; D. W. Waruta, "The Educational Mission of the Church: An African drawn from a range of ecologies and modes of production. Traders from Perspective," in Mission in African Christianity, as A. N imiyu-W asike et el., Gujarat, on west coast oflndia, (Nairobi: Uzima Press, 1993), pp. 110-111. the began arriving in Natal from the mid- 1870s, n cheir own expense and of their own volition. The majority of traders were Muslims, either Memons from Porbandar in Kathiawar or Sunni Bohras from Surat, who spoke Gujarati. While the exact number of traders is not certain, the Wragg Commission approximated their number to be around one thousand in 1887, while Maureen Swan {1985: 2) estimated it to average around 2,000 between 1890 and 1910. Indian Muslims were a minority within a minority. According to the 1904 Census, of 100,918 Indians in Natal, 9,992 (9.901 per cent) were Muslim, the overwhelming majority (72 per cent) of whom were male. There was a great degree of internal differentiation among Natal Muslims. While the most obvious distinction was between traders and indentured migrants, neither of these two groups comprised a homogenous group. Muslims traders were incorrectly called "Arabs," because most adopted the Middle Easterri mode of dress. They themselves emphasized this distinction to obtain equality with whites on the basis of Queen Victoria's 1858 Proclamation, which asserted the equality of British subjects (Bhana and Brain, 1990: 65). This class distinction among Indians was evident to the authorities. In a confidential report to the Durban Town Council Africa s Islamic Experience: 74 History, Culture, and Politics Indian Muslims in South Africa's History: Continuity and Change (DTC) in 1885, police inspector Richard Alexander (1885) pointed out constructed in wood and covered in colored paper and gold and silver75 that the "Arabs will only associate with Indi an s so far as trade compels them tinsels. On the tenth, groups of people pulled tazzias by hand, all the while to." In fact, Gujarati Muslims had more in common with Gujarati Hindus singing songs to the memory of Hussein, beating on drums, d cing wildly, th they had with indentured Muslims. George Mutukistna, a free Indian, or carrying out stick fights. There was always a strong police f resence, testified before the Wragg Commission that "caste feeling ... is kept up by because the festival often ended with the spilling of blood. Despite strong the Indian merch ants, who think themselves better because th ey are rich. By disapproval from the local state, as well as middle class Indians, Muharra":' observing caste distinctions they can set themselves apart from the Natal remained a central part of the Islam of indentured workers and theu Indian people." (Wragg Commission, 1885: 393). Muslim traders descendants. Muharram provided an opportunity for developing and considered themselves 'high-class.' They were largely endogamous and did expressing a self-conscious local commun)ty identity. But Muha7:am also n?t inte marry with Musli s from an indentured background, whom signaled the participation of an disparagmgly th ey Indi s in a l ger colle tive by them referred to as Calcutteas' - Calcutta being one _drawmg of the ports together, and played an important role m fostermg wider co mon from which indentured Indians departed for Natal. identiry - 'Indianness,' in relation to whites and Afncans. Social nd INDENTURED INDIANS AND ISLAM economic conditions would have made it difficult for indentured Muslims to fulfill the many requirements of Islam. For example, because of the In terms of the contract that th si ed, indentured workers agreed to work ey gn shortage of Muslim women, the Protector registered 115 marriages between for five years for the employer to whom th were allocated. Swan (1985), ey Muslims and Hindus in the years between 1872 and 1887 (Wragg Tay !- (1977),. and Henning (1993) have chronicled the appalling Commission, 261). Muslims and Hindus lived on the same plantations, conditions that mdentured workers were subjected to. Swan concludes