While digitisation of Islamic heritage in Africa has often prioritised manuscripts, the rich print culture of contemporary West Africa remains undervalued and at risk. The Islam West Africa Collection (IWAC) addresses this gap by preserving newspapers and Islamic publications: essential sources for understanding how Muslim communities have shaped—and been shaped by—the region's modern history. Directed and developed by Frédérick Madore and hosted by the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO), IWAC is a collaborative, open-access digital database. Building on the award-winning Islam Burkina Faso Collection launched in 2021, the repository now features over 14,500 <a draggable="false" href="https://islam.zmo.de/s/westafrica/item?resource_class_id%5B%5D=49&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Bgte%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Bgte%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Blte%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Blte%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bval%5D=&years=&months=&days=&hours=&minutes=&seconds=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bval%5D=&years=&months=&days=&hours=&minutes=&seconds=&numeric%5Bivl%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bivl%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bval%5D=&integer=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bval%5D=&integer=&submit=Search">archival documents, <a draggable="false" href="https://islam.zmo.de/s/westafrica/item?resource_class_id%5B%5D=36&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Bgte%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Bgte%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Blte%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Blte%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bval%5D=&years=&months=&days=&hours=&minutes=&seconds=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bval%5D=&years=&months=&days=&hours=&minutes=&seconds=&numeric%5Bivl%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bivl%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bval%5D=&integer=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bval%5D=&integer=&submit=Search">newspaper articles (both scanned and online versions archived via the Wayback Machine), <a draggable="false" href="https://islam.zmo.de/s/westafrica/item?resource_class_id%5B%5D=60&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Bgte%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Bgte%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Blte%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Blte%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bval%5D=&years=&months=&days=&hours=&minutes=&seconds=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bval%5D=&years=&months=&days=&hours=&minutes=&seconds=&numeric%5Bivl%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bivl%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bval%5D=&integer=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bval%5D=&integer=&submit=Search">Islamic publications, audio and video recordings, and <a draggable="false" href="https://islam.zmo.de/s/westafrica/item?resource_class_id%5B%5D=58&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Bgte%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Bgte%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Blte%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Blte%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bval%5D=&years=&months=&days=&hours=&minutes=&seconds=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bval%5D=&years=&months=&days=&hours=&minutes=&seconds=&numeric%5Bivl%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bivl%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bval%5D=&integer=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bval%5D=&integer=&submit=Search">photographs relating to Islam and Muslims in Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Niger, Nigeria, and Togo. Although the majority of the materials are in French, the collection also includes items in <a draggable="false" href="https://islam.zmo.de/s/westafrica/item?property%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&property%5B0%5D%5Bproperty%5D=12&property%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=res&property%5B0%5D%5Btext%5D=8364&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Bgte%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Bgte%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Blte%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Blte%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bval%5D=&years=&months=&days=&hours=&minutes=&seconds=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bval%5D=&years=&months=&days=&hours=&minutes=&seconds=&numeric%5Bivl%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bivl%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bval%5D=&integer=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bval%5D=&integer=&submit=Search">Hausa, <a draggable="false" href="https://islam.zmo.de/s/westafrica/item?property%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&property%5B0%5D%5Bproperty%5D=12&property%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=res&property%5B0%5D%5Btext%5D=8323&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Bgte%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Bgte%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Blte%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Blte%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bval%5D=&years=&months=&days=&hours=&minutes=&seconds=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bval%5D=&years=&months=&days=&hours=&minutes=&seconds=&numeric%5Bivl%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bivl%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bval%5D=&integer=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bval%5D=&integer=&submit=Search">Arabic, <a draggable="false" href="https://islam.zmo.de/s/westafrica/item?property%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&property%5B0%5D%5Bproperty%5D=12&property%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=res&property%5B0%5D%5Btext%5D=8344&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Bgte%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Bgte%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Blte%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Blte%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bval%5D=&years=&months=&days=&hours=&minutes=&seconds=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bval%5D=&years=&months=&days=&hours=&minutes=&seconds=&numeric%5Bivl%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bivl%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bval%5D=&integer=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bval%5D=&integer=&submit=Search">Dendi, and <a draggable="false" href="https://islam.zmo.de/s/westafrica/item?property%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&property%5B0%5D%5Bproperty%5D=12&property%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=res&property%5B0%5D%5Btext%5D=8322&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Bgte%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Bgte%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Blte%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Blte%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bval%5D=&years=&months=&days=&hours=&minutes=&seconds=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bval%5D=&years=&months=&days=&hours=&minutes=&seconds=&numeric%5Bivl%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bivl%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bval%5D=&integer=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bval%5D=&integer=&submit=Search">English. It indexes more than 850 references—books, articles, chapters, theses, reports and blog posts—and applies optical character recognition (OCR) to each document. This approach, combined with detailed metadata tagging, enables efficient keyword searches and advanced multi-criteria queries. IWAC also offers a comprehensive index of over 4,600 events, languages, locations, organisations, people, and topics. By democratising access to essential research materials, IWAC makes these resources available online without financial barriers, offering West African and international scholars an alternative to the challenging conditions often found in regional libraries and archives. The database also supports flexible data export and sophisticated query methods, aspiring to facilitate research on Islam in West Africa and serve as a model for future digital scholarly initiatives.
News and release notes The website is constantly evolving, with metadata being edited and new documents being added to the collection on a regular basis.
The IWAC continues to grow. Since the start of 2025, 3,234 newspaper articles have been added to the database. These include full-text articles and metadata records from publications such as Le Sahel (Niger), Le Jour Plus, Le Patriote and Fraternité Matin (Côte d'Ivoire). These additions bring the total number of articles in the database to over 11,500.
The Collection is now compliant with the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) standards. This enhancement not only marks a leap forward in our commitment to making the database more accessible and user-friendly, but also underscores our commitment to promoting interoperability among digital repositories. The Universal Viewer allows for more interactive and immersive exploration of digital objects. Users can zoom, pan and explore images in fine detail.
11 issues of the Islamic newspaper ASSALAM from Benin, published between 2002 and 2018, have been added to the Collection.
The Islam West Africa Collection was officially launched on 9 November in Berlin. Further information.
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Dirigée et développée par Frédérick Madore, la Collection Islam Afrique de l'Ouest (Islam West Africa Collection, IWAC) est une base de données numérique collaborative et en libre accès, soutenue par le Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO) et financée par le Département des sciences, de la santé et des soins du Sénat de Berlin. S'appuyant sur le succès de la Collection Islam Burkina Faso, lancée en 2021, la Collection comprend plus de 14 500 <a draggable="false" href="https://islam.zmo.de/s/afrique_ouest/item?resource_class_id%5B%5D=49&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Bgte%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Bgte%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Blte%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Blte%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bval%5D=&years=&months=&days=&hours=&minutes=&seconds=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bval%5D=&years=&months=&days=&hours=&minutes=&seconds=&numeric%5Bivl%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bivl%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bval%5D=&integer=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bval%5D=&integer=&submit=Recherche">documents d'archives, <a draggable="false" href="https://islam.zmo.de/s/afrique_ouest/item?resource_class_id%5B%5D=36&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Bgte%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Bgte%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Blte%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Blte%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bval%5D=&years=&months=&days=&hours=&minutes=&seconds=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bval%5D=&years=&months=&days=&hours=&minutes=&seconds=&numeric%5Bivl%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bivl%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bval%5D=&integer=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bval%5D=&integer=&submit=Recherche">articles de presse (versions numérisée et en ligne archivées via la Wayback Machine), <a draggable="false" href="https://islam.zmo.de/s/afrique_ouest/item?resource_class_id%5B%5D=60&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Bgte%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Bgte%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Blte%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Blte%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bval%5D=&years=&months=&days=&hours=&minutes=&seconds=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bval%5D=&years=&months=&days=&hours=&minutes=&seconds=&numeric%5Bivl%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bivl%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bval%5D=&integer=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bval%5D=&integer=&submit=Recherche">publications islamiques diverses, enregistrements audio et vidéo et <a draggable="false" href="https://islam.zmo.de/s/afrique_ouest/item?resource_class_id%5B%5D=58&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Bgte%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Bgte%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Blte%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Blte%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bval%5D=&years=&months=&days=&hours=&minutes=&seconds=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bval%5D=&years=&months=&days=&hours=&minutes=&seconds=&numeric%5Bivl%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bivl%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bval%5D=&integer=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bval%5D=&integer=&submit=Recherche">photographies portant sur l'islam et les musulmans au Burkina Faso, au Bénin, au Niger, au Nigéria, au Togo et en Côte d'Ivoire. Bien que la plupart des documents soient en français, la Collection comprend également des éléments en <a draggable="false" href="https://islam.zmo.de/s/afrique_ouest/item?property%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&property%5B0%5D%5Bproperty%5D=12&property%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=res&property%5B0%5D%5Btext%5D=8364&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Bgte%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Bgte%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Blte%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Blte%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bval%5D=&years=&months=&days=&hours=&minutes=&seconds=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bval%5D=&years=&months=&days=&hours=&minutes=&seconds=&numeric%5Bivl%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bivl%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bval%5D=&integer=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bval%5D=&integer=&submit=Search">haoussa, en <a draggable="false" href="https://islam.zmo.de/s/afrique_ouest/item?property%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&property%5B0%5D%5Bproperty%5D=12&property%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=res&property%5B0%5D%5Btext%5D=8323&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Bgte%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Bgte%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Blte%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Blte%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bval%5D=&years=&months=&days=&hours=&minutes=&seconds=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bval%5D=&years=&months=&days=&hours=&minutes=&seconds=&numeric%5Bivl%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bivl%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bval%5D=&integer=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bval%5D=&integer=&submit=Search">arabe, en <a draggable="false" href="https://islam.zmo.de/s/afrique_ouest/item?property%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&property%5B0%5D%5Bproperty%5D=12&property%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=res&property%5B0%5D%5Btext%5D=8344&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Bgte%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Bgte%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Blte%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Blte%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bval%5D=&years=&months=&days=&hours=&minutes=&seconds=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bval%5D=&years=&months=&days=&hours=&minutes=&seconds=&numeric%5Bivl%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bivl%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bval%5D=&integer=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bval%5D=&integer=&submit=Search">dendi et en <a draggable="false" href="https://islam.zmo.de/s/afrique_ouest/item?property%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&property%5B0%5D%5Bproperty%5D=12&property%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=res&property%5B0%5D%5Btext%5D=8322&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Bgte%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Bgte%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Blte%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bts%5D%5Blte%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bval%5D=&years=&months=&days=&hours=&minutes=&seconds=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bdur%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bval%5D=&years=&months=&days=&hours=&minutes=&seconds=&numeric%5Bivl%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bivl%5D%5Bval%5D=&year=&month=&day=&hour=&minute=&second=&offset=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Bgt%5D%5Bval%5D=&integer=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bpid%5D=&numeric%5Bint%5D%5Blt%5D%5Bval%5D=&integer=&submit=Search">anglais. Elle répertorie plus de 850 références bibliographiques – livres, articles, chapitres, thèses, rapports et billets de blog – et applique la reconnaissance optique de caractères (ROC) à chaque document. Cette approche, couplée à des métadonnées détaillées, facilite les recherches par mots-clés et les requêtes multicritères avancées. La Collection comprend en outre un index détaillé de plus de 4 600 associations, emplacements, évènements, individus, langues et sujets. L'IWAC s'engage à démocratiser l'accès à des ressources de recherche essentielles. En rendant ces matériaux en ligne sans barrière financière, elle offre aux chercheurs ouest-africains et internationaux une alternative précieuse aux conditions souvent difficiles rencontrées dans les bibliothèques et les archives régionales. La base de données prend également en charge l'exportation flexible des données et propose des méthodes de requête adaptables, visant non seulement à promouvoir la recherche sur l'islam en Afrique de l'Ouest, mais aussi à servir de modèle précurseur pour de futures initiatives numériques.
Nouvelles Le site web est en constante évolution avec l'édition des métadonnées et l'ajout périodique de nouveaux documents à la collection.
La Collection islam Afrique de l'Ouest continue de s'enrichir. Depuis le début de l’année 2025, 3 234 articles de presse ont été ajoutés à la base de données. Ils comprennent des articles en texte intégral ainsi que des notices de métadonnées provenant de journaux tels que Le Sahel (Niger), Le Jour Plus, Le Patriote et Fraternité Matin (Côte d’Ivoire). Ces ajouts portent le nombre total d’articles dans la base de données à plus de 11 500.
La Collection est désormais conforme aux normes de l'International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF). Cette amélioration marque non seulement un pas en avant dans notre engagement à rendre la base de données plus accessible et plus conviviale, mais souligne également notre engagement à promouvoir l'interopérabilité entre les dépôts d'archives numériques. La visionneuse universelle permet une exploration plus interactive et immersive des objets numériques. Les utilisateurs peuvent effectuer des zooms, des panoramiques et explorer les images dans les moindres détails.
11 numéros du journal islamique ASSALAM du Bénin, publiés entre 2002 et 2018, ont été ajoutés à la base de données.
La Collection Islam Afrique de l'Ouest a officiellement été lancée le 9 novembre à Berlin. Pour plus d'informations.
Voir toutes les nouvelles
There are several ways to browse the Collection. The links above offer a faceted search by country, allowing you to filter the data by choosing one or more sorting criteria (facets) such as document type, newspaper title, date range, language, location, etc., based on the metadata. Below are all the sub-collections sorted by country.
This interactive dashboard offers a variety of visualisations that provide insight into the extensive corpus of the Islam West Africa Collection.
These three digital exhibits, which bring together a selection of materials from the database by theme, are entry points to the collection. In addition to providing contextual information for interpreting the material presented in an interactive timeline, a selective bibliography completes the exhibit.
[{"id":"j1_1","text":"Hajj in Burkina Faso","icon":true,"li_attr":{"id":"j1_1"},"a_attr":{"href":"#","id":"j1_1_anchor"},"state":{"loaded":true,"opened":false,"selected":false,"disabled":false},"data":{"type":"page","data":{"id":6,"is_public":true},"url":"/s/westafrica/page/hajj-bf"},"children":[]},{"id":"j1_3","text":"Intégrisme in Côte d'Ivoire","icon":true,"li_attr":{"id":"j1_3"},"a_attr":{"href":"#","id":"j1_3_anchor"},"state":{"loaded":true,"opened":false,"selected":false,"disabled":false},"data":{"type":"page","data":{"id":77,"is_public":true},"url":"/s/westafrica/page/integrisme-cote-d-ivoire"},"children":[]},{"id":"j1_2","text":"Student activism in Burkina Faso","icon":true,"li_attr":{"id":"j1_2"},"a_attr":{"href":"#","id":"j1_2_anchor"},"state":{"loaded":true,"opened":true,"selected":false,"disabled":false},"data":{"type":"page","data":{"id":7,"is_public":true},"url":"/s/westafrica/page/student-activism-bf"},"children":[]}]
How to cite Frédérick Madore, "Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) in Burkina Faso", Islam West Africa Collection, 6 October 2022, https://islam.zmo.de/s/westafrica/page/hajj-bf.
Further references Click here for the full collection of documents related to the hajj.
How to cite Frédérick Madore, "Student activism in Burkina Faso", Islam West Africa Collection, 12 September 2022, https://islam.zmo.de/s/westafrica/page/student-activism-bf. Timeline texts are from Madore, Frédérick. "Rivalités et collaborations entre aînés et cadets sociaux dans les milieux associatifs islamiques en Côte d’Ivoire et au Burkina Faso (1970-2017)". Ph.D. diss., Université Laval, 2018.
Further references Click here for the full collection of documents related to the Association des Élèves et Étudiants Musulmans au Burkina (AEEMB).
Muriel Gomez-Perez, Marie-Nathalie LeBlanc and Mathias Savadogo (2009)
Marie-Nathalie LeBlanc and Muriel Gomez-Perez (2007)
Frédérick Madore (2020)
Yacouba Ouédraogo (2017)
Yacouba Ouédraogo (2019)
Magloire Somé et Koudbi Kaboré (2020)
Here is an overview of the references indexed in the Collection.
Inspired by the WikiCite initiative, which aims "to develop open citations and linked bibliographic data to serve free knowledge", the metadata of all the bibliographical references of the Islam West Africa Collection has been uploaded to Wikidata to make them to be more openly citable and accessible.
The following visualisations of research on Islam and Muslims in Burkina Faso have been generated using the Wikidata query service (SPARQL) and Scholia. It should be noted that the data is not exhaustive. Wikidata is constantly evolving and this dataset will therefore change over time.
Publications per year Open in a new tab
Co-occurring topics graph Only a maximum of the 400 most often occurring links are shown. <iframe referrerpolicy="origin" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups" src="https://query.wikidata.org/embed.html#%23%20tool%3A%20scholia%0A%23defaultView%3AGraph%0A%0APREFIX%20target%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.wikidata.org%2Fentity%2FQ3081878%3E%0A%0ASELECT%0A%20%20%3Ftopic1%20%3Ftopic1Label%20%3Ftopic2%20%3Ftopic2Label%0AWITH%20%7B%0A%20%20SELECT%0A%20%20%20%20(COUNT(DISTINCT%20%3Fwork)%20AS%20%3Fcount)%20%3Ftopic1%20%3Ftopic2%0A%20%20WHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Find%20works%20that%20are%20marked%20with%20main%20subject%20of%20the%20topic.%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%20%2F%20(%20wdt%3AP31*%2Fwdt%3AP279*%20%7C%20wdt%3AP361%2B%20%7C%20wdt%3AP1269%2B%20)%20target%3A%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Identify%20co-occuring%20topics.%20%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%20%3Ftopic1%2C%20%3Ftopic2%20.%20%0A%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Exclude%20the%20topic%20it%20self%0A%20%20%20%20FILTER%20(target%3A%20!%3D%20%3Ftopic1%20%26%26%20target%3A%20!%3D%20%3Ftopic2%20%26%26%20%3Ftopic1%20!%3D%20%3Ftopic2)%0A%20%20%7D%0A%20%20GROUP%20BY%20%3Ftopic1%20%3Ftopic2%0A%20%20ORDER%20BY%20DESC(%3Fcount)%0A%0A%20%20%23%20There%20a%20performance%20problems%20in%20the%20browser%3A%20We%20cannot%20show%20large%20graphs%2C%0A%20%20%23%20so%20we%20put%20a%20limit%20on%20the%20number%20of%20links%20displayed.%0A%20%20LIMIT%20400%0A%0A%7D%20AS%20%25results%0AWHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20INCLUDE%20%25results%0A%20%20%0A%20%20%23%20Label%20the%20results%0A%20%20SERVICE%20wikibase%3Alabel%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20bd%3AserviceParam%20wikibase%3Alanguage%20%22en%2Cda%2Cde%2Ces%2Cfr%2Cjp%2Cnl%2Cno%2Cru%2Csv%2Czh%22.%0A%20%20%7D%0A%7D%0A" style="width: 80vw; height: 80vh; border: none;">
Co-occurring topics map <iframe referrerpolicy="origin" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups" src="https://query.wikidata.org/embed.html#%23%20tool%3A%20scholia%0A%23defaultView%3AMap%0A%0APREFIX%20target%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.wikidata.org%2Fentity%2FQ3081878%3E%0A%0ASELECT%0A%20%20%3Flocation%20%3FlocationLabel%0A%20%20%3Fgeo%0A%20%20%3Fexample_work%20%3Fexample_workLabel%0AWITH%20%7B%0A%20%20SELECT%0A%20%20%20%20%3Flocation%20%3Fgeo%0A%20%20%20%20(SAMPLE(%3Fwork)%20AS%20%3Fexample_work)%0A%20%20WHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Find%20works%20that%20are%20marked%20with%20main%20subject%20of%20the%20topic.%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%20%2F%20(%20wdt%3AP31*%2Fwdt%3AP279*%20%7C%20wdt%3AP361%2B%20%7C%20wdt%3AP1269%2B%20)%20target%3A%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Identify%20co-occuring%20topic%20that%20is%20geo-locatable.%20%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%20%3Flocation%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%3Flocation%20wdt%3AP625%20%3Fgeo%20.%0A%20%20%7D%0A%20%20GROUP%20BY%20%3Flocation%20%3Fgeo%0A%7D%20AS%20%25results%0AWHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20INCLUDE%20%25results%0A%20%20%0A%20%20%23%20Label%20the%20results%0A%20%20SERVICE%20wikibase%3Alabel%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20bd%3AserviceParam%20wikibase%3Alanguage%20%22en%2Cda%2Cde%2Ces%2Cfr%2Cjp%2Cnl%2Cno%2Cru%2Csv%2Czh%22.%0A%20%20%7D%0A%7D" style="width: 80vw; height: 80vh; border: none;">
Journals and edited volumes publishing works about the topic <iframe referrerpolicy="origin" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups" src="https://query.wikidata.org/embed.html#%23%20tool%3A%20scholia%0A%23defaultView%3ABubbleChart%0A%0APREFIX%20target%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.wikidata.org%2Fentity%2FQ3081878%3E%0A%0ASELECT%20%3Fcount%20%3Fshort_name%20%0A%3Fvenue%20%3FvenueLabel%20(CONCAT(%22%2Fvenue%2F%22%2C%20SUBSTR(STR(%3Fvenue)%2C%2032))%20AS%20%3FvenueUrl)%0AWITH%20%7B%0A%20%20SELECT%20(count(%3Fwork)%20as%20%3Fcount)%20%3Fvenue%20(SAMPLE(%3Fshort_name_)%20AS%20%3Fshort_name)%20WHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%7B%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%2Fwdt%3AP31*%2Fwdt%3AP279*%20target%3A%20.%20%7D%0A%20%20%20%20union%20%7B%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%2Fwdt%3AP361%2B%20target%3A%20.%20%7D%0A%20%20%20%20union%20%7B%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%2Fwdt%3AP1269%2B%20target%3A%20.%20%7D%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP1433%2Fwdt%3AP179*%20%3Fvenue%20.%0A%20%20%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fvenue%20wdt%3AP1813%20%3Fshort_name_%20.%20%7D%0A%20%20%7D%0A%20%20GROUP%20BY%20%3Fvenue%0A%7D%20AS%20%25result%0AWHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20INCLUDE%20%25result%0A%20%20SERVICE%20wikibase%3Alabel%20%7B%20bd%3AserviceParam%20wikibase%3Alanguage%20%22en%2Cda%2Cde%2Ces%2Cfr%2Cjp%2Cnl%2Cno%2Cru%2Csv%2Czh%22%20.%20%7D%20%0A%7D%0AORDER%20BY%20DESC(%3Fcount)%0ALIMIT%20200%0A" style="width: 80vw; height: 80vh; border: none;">
For more visualizations, see also the topic "Islam in Burkina Faso" on Scholia.
The following visualisations of research on Islam and Muslims in Côte d'Ivoire have been generated using the Wikidata query service (SPARQL) and Scholia. It should be noted that the data is not exhaustive. Wikidata is constantly evolving and this dataset will therefore change over time.
Co-occurring topics graph Only a maximum of the 400 most often occurring links are shown. <iframe referrerpolicy="origin" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups" src="https://query.wikidata.org/embed.html#%23%20tool%3A%20scholia%0A%23defaultView%3AGraph%0A%0APREFIX%20target%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.wikidata.org%2Fentity%2FQ4119820%3E%0A%0ASELECT%0A%20%20%3Ftopic1%20%3Ftopic1Label%20%3Ftopic2%20%3Ftopic2Label%0AWITH%20%7B%0A%20%20SELECT%0A%20%20%20%20(COUNT(DISTINCT%20%3Fwork)%20AS%20%3Fcount)%20%3Ftopic1%20%3Ftopic2%0A%20%20WHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Find%20works%20that%20are%20marked%20with%20main%20subject%20of%20the%20topic.%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%20%2F%20(%20wdt%3AP31*%2Fwdt%3AP279*%20%7C%20wdt%3AP361%2B%20%7C%20wdt%3AP1269%2B%20)%20target%3A%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Identify%20co-occuring%20topics.%20%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%20%3Ftopic1%2C%20%3Ftopic2%20.%20%0A%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Exclude%20the%20topic%20it%20self%0A%20%20%20%20FILTER%20(target%3A%20!%3D%20%3Ftopic1%20%26%26%20target%3A%20!%3D%20%3Ftopic2%20%26%26%20%3Ftopic1%20!%3D%20%3Ftopic2)%0A%20%20%7D%0A%20%20GROUP%20BY%20%3Ftopic1%20%3Ftopic2%0A%20%20ORDER%20BY%20DESC(%3Fcount)%0A%0A%20%20%23%20There%20a%20performance%20problems%20in%20the%20browser%3A%20We%20cannot%20show%20large%20graphs%2C%0A%20%20%23%20so%20we%20put%20a%20limit%20on%20the%20number%20of%20links%20displayed.%0A%20%20LIMIT%20400%0A%0A%7D%20AS%20%25results%0AWHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20INCLUDE%20%25results%0A%20%20%0A%20%20%23%20Label%20the%20results%0A%20%20SERVICE%20wikibase%3Alabel%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20bd%3AserviceParam%20wikibase%3Alanguage%20%22en%2Cda%2Cde%2Ces%2Cfr%2Cjp%2Cnl%2Cno%2Cru%2Csv%2Czh%22.%0A%20%20%7D%0A%7D%0A" style="width: 80vw; height: 80vh; border: none;">
Co-occurring topics map <iframe referrerpolicy="origin" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups" src="https://query.wikidata.org/embed.html#%23%20tool%3A%20scholia%0A%23defaultView%3AMap%0A%0APREFIX%20target%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.wikidata.org%2Fentity%2FQ4119820%3E%0A%0ASELECT%0A%20%20%3Flocation%20%3FlocationLabel%0A%20%20%3Fgeo%0A%20%20%3Fexample_work%20%3Fexample_workLabel%0AWITH%20%7B%0A%20%20SELECT%0A%20%20%20%20%3Flocation%20%3Fgeo%0A%20%20%20%20(SAMPLE(%3Fwork)%20AS%20%3Fexample_work)%0A%20%20WHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Find%20works%20that%20are%20marked%20with%20main%20subject%20of%20the%20topic.%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%20%2F%20(%20wdt%3AP31*%2Fwdt%3AP279*%20%7C%20wdt%3AP361%2B%20%7C%20wdt%3AP1269%2B%20)%20target%3A%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Identify%20co-occuring%20topic%20that%20is%20geo-locatable.%20%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%20%3Flocation%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%3Flocation%20wdt%3AP625%20%3Fgeo%20.%0A%20%20%7D%0A%20%20GROUP%20BY%20%3Flocation%20%3Fgeo%0A%7D%20AS%20%25results%0AWHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20INCLUDE%20%25results%0A%20%20%0A%20%20%23%20Label%20the%20results%0A%20%20SERVICE%20wikibase%3Alabel%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20bd%3AserviceParam%20wikibase%3Alanguage%20%22en%2Cda%2Cde%2Ces%2Cfr%2Cjp%2Cnl%2Cno%2Cru%2Csv%2Czh%22.%0A%20%20%7D%0A%7D" style="width: 80vw; height: 80vh; border: none;">
Journals and edited volumes publishing works about the topic <iframe referrerpolicy="origin" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups" src="https://query.wikidata.org/embed.html#%23%20tool%3A%20scholia%0A%23defaultView%3ABubbleChart%0A%0APREFIX%20target%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.wikidata.org%2Fentity%2FQ4119820%3E%0A%0ASELECT%20%3Fcount%20%3Fshort_name%20%0A%3Fvenue%20%3FvenueLabel%20(CONCAT(%22%2Fvenue%2F%22%2C%20SUBSTR(STR(%3Fvenue)%2C%2032))%20AS%20%3FvenueUrl)%0AWITH%20%7B%0A%20%20SELECT%20(count(%3Fwork)%20as%20%3Fcount)%20%3Fvenue%20(SAMPLE(%3Fshort_name_)%20AS%20%3Fshort_name)%20WHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%7B%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%2Fwdt%3AP31*%2Fwdt%3AP279*%20target%3A%20.%20%7D%0A%20%20%20%20union%20%7B%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%2Fwdt%3AP361%2B%20target%3A%20.%20%7D%0A%20%20%20%20union%20%7B%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%2Fwdt%3AP1269%2B%20target%3A%20.%20%7D%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP1433%2Fwdt%3AP179*%20%3Fvenue%20.%0A%20%20%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fvenue%20wdt%3AP1813%20%3Fshort_name_%20.%20%7D%0A%20%20%7D%0A%20%20GROUP%20BY%20%3Fvenue%0A%7D%20AS%20%25result%0AWHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20INCLUDE%20%25result%0A%20%20SERVICE%20wikibase%3Alabel%20%7B%20bd%3AserviceParam%20wikibase%3Alanguage%20%22en%2Cda%2Cde%2Ces%2Cfr%2Cjp%2Cnl%2Cno%2Cru%2Csv%2Czh%22%20.%20%7D%20%0A%7D%0AORDER%20BY%20DESC(%3Fcount)%0ALIMIT%20200%0A" style="width: 80vw; height: 80vh; border: none;">
For more visualizations, see also the topic "Islam in Ivory Coast" on Scholia.
The following visualisations of research on Islam and Muslims in Benin have been generated using the Wikidata query service (SPARQL) and Scholia. It should be noted that the data is not exhaustive. Wikidata is constantly evolving and this dataset will therefore change over time.
Co-occurring topics graph Only a maximum of the 400 most often occurring links are shown. <iframe referrerpolicy="origin" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups" src="https://query.wikidata.org/embed.html#%23%20tool%3A%20scholia%0A%23defaultView%3AGraph%0A%0APREFIX%20target%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.wikidata.org%2Fentity%2FQ3155361%3E%0A%0ASELECT%0A%20%20%3Ftopic1%20%3Ftopic1Label%20%3Ftopic2%20%3Ftopic2Label%0AWITH%20%7B%0A%20%20SELECT%0A%20%20%20%20(COUNT(DISTINCT%20%3Fwork)%20AS%20%3Fcount)%20%3Ftopic1%20%3Ftopic2%0A%20%20WHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Find%20works%20that%20are%20marked%20with%20main%20subject%20of%20the%20topic.%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%20%2F%20(%20wdt%3AP31*%2Fwdt%3AP279*%20%7C%20wdt%3AP361%2B%20%7C%20wdt%3AP1269%2B%20)%20target%3A%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Identify%20co-occuring%20topics.%20%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%20%3Ftopic1%2C%20%3Ftopic2%20.%20%0A%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Exclude%20the%20topic%20it%20self%0A%20%20%20%20FILTER%20(target%3A%20!%3D%20%3Ftopic1%20%26%26%20target%3A%20!%3D%20%3Ftopic2%20%26%26%20%3Ftopic1%20!%3D%20%3Ftopic2)%0A%20%20%7D%0A%20%20GROUP%20BY%20%3Ftopic1%20%3Ftopic2%0A%20%20ORDER%20BY%20DESC(%3Fcount)%0A%0A%20%20%23%20There%20a%20performance%20problems%20in%20the%20browser%3A%20We%20cannot%20show%20large%20graphs%2C%0A%20%20%23%20so%20we%20put%20a%20limit%20on%20the%20number%20of%20links%20displayed.%0A%20%20LIMIT%20400%0A%0A%7D%20AS%20%25results%0AWHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20INCLUDE%20%25results%0A%20%20%0A%20%20%23%20Label%20the%20results%0A%20%20SERVICE%20wikibase%3Alabel%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20bd%3AserviceParam%20wikibase%3Alanguage%20%22en%2Cda%2Cde%2Ces%2Cfr%2Cjp%2Cnl%2Cno%2Cru%2Csv%2Czh%22.%0A%20%20%7D%0A%7D%0A" style="width: 80vw; height: 80vh; border: none;">
Co-occurring topics map <iframe referrerpolicy="origin" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups" src="https://query.wikidata.org/embed.html#%23%20tool%3A%20scholia%0A%23defaultView%3AMap%0A%0APREFIX%20target%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.wikidata.org%2Fentity%2FQ3155361%3E%0A%0ASELECT%0A%20%20%3Flocation%20%3FlocationLabel%0A%20%20%3Fgeo%0A%20%20%3Fexample_work%20%3Fexample_workLabel%0AWITH%20%7B%0A%20%20SELECT%0A%20%20%20%20%3Flocation%20%3Fgeo%0A%20%20%20%20(SAMPLE(%3Fwork)%20AS%20%3Fexample_work)%0A%20%20WHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Find%20works%20that%20are%20marked%20with%20main%20subject%20of%20the%20topic.%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%20%2F%20(%20wdt%3AP31*%2Fwdt%3AP279*%20%7C%20wdt%3AP361%2B%20%7C%20wdt%3AP1269%2B%20)%20target%3A%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Identify%20co-occuring%20topic%20that%20is%20geo-locatable.%20%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%20%3Flocation%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%3Flocation%20wdt%3AP625%20%3Fgeo%20.%0A%20%20%7D%0A%20%20GROUP%20BY%20%3Flocation%20%3Fgeo%0A%7D%20AS%20%25results%0AWHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20INCLUDE%20%25results%0A%20%20%0A%20%20%23%20Label%20the%20results%0A%20%20SERVICE%20wikibase%3Alabel%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20bd%3AserviceParam%20wikibase%3Alanguage%20%22en%2Cda%2Cde%2Ces%2Cfr%2Cjp%2Cnl%2Cno%2Cru%2Csv%2Czh%22.%0A%20%20%7D%0A%7D" style="width: 80vw; height: 80vh; border: none;">
Journals and edited volumes publishing works about the topic <iframe referrerpolicy="origin" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups" src="https://query.wikidata.org/embed.html#%23%20tool%3A%20scholia%0A%23defaultView%3ABubbleChart%0A%0APREFIX%20target%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.wikidata.org%2Fentity%2FQ3155361%3E%0A%0ASELECT%20%3Fcount%20%3Fshort_name%20%0A%3Fvenue%20%3FvenueLabel%20(CONCAT(%22%2Fvenue%2F%22%2C%20SUBSTR(STR(%3Fvenue)%2C%2032))%20AS%20%3FvenueUrl)%0AWITH%20%7B%0A%20%20SELECT%20(count(%3Fwork)%20as%20%3Fcount)%20%3Fvenue%20(SAMPLE(%3Fshort_name_)%20AS%20%3Fshort_name)%20WHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%7B%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%2Fwdt%3AP31*%2Fwdt%3AP279*%20target%3A%20.%20%7D%0A%20%20%20%20union%20%7B%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%2Fwdt%3AP361%2B%20target%3A%20.%20%7D%0A%20%20%20%20union%20%7B%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%2Fwdt%3AP1269%2B%20target%3A%20.%20%7D%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP1433%2Fwdt%3AP179*%20%3Fvenue%20.%0A%20%20%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fvenue%20wdt%3AP1813%20%3Fshort_name_%20.%20%7D%0A%20%20%7D%0A%20%20GROUP%20BY%20%3Fvenue%0A%7D%20AS%20%25result%0AWHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20INCLUDE%20%25result%0A%20%20SERVICE%20wikibase%3Alabel%20%7B%20bd%3AserviceParam%20wikibase%3Alanguage%20%22en%2Cda%2Cde%2Ces%2Cfr%2Cjp%2Cnl%2Cno%2Cru%2Csv%2Czh%22%20.%20%7D%20%0A%7D%0AORDER%20BY%20DESC(%3Fcount)%0ALIMIT%20200%0A" style="width: 80vw; height: 80vh; border: none;">
For more visualizations, see also the topic "Islam in Benin" on Scholia.
The following visualisations of research on Islam and Muslims in Niger have been generated using the Wikidata query service (SPARQL) and Scholia. It should be noted that the data is not exhaustive. Wikidata is constantly evolving and this dataset will therefore change over time.
Co-occurring topics graph Only a maximum of the 400 most often occurring links are shown. <iframe referrerpolicy="origin" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups" src="https://query.wikidata.org/embed.html#%23%20tool%3A%20scholia%0A%23defaultView%3AGraph%0A%0APREFIX%20target%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.wikidata.org%2Fentity%2FQ3087639%3E%0A%0ASELECT%0A%20%20%3Ftopic1%20%3Ftopic1Label%20%3Ftopic2%20%3Ftopic2Label%0AWITH%20%7B%0A%20%20SELECT%0A%20%20%20%20(COUNT(DISTINCT%20%3Fwork)%20AS%20%3Fcount)%20%3Ftopic1%20%3Ftopic2%0A%20%20WHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Find%20works%20that%20are%20marked%20with%20main%20subject%20of%20the%20topic.%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%20%2F%20(%20wdt%3AP31*%2Fwdt%3AP279*%20%7C%20wdt%3AP361%2B%20%7C%20wdt%3AP1269%2B%20)%20target%3A%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Identify%20co-occuring%20topics.%20%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%20%3Ftopic1%2C%20%3Ftopic2%20.%20%0A%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Exclude%20the%20topic%20it%20self%0A%20%20%20%20FILTER%20(target%3A%20!%3D%20%3Ftopic1%20%26%26%20target%3A%20!%3D%20%3Ftopic2%20%26%26%20%3Ftopic1%20!%3D%20%3Ftopic2)%0A%20%20%7D%0A%20%20GROUP%20BY%20%3Ftopic1%20%3Ftopic2%0A%20%20ORDER%20BY%20DESC(%3Fcount)%0A%0A%20%20%23%20There%20a%20performance%20problems%20in%20the%20browser%3A%20We%20cannot%20show%20large%20graphs%2C%0A%20%20%23%20so%20we%20put%20a%20limit%20on%20the%20number%20of%20links%20displayed.%0A%20%20LIMIT%20400%0A%0A%7D%20AS%20%25results%0AWHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20INCLUDE%20%25results%0A%20%20%0A%20%20%23%20Label%20the%20results%0A%20%20SERVICE%20wikibase%3Alabel%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20bd%3AserviceParam%20wikibase%3Alanguage%20%22en%2Cda%2Cde%2Ces%2Cfr%2Cjp%2Cnl%2Cno%2Cru%2Csv%2Czh%22.%0A%20%20%7D%0A%7D%0A" style="width: 80vw; height: 80vh; border: none;">
Co-occurring topics map <iframe referrerpolicy="origin" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups" src="https://query.wikidata.org/embed.html#%23%20tool%3A%20scholia%0A%23defaultView%3AMap%0A%0APREFIX%20target%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.wikidata.org%2Fentity%2FQ3087639%3E%0A%0ASELECT%0A%20%20%3Flocation%20%3FlocationLabel%0A%20%20%3Fgeo%0A%20%20%3Fexample_work%20%3Fexample_workLabel%0AWITH%20%7B%0A%20%20SELECT%0A%20%20%20%20%3Flocation%20%3Fgeo%0A%20%20%20%20(SAMPLE(%3Fwork)%20AS%20%3Fexample_work)%0A%20%20WHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Find%20works%20that%20are%20marked%20with%20main%20subject%20of%20the%20topic.%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%20%2F%20(%20wdt%3AP31*%2Fwdt%3AP279*%20%7C%20wdt%3AP361%2B%20%7C%20wdt%3AP1269%2B%20)%20target%3A%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Identify%20co-occuring%20topic%20that%20is%20geo-locatable.%20%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%20%3Flocation%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%3Flocation%20wdt%3AP625%20%3Fgeo%20.%0A%20%20%7D%0A%20%20GROUP%20BY%20%3Flocation%20%3Fgeo%0A%7D%20AS%20%25results%0AWHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20INCLUDE%20%25results%0A%20%20%0A%20%20%23%20Label%20the%20results%0A%20%20SERVICE%20wikibase%3Alabel%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20bd%3AserviceParam%20wikibase%3Alanguage%20%22en%2Cda%2Cde%2Ces%2Cfr%2Cjp%2Cnl%2Cno%2Cru%2Csv%2Czh%22.%0A%20%20%7D%0A%7D" style="width: 80vw; height: 80vh; border: none;">
Journals and edited volumes publishing works about the topic <iframe referrerpolicy="origin" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups" src="https://query.wikidata.org/embed.html#%23%20tool%3A%20scholia%0A%23defaultView%3ABubbleChart%0A%0APREFIX%20target%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.wikidata.org%2Fentity%2FQ3087639%3E%0A%0ASELECT%20%3Fcount%20%3Fshort_name%20%0A%3Fvenue%20%3FvenueLabel%20(CONCAT(%22%2Fvenue%2F%22%2C%20SUBSTR(STR(%3Fvenue)%2C%2032))%20AS%20%3FvenueUrl)%0AWITH%20%7B%0A%20%20SELECT%20(count(%3Fwork)%20as%20%3Fcount)%20%3Fvenue%20(SAMPLE(%3Fshort_name_)%20AS%20%3Fshort_name)%20WHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%7B%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%2Fwdt%3AP31*%2Fwdt%3AP279*%20target%3A%20.%20%7D%0A%20%20%20%20union%20%7B%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%2Fwdt%3AP361%2B%20target%3A%20.%20%7D%0A%20%20%20%20union%20%7B%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%2Fwdt%3AP1269%2B%20target%3A%20.%20%7D%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP1433%2Fwdt%3AP179*%20%3Fvenue%20.%0A%20%20%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fvenue%20wdt%3AP1813%20%3Fshort_name_%20.%20%7D%0A%20%20%7D%0A%20%20GROUP%20BY%20%3Fvenue%0A%7D%20AS%20%25result%0AWHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20INCLUDE%20%25result%0A%20%20SERVICE%20wikibase%3Alabel%20%7B%20bd%3AserviceParam%20wikibase%3Alanguage%20%22en%2Cda%2Cde%2Ces%2Cfr%2Cjp%2Cnl%2Cno%2Cru%2Csv%2Czh%22%20.%20%7D%20%0A%7D%0AORDER%20BY%20DESC(%3Fcount)%0ALIMIT%20200%0A" style="width: 80vw; height: 80vh; border: none;">
For more visualizations, see also the topic "Islam in Niger" on Scholia.
The following visualisations of research on Islam and Muslims in Nigeria have been generated using the Wikidata query service (SPARQL) and Scholia. It should be noted that the data is not exhaustive. Wikidata is constantly evolving and this dataset will therefore change over time.
Co-occurring topics graph Only a maximum of the 400 most often occurring links are shown. <iframe referrerpolicy="origin" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups" src="https://query.wikidata.org/embed.html#%23%20tool%3A%20scholia%0A%23defaultView%3AGraph%0A%0APREFIX%20target%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.wikidata.org%2Fentity%2FQ2637700%3E%0A%0ASELECT%0A%20%20%3Ftopic1%20%3Ftopic1Label%20%3Ftopic2%20%3Ftopic2Label%0AWITH%20%7B%0A%20%20SELECT%0A%20%20%20%20(COUNT(DISTINCT%20%3Fwork)%20AS%20%3Fcount)%20%3Ftopic1%20%3Ftopic2%0A%20%20WHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Find%20works%20that%20are%20marked%20with%20main%20subject%20of%20the%20topic.%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%20%2F%20(%20wdt%3AP31*%2Fwdt%3AP279*%20%7C%20wdt%3AP361%2B%20%7C%20wdt%3AP1269%2B%20)%20target%3A%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Identify%20co-occuring%20topics.%20%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%20%3Ftopic1%2C%20%3Ftopic2%20.%20%0A%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Exclude%20the%20topic%20it%20self%0A%20%20%20%20FILTER%20(target%3A%20!%3D%20%3Ftopic1%20%26%26%20target%3A%20!%3D%20%3Ftopic2%20%26%26%20%3Ftopic1%20!%3D%20%3Ftopic2)%0A%20%20%7D%0A%20%20GROUP%20BY%20%3Ftopic1%20%3Ftopic2%0A%20%20ORDER%20BY%20DESC(%3Fcount)%0A%0A%20%20%23%20There%20a%20performance%20problems%20in%20the%20browser%3A%20We%20cannot%20show%20large%20graphs%2C%0A%20%20%23%20so%20we%20put%20a%20limit%20on%20the%20number%20of%20links%20displayed.%0A%20%20LIMIT%20400%0A%0A%7D%20AS%20%25results%0AWHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20INCLUDE%20%25results%0A%20%20%0A%20%20%23%20Label%20the%20results%0A%20%20SERVICE%20wikibase%3Alabel%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20bd%3AserviceParam%20wikibase%3Alanguage%20%22en%2Cda%2Cde%2Ces%2Cfr%2Cjp%2Cnl%2Cno%2Cru%2Csv%2Czh%22.%0A%20%20%7D%0A%7D%0A" style="width: 80vw; height: 80vh; border: none;">
Co-occurring topics map <iframe referrerpolicy="origin" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups" src="https://query.wikidata.org/embed.html#%23%20tool%3A%20scholia%0A%23defaultView%3AMap%0A%0APREFIX%20target%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.wikidata.org%2Fentity%2FQ2637700%3E%0A%0ASELECT%0A%20%20%3Flocation%20%3FlocationLabel%0A%20%20%3Fgeo%0A%20%20%3Fexample_work%20%3Fexample_workLabel%0AWITH%20%7B%0A%20%20SELECT%0A%20%20%20%20%3Flocation%20%3Fgeo%0A%20%20%20%20(SAMPLE(%3Fwork)%20AS%20%3Fexample_work)%0A%20%20WHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Find%20works%20that%20are%20marked%20with%20main%20subject%20of%20the%20topic.%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%20%2F%20(%20wdt%3AP31*%2Fwdt%3AP279*%20%7C%20wdt%3AP361%2B%20%7C%20wdt%3AP1269%2B%20)%20target%3A%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Identify%20co-occuring%20topic%20that%20is%20geo-locatable.%20%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%20%3Flocation%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%3Flocation%20wdt%3AP625%20%3Fgeo%20.%0A%20%20%7D%0A%20%20GROUP%20BY%20%3Flocation%20%3Fgeo%0A%7D%20AS%20%25results%0AWHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20INCLUDE%20%25results%0A%20%20%0A%20%20%23%20Label%20the%20results%0A%20%20SERVICE%20wikibase%3Alabel%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20bd%3AserviceParam%20wikibase%3Alanguage%20%22en%2Cda%2Cde%2Ces%2Cfr%2Cjp%2Cnl%2Cno%2Cru%2Csv%2Czh%22.%0A%20%20%7D%0A%7D" style="width: 80vw; height: 80vh; border: none;">
Journals and edited volumes publishing works about the topic <iframe referrerpolicy="origin" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups" src="https://query.wikidata.org/embed.html#%23%20tool%3A%20scholia%0A%23defaultView%3ABubbleChart%0A%0APREFIX%20target%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.wikidata.org%2Fentity%2FQ2637700%3E%0A%0ASELECT%20%3Fcount%20%3Fshort_name%20%0A%3Fvenue%20%3FvenueLabel%20(CONCAT(%22%2Fvenue%2F%22%2C%20SUBSTR(STR(%3Fvenue)%2C%2032))%20AS%20%3FvenueUrl)%0AWITH%20%7B%0A%20%20SELECT%20(count(%3Fwork)%20as%20%3Fcount)%20%3Fvenue%20(SAMPLE(%3Fshort_name_)%20AS%20%3Fshort_name)%20WHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%7B%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%2Fwdt%3AP31*%2Fwdt%3AP279*%20target%3A%20.%20%7D%0A%20%20%20%20union%20%7B%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%2Fwdt%3AP361%2B%20target%3A%20.%20%7D%0A%20%20%20%20union%20%7B%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%2Fwdt%3AP1269%2B%20target%3A%20.%20%7D%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP1433%2Fwdt%3AP179*%20%3Fvenue%20.%0A%20%20%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fvenue%20wdt%3AP1813%20%3Fshort_name_%20.%20%7D%0A%20%20%7D%0A%20%20GROUP%20BY%20%3Fvenue%0A%7D%20AS%20%25result%0AWHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20INCLUDE%20%25result%0A%20%20SERVICE%20wikibase%3Alabel%20%7B%20bd%3AserviceParam%20wikibase%3Alanguage%20%22en%2Cda%2Cde%2Ces%2Cfr%2Cjp%2Cnl%2Cno%2Cru%2Csv%2Czh%22%20.%20%7D%20%0A%7D%0AORDER%20BY%20DESC(%3Fcount)%0ALIMIT%20200%0A" style="width: 80vw; height: 80vh; border: none;">
For more visualizations, see also the topic "Islam in Nigeria" on Scholia.
The following visualisations of research on Islam and Muslims in Togo have been generated using the Wikidata query service (SPARQL) and Scholia. It should be noted that the data is not exhaustive. Wikidata is constantly evolving and this dataset will therefore change over time.
Co-occurring topics graph Only a maximum of the 400 most often occurring links are shown. <iframe referrerpolicy="origin" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups" src="https://query.wikidata.org/embed.html#%23%20tool%3A%20scholia%0A%23defaultView%3AGraph%0A%0APREFIX%20target%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.wikidata.org%2Fentity%2FQ522809%3E%0A%0ASELECT%0A%20%20%3Ftopic1%20%3Ftopic1Label%20%3Ftopic2%20%3Ftopic2Label%0AWITH%20%7B%0A%20%20SELECT%0A%20%20%20%20(COUNT(DISTINCT%20%3Fwork)%20AS%20%3Fcount)%20%3Ftopic1%20%3Ftopic2%0A%20%20WHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Find%20works%20that%20are%20marked%20with%20main%20subject%20of%20the%20topic.%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%20%2F%20(%20wdt%3AP31*%2Fwdt%3AP279*%20%7C%20wdt%3AP361%2B%20%7C%20wdt%3AP1269%2B%20)%20target%3A%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Identify%20co-occuring%20topics.%20%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%20%3Ftopic1%2C%20%3Ftopic2%20.%20%0A%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Exclude%20the%20topic%20it%20self%0A%20%20%20%20FILTER%20(target%3A%20!%3D%20%3Ftopic1%20%26%26%20target%3A%20!%3D%20%3Ftopic2%20%26%26%20%3Ftopic1%20!%3D%20%3Ftopic2)%0A%20%20%7D%0A%20%20GROUP%20BY%20%3Ftopic1%20%3Ftopic2%0A%20%20ORDER%20BY%20DESC(%3Fcount)%0A%0A%20%20%23%20There%20a%20performance%20problems%20in%20the%20browser%3A%20We%20cannot%20show%20large%20graphs%2C%0A%20%20%23%20so%20we%20put%20a%20limit%20on%20the%20number%20of%20links%20displayed.%0A%20%20LIMIT%20400%0A%0A%7D%20AS%20%25results%0AWHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20INCLUDE%20%25results%0A%20%20%0A%20%20%23%20Label%20the%20results%0A%20%20SERVICE%20wikibase%3Alabel%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20bd%3AserviceParam%20wikibase%3Alanguage%20%22en%2Cda%2Cde%2Ces%2Cfr%2Cjp%2Cnl%2Cno%2Cru%2Csv%2Czh%22.%0A%20%20%7D%0A%7D%0A" style="width: 80vw; height: 80vh; border: none;">
Co-occurring topics map <iframe referrerpolicy="origin" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups" src="https://query.wikidata.org/embed.html#%23%20tool%3A%20scholia%0A%23defaultView%3AMap%0A%0APREFIX%20target%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.wikidata.org%2Fentity%2FQ522809%3E%0A%0ASELECT%0A%20%20%3Flocation%20%3FlocationLabel%0A%20%20%3Fgeo%0A%20%20%3Fexample_work%20%3Fexample_workLabel%0AWITH%20%7B%0A%20%20SELECT%0A%20%20%20%20%3Flocation%20%3Fgeo%0A%20%20%20%20(SAMPLE(%3Fwork)%20AS%20%3Fexample_work)%0A%20%20WHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Find%20works%20that%20are%20marked%20with%20main%20subject%20of%20the%20topic.%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%20%2F%20(%20wdt%3AP31*%2Fwdt%3AP279*%20%7C%20wdt%3AP361%2B%20%7C%20wdt%3AP1269%2B%20)%20target%3A%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Identify%20co-occuring%20topic%20that%20is%20geo-locatable.%20%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%20%3Flocation%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%3Flocation%20wdt%3AP625%20%3Fgeo%20.%0A%20%20%7D%0A%20%20GROUP%20BY%20%3Flocation%20%3Fgeo%0A%7D%20AS%20%25results%0AWHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20INCLUDE%20%25results%0A%20%20%0A%20%20%23%20Label%20the%20results%0A%20%20SERVICE%20wikibase%3Alabel%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20bd%3AserviceParam%20wikibase%3Alanguage%20%22en%2Cda%2Cde%2Ces%2Cfr%2Cjp%2Cnl%2Cno%2Cru%2Csv%2Czh%22.%0A%20%20%7D%0A%7D" style="width: 80vw; height: 80vh; border: none;">
Journals and edited volumes publishing works about the topic <iframe referrerpolicy="origin" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups" src="https://query.wikidata.org/embed.html#%23%20tool%3A%20scholia%0A%23defaultView%3ABubbleChart%0A%0APREFIX%20target%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.wikidata.org%2Fentity%2FQ522809%3E%0A%0ASELECT%20%3Fcount%20%3Fshort_name%20%0A%3Fvenue%20%3FvenueLabel%20(CONCAT(%22%2Fvenue%2F%22%2C%20SUBSTR(STR(%3Fvenue)%2C%2032))%20AS%20%3FvenueUrl)%0AWITH%20%7B%0A%20%20SELECT%20(count(%3Fwork)%20as%20%3Fcount)%20%3Fvenue%20(SAMPLE(%3Fshort_name_)%20AS%20%3Fshort_name)%20WHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%7B%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%2Fwdt%3AP31*%2Fwdt%3AP279*%20target%3A%20.%20%7D%0A%20%20%20%20union%20%7B%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%2Fwdt%3AP361%2B%20target%3A%20.%20%7D%0A%20%20%20%20union%20%7B%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP921%2Fwdt%3AP1269%2B%20target%3A%20.%20%7D%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fwork%20wdt%3AP1433%2Fwdt%3AP179*%20%3Fvenue%20.%0A%20%20%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fvenue%20wdt%3AP1813%20%3Fshort_name_%20.%20%7D%0A%20%20%7D%0A%20%20GROUP%20BY%20%3Fvenue%0A%7D%20AS%20%25result%0AWHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20INCLUDE%20%25result%0A%20%20SERVICE%20wikibase%3Alabel%20%7B%20bd%3AserviceParam%20wikibase%3Alanguage%20%22en%2Cda%2Cde%2Ces%2Cfr%2Cjp%2Cnl%2Cno%2Cru%2Csv%2Czh%22%20.%20%7D%20%0A%7D%0AORDER%20BY%20DESC(%3Fcount)%0ALIMIT%20200%0A" style="width: 80vw; height: 80vh; border: none;">
For more visualizations, see also the topic "Islam in Togo" on Scholia.
Help us by contributing to the database by submitting a missing bibliographic reference. Please ensure that the reference is not in the database before submitting. Your contribution will be reviewed before being added to the collection.
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Metadata, Authority Control, and the AI-Assisted Entity Pipeline Metadata and authority control Each IWAC item is described using terms from the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI). IWAC also maintains expanding authority files for persons, organisations, events, topics (Dublin Core "Subject"), and locations (Dublin Core "Spatial Coverage"). Authority control reduces ambiguity and consolidates variant names. Limits of manual indexing and off-the-shelf NLP Keywords help organise online collections, but manual indexing is costly and difficult to scale. Traditional natural language processing (NLP)—particularly named-entity recognition (NER)—assists by identifying people, places, organisations, and dates. NER underpins search, network analysis, and other digital humanities workflows. However, models trained primarily on Western corpora (e.g., spaCy) often miss African entities and degrade in the presence of optical character recognition (OCR) errors. Why large language models? Large language models (LLMs) provides a promising alternative. Rather than relying on fragile patterns, they use semantic context to recognise entities despite OCR noise or gaps in training data. Because they work at the level of meaning, LLMs can deliver faster, more cost-effective transformations without sacrificing quality. A practical naming problem These advantages matter for IWAC. Newspapers vary spellings and often reverse name order (e.g. Karim/Karimou, Aboubacar/Boikary, Aboubacar Fofana/Fofana Aboubacar). Conventions for given and family names are flexible. The imam of Lomé's Great Mosque in the late 1980s, Abdou-Salami Abdou Rahim, appears as "Abdul Salam Abdul Rahim", simply "Abdou Rahim", and at least eight other variants. Conventional models risk splitting one historical figure into many entries.
A hybrid, AI-assisted pipeline To address these challenges, IWAC combines AI-driven extraction with human oversight. Stage 1: Extraction and normalisation An LLM, guided by explicit normalisation rules, identifies entities (prompt). Place names are reduced to an essential form (e.g., "Kingdom of Saudi Arabia" becomes "Saudi Arabia"); honorifics are removed from personal names (e.g., "Kassim Mensah" rather than "El Hadj Kassim Mensah"); organisational names are captured in full rather than as acronyms; and variable ordering in African names is recognised. Stage 2: Reconciliation AI-extracted entities are reconciled against IWAC's curated authority files. A Python script assigns unique identifiers, flags ambiguous cases for review and, where no match is found, proposes conservative, confidence-ranked candidates via fuzzy matching to inform human decision-making. Frequency-based prioritisation highlights the most significant entities and filters out one-off noise. Stage 3: Consolidation OpenRefine is used to consolidate entities. Human expertise remains essential: only historical knowledge can adjudicate organisational evolutions, schisms, and renamings. Stage 4: Enrichment and linking A third Python script links documents to authority entries, updating IWAC records with direct, clickable links and transforming a static repository into an interconnected knowledge base. Early results and openness Although still early, the pipeline has validated over 4,400 distinct entities, a number that will grow as coverage extends across the corpus. The full code is openly available on GitHub: fmadore/iwac-ai-pipelines.
Why it matters The pipeline keeps the historian in the loop while enabling entity discovery and normalisation in non-Western corpora, where standard NER often fails. Results may not always meet professional archival standards; the realistic alternative, however, is frequently no processing at all. Reliable entities and reconciled identifiers also power IWAC's visualisation applications. They enable cross-document navigation, historically meaningful network analysis, and more precise search. The gains are computationally efficient and interpretively sound.
What's next Development will focus on automatic enrichment of entities—especially West African individuals and organisations absent from major knowledge bases. Using the articles that mention each entity, LLMs will generate concise descriptive notes and, where available, biographical summaries. This extends the pipeline from recognition to contextualisation, strengthening authority records and enabling large-scale thematic exploration. Note: The metadata index remains incomplete. Please also try searching the database using the full-text option.
From access to analysis: IWAC as a testbed for DH and AI Despite its capacity to enrich African history and the study of Muslim societies through alternative modes of knowledge production for both public scholarship and research, the Global South—including Africa—remains under-represented in Digital Humanities (DH). IWAC pushes beyond preservation and access to open new lines of enquiry on Islam and Muslim life in West Africa. Drawing on IWAC data, the project develops visualisations that show how DH can advance research on Muslim public life in the region. It therefore moves past the common digital history model of serving digitised sources without interpretation (Robertson & Mullen 2021), by analysing the IWAC dataset with computational methods and adopting an exploratory approach to media representations of Islam and Muslims, alongside the intellectual and translocal histories that shape them.
Distant reading "Distant reading", introduced to literary studies by Franco Moretti, contrasts with the intensive focus on individual texts of "close reading". In DH and the social sciences, it uses computational techniques to analyse large textual datasets, enabling researchers to detect patterns and themes that may be overlooked by traditional qualitative methods. Common approaches include topic modelling, sentiment analysis, and network analysis. The method has its limitations. Algorithmic modelling can obscure nuances such as context, tone and meaning that can be recovered through close reading. The quality of optical character recognition (OCR) also affects subsequent analyses by introducing transcription errors. For this reason, distant reading is best combined with close reading and domain expertise. IWAC takes this mixed-methods approach and provides interactive dashboards to facilitate exploratory analysis.
Interactive visualisations Interactivity promotes open scholarship. Filtering, sorting and switching views enable a level of dynamic enquiry that static figures cannot match. IWAC demonstrates this potential by providing visual tools that serve as analytical instruments and vehicles for scholarly communication. Hover tooltips and other dynamic elements surface context without clutter, thereby improving accessibility. Current applications Keyword mapping. Explores thematic evolution in the West African press using the Dublin Core "Subject" and "Spatial Coverage" fields. Topic modelling. Surfaces latent themes and their trajectories across time and publications. Sentiment analysis. Tracks tonal shifts towards Islam and Muslim actors in the press. Spatial & network visualisation. Maps places and relational patterns to support questions about translocal connections and media representation.
The scale problem: 28 million words IWAC now contains more than 28 million words—over 300 books's worth of text. At this scale, manual curation and keyword tagging are no longer viable. Converting sources into machine-readable text ("datafication") remains essential, but it must be automated to keep pace with growth. From artisanal curation to an AI-assisted pipeline IWAC began as an artisanal operation: careful digitisation and meticulous tagging of people, places, events, and topics. That labour produced reliable material but revealed a limit. With only brief support in 2023 (Berlin Senate funding) and otherwise a single-researcher effort, the project shifted to AI-assisted workflows to sustain expansion and to prototype reusable methods. What AI enables—and where it fails Python pipelines integrating LLMs now: improve OCR, including complex newspaper layouts; enhance named entity recognition (NER) for downstream analyses; accelerate ingestion and make under-resourced archives more accessible. These gains come with risks: opaque corrections, hallucinations, and the standardisation of linguistic diversity that can erase historical orthography. More broadly, AI raises ethical, legal, and socio-technical concerns—bias, privacy, opacity—that demand accountable practice. Operating principles IWAC treats AI as a set of tools for solving specific problems, emphasising transparency, awareness of bias, and scholarly authority. The aim is pragmatic: to sustain growth, improve discoverability and share methods that others can reuse, all without surrendering critical source analysis. To ensure reproducibility and community scrutiny, all AI-enhanced pipelines (code and prompts) are freely available on GitHub. Digital minimalism IWAC recognises the tension between advocating AI and the environmental and ethical costs of computation. Guided by "minimal computing" and "digital sobriety", we prioritise lightweight, efficient, open-source models and right-sized pipelines. In under-resourced contexts—such as libraries without dedicated archivists or archives with large unprocessed holdings—targeted AI that makes invisible materials findable and usable can be the lesser cost. To enable scrutiny and reuse, we document methods and publish code and prompts on GitHub. Used judiciously, LLMs support exploratory analysis and low-friction interfaces while we monitor bias, opacity, privacy, and energy use.
IWAC keyword explorer: Exploring the thematic evolution of the West African press
The IWAC keyword explorer provides two complementary visualisations to explore the Islam West Africa Collection: a graph showing the most frequently used keywords, a tool for comparing selected keywords. Using dynamic filters such as country, press title, time range, keyword category and maximum number of terms, users can explore the thematic evolution of the corpus at various scales and then refine their analytical focus with a single click. The results are based on the Dublin Core "Subject" and "Spatial Coverage" fields. Therefore, they serve as an exploratory entry point that should be supplemented by a qualitative analysis of the documents.
Think of this as a very fast librarian who sorts thousands of newspaper articles into neat piles by theme, so you can browse the collection by ideas rather than titles. What is topic modelling? Topic modelling is a statistical method for grouping large sets of texts by the themes they discuss. Instead of pre-defining categories, an unsupervised algorithm looks for words that frequently occur together and clusters them into "topics". Each topic is summarised with a short label drawn from its most representative terms (e.g., mosquée – inauguration – construction – vendredi). How it works (three quick steps) Prepare the texts: Items are OCR'd and cleaned—common function words and domain-specific noise (geographic names, generic verbs, etc.) are removed, and words are reduced to their base forms (lemmatisation). Frequent collocations are detected and joined into single tokens (e.g. "communauté" + "musulman" → "communauté_musulman", "ministre" + "intérieur" → "ministre_intérieur"). Group similar items: Using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), the system converts each text into a bag-of-words representation, then discovers groups of words that tend to co-occur across the corpus. Each group becomes a "topic". Label and score: Each group receives a human-readable label from its top terms. Every item then gets: a topic ID (lda_topic_id) — the group it best matches, a label (lda_topic_label) — the topic's top words, and a probability score (lda_topic_prob) indicating how strongly it belongs. Items that do not match any group confidently appear as unassigned/outliers. What you can do in the dashboard The IWAC dashboard offers two complementary views for exploring topics: Topics overview Statistics at a glance: total documents processed, number of unique topics, coverage rate, and outlier count. Top topics chart: a bar chart of the ten most frequent topics by document count. Browse all topics: a searchable, sortable grid of every topic, each linking to a dedicated detail page. Topic detail page For any individual topic, you can see: Document count, average probability, and number of countries represented. Country distribution (pie chart) and temporal distribution (bar chart by year). Full document table with title, country, date, probability score, and sentiment polarity — each row linking back to the original item on the IWAC. Topic network An interactive force-directed graph showing topics (green nodes) and their associated articles (blue nodes). Filter by topic to isolate a single cluster and its articles, or adjust the probability threshold slider to show only the strongest associations. Focus mode: select any node and zoom into its ego network (immediate neighbours only). How to read the results (good practice) Topics are guides, not verdicts. They reflect recurring word patterns rather than editorial categories. Always click through to the documents. Labels are shorthand. They summarise the top terms and are necessarily approximate. Data quality matters. OCR noise, spelling variants, and uneven coverage across countries or years can shape clusters. Consequently, very small or very broad topics may split or merge when the model is refreshed.
Methods note IWAC uses an unsupervised, algorithmic workflow based on LDA implemented with gensim. Only French-language items are processed. Each text goes through the following pipeline: Tokenisation and stopword removal: the pre-lemmatised text (lemma_nostop column) is tokenised, and domain-specific stopwords — including geographic names already captured by metadata, generic verbs, and newspaper boilerplate — are filtered out. Phrase detection: gensim Phrases identifies frequent bigrams and trigrams (e.g. "burkina_faso", "el_hadj") so that multi-word expressions are treated as single tokens. Dictionary filtering: rare tokens (appearing in fewer than 10 documents) and overly common ones (appearing in more than 40 % of documents) are removed to reduce noise. LDA training: the model is trained with auto-tuned hyperparameters (alpha="auto", eta="auto") over multiple passes. The optimal number of topics can be selected automatically via C_v coherence grid search across a range of values. Assignment: every item receives a dominant topic ID, a probability score, and a human-readable label built from deduplicated top terms. No predefined categories are used. Metadata such as country or date supports filtering and visualising results in the dashboard — it does not create the topics.
AI and historical research at scale For historians working with vast digital corpora, AI offers genuine transformative potential. It automates labour-intensive tasks and facilitates analyses that would be impossible for a single researcher to complete. This shift is already reshaping historical scholarship. Early digital humanities approaches used machine learning for text clustering, topic modelling, and vector-based analyses. Large language models (LLMs) have since widened the scope for qualitative inquiry, whilst foregrounding questions of bias in training data and irreducible uncertainty (Clavert and Muller 2024). From ingestion to large-scale analysis IWAC uses AI to speed up optical character recognition (OCR) and entity extraction. The next challenge is analysing large amounts of data. Although smartphones and inexpensive cameras generate an abundance of material digitised from archives, this sometimes exceeds the capacity of human attention. Frédérick Madore's experience is a case in point: he has thousands of digitised pages that remain unread. Computational methods can scan the corpus, identify patterns and highlight thematic shifts that manual workflows overlook. LLM-assisted distant reading then prioritises material, enabling historians to focus on contextualisation, source criticism and interpretation.
Experiment: AI as a research "partner" This project explores the potential of AI as a research partner in analysing large bodies of sources. Specifically, the experiment involves assigning interpretative tasks to LLMs for the evaluation of over 10,000 articles on Islam in IWAC. What sentiment analysis can add Sentiment analysis reveals the tone and evaluative language used in texts. This makes it particularly useful for tracking how newspapers frame issues over time. In this study, two LLMs, guided by task-specific prompts, assessed the representation of Islam and Muslims in IWAC's newspaper corpus. Each article received three scores: (1) the overall emotional orientation (polarity), (2) the degree of journalistic objectivity, and (3) the centrality of Islam-related themes within the piece. Method and outputs The exercise began with a clear question: how do West African newspapers portray Islam and Muslims? Rather than spending months on manual coding, two LLMs were used to classify the full set of relevant articles. The prompt focused on media representations in Francophone West Africa. For each article, the models produced ratings of polarity (from very negative to very positive), subjectivity (from very objective to very subjective) and centrality, along with brief justifications, creating a traceable analytical record. An interactive dashboard organises the results for exploration and comparison, and importantly makes the utility and opacity of AI decision-making visible. Why use AI here? A pragmatic rationale Many scholars caution against integrating AI into historical research, citing environmental costs, the erosion of close-reading skills, and the risk of delegating analysis to opaque systems (cf. Penner 2024). Our use of LLMs is pragmatic. We treat them as an "intuition pump"—a tool for thinking with, not a substitute for scholarship (Bajohr 2025). LLM-enabled distant reading can rapidly and consistently triage large corpora, compressing months of screening into hours and identifying the most pertinent items for close examination. This hybrid workflow combines algorithmic pattern recognition with human interpretative depth: historians remain in the loop for contextualisation, source criticism, and argumentation. Classifications are provisional and auditable through stored prompts and rationales, and final claims are based on human evaluation. Interactive findings: sentiment and framing across IWAC
Islam in West Africa is deeply transnational. Religious, intellectual, commercial and migratory ties connect communities to both the wider Islamic world and dense intra-regional networks. Sufi orders, the Hajj and scholarly travel first sustained these connections, but post-colonial transformations, air travel, broadcast media, the circulation of cassettes and digital media, and state-sponsored religious diplomacy have intensified them. African Muslim agency sits at the centre: individuals carry, adapt and produce knowledge, negotiate external pressures, and innovate organisational forms. What IWAC reveals Beyond national boundaries, IWAC documents these networks. Press reports and community publications trace diplomatic itineraries, NGO projects, funding streams, educational pathways, and preachers' tours, allowing linkages to be followed across time and space. Actors and channels Multiple actors sustain these ties. Islamic NGOs, such as the Africa Muslims Agency (AMA), the Muslim World League and World Assembly of Muslim Youth, channel resources into education, healthcare, water infrastructure, and social welfare. Many prioritise orphan care and programmes for women, and they coordinate requests while standardising support for local intermediaries. States also shape the field: Saudi Arabia supports Hajj administration, scholarships, and infrastructure; Kuwait-based charities contribute to social projects; Morocco pursues clerical diplomacy through the Mohammed VI Foundation of African Ulama; Egypt maintains long-standing ties centred on al-Azhar University; since the 1980s, Iran has expanded cultural and educational outreach. Under Muammar Gaddafi, Libya financed mosques, Islamic centres and schools, often through the World Islamic Call Society, alongside political and economic initiatives. Together, these channels have strengthened the material capacity, organisational expertise and sense of belonging to the wider umma of Islamic associations. They have also sparked debates over laïcité and doctrinal orientation, which are documented by IWAC. An "Islamic Francophonie" IWAC also reveals a dense Francophone sphere—an "Islamic Francophonie" (Miran & Oyewolé 2015)—through which French-language conferences, training seminars, and association networks circulated ideas, people, and organisational models. Abidjan became a key node when, from 1991, the Communauté Musulmane de la Riviera hosted the Séminaire International de Formation des Responsables d'Associations Musulmanes (SIFRAM). Swiss public intellectual Tariq Ramadan helped establish and chair the Colloque International des Musulmans de l'Espace Francophone (CIMEF), held biennially in West African capitals. Debates addressed contemporary understandings of Islam, the place of Francophone Muslims within the global umma, and relations with "the West". These forums fostered a distinctive Francophone Muslim identity with shared vocabulary, networks, and organisational templates that crossed borders. Why translocality? "Translocality" offers a sharper lens than globalisation or transnationalism for analysing how connections reshape social life. It denotes both the movement of people, goods, ideas, and symbols across boundaries and an analytical stance attentive to uneven effects—blockages and re-localisations—that expose tensions between mobility and order and challenge linear, teleological accounts of "the global". Methodologically, it privileges multi-sited or mobile fieldwork; a jeu d'échelles linking local, regional, and global scales; and qualitative, metaphorical network analysis (Freitag & von Oppen 2010). Designed for this approach, IWAC's date-stamped, location-specific press reports and association publications enable users to reconstruct itineraries, funding streams, educational pathways, and preaching circuits across Francophone West Africa. Event-level detail (precise dates, named individuals, places) pairs with metadata suited to computational analysis. In short, IWAC is both an archive of movement and a record of situatedness—the evidentiary basis for translocal analysis that links event-rich microhistories to regional patterns.
About the visualisation: IWAC Spatial Overview What it is The IWAC Spatial Overview is an interactive web tool for exploring the Collection's spatial and relational dimensions. As the gateway to over 11,500 newspaper articles, it converts rich text into a searchable cartographic interface. With faceted filters and contextual controls, users can examine the corpus in real time, identify patterns, and formulate hypotheses. How it works At its core sits an interactive Leaflet.js map that plots locations mentioned in the articles to show geographic reach and density. Two complementary views support analysis at different scales: Bubble clusters at precise coordinates, where bubble size scales with the number of documents to highlight urban and regional hubs; Choropleth aggregates at national level, where countries are coloured by article density to provide a macro, diachronic perspective. Users can pan, zoom, and click on any point or region to view metadata and filter the corpus. Entity-centred exploration Named entities—persons, organisations, events, topics and locations—are extracted for faceted exploration. Selecting one instantly filters the dataset, updating the map and article list to reveal the spatial footprint and textual context. A network view illustrates the co-occurrence of entities within articles (i.e., entities appearing together). Frequency-weighted edges, centrality measures, and community detection highlight influential actors, hubs, and corridors of interaction over time. Used alongside spatial metadata, the visualisation supports evidence-based exploration: start with the map, follow entities of interest, then open the sources. It does not invent links; rather, it renders documented regional and transnational relations legible and traceable.
What remains out of focus: exclusions and biases Language and field coverage Because the dashboard currently draws only on French-language newspaper articles, it foregrounds Western-educated, francophone Muslims and under-represents graduates of madrasas and major Islamic universities (Arabisants), many of whom communicate in Arabic or national languages and may not speak French. This francophone weighting both enables and limits analysis: it illuminates an emerging "Islamic Francophonie" while obscuring non-French-speaking communities shaping Muslim life in Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, and Togo. Visibility ≠ value Searchability and article counts proxy coverage, not importance. Editorial priorities, political pressure, newsroom capacity, and press geography shape what appears. Expect an urban, Francophone bias: regions outside capital cities—where most outlets are based—may look inactive despite intense activity. Co-mention ≠ connection Entities appearing in the same article may suggest ties but do not confirm them. For instance, a report of a president receiving several delegations, including Muslim leaders, does not imply relationships among all individuals or places named. In these networks, edges are prompts, not facts: treat them as hypotheses and verify visual claims against the source documents. Method matters The step from textual co-occurrence to historical connection is inferential. Choices about windowing (article level), filtering, layout, and community detection can create spurious clusters or exaggerate centrality. In line with the translocal approach above, IWAC treats networks as starting points. Every visual claim links back to documents, and the interface highlights provenance so readers can scrutinise the textual basis of apparent associations. Why it matters The IWAC Spatial Overview widens participation while keeping sources visible. It complements—rather than replaces—close reading by offering a scalable way to explore connections between Francophone West Africa and the wider Islamic world. By pairing discovery with disclosure—archives with algorithms, interfaces with accountability—IWAC invites readers to treat visibility as a question to debate, not a fact to accept.
The Islam West Africa Collection (IWAC) is an open-access digital database documenting Islam and Muslim communities in West Africa from the 1960s to the present. With over 14,500 newspaper articles, archival documents, Islamic publications, photographs, audio and video recordings, and bibliographic references from six countries—Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Niger, Nigeria, and Togo—IWAC offers researchers worldwide unprecedented access to primary sources on contemporary West African Islam. All materials are freely available under a Creative Commons license. Documents can be downloaded in their original formats, and metadata can be exported in structured formats (CSV, JSON) for integration into quantitative analyses, network visualisations, or machine learning pipelines.
IWAC did not emerge from a formal digitisation plan. It grew from the practical demands of historical fieldwork. Since 2011, Frédérick Madore has conducted extensive fieldwork and archival research across francophone West Africa, focusing on Islamic activism among youth and women in Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire, Muslim minorities in southern Benin and Togo, and the history of faith-based student organisations at the Université d'Abomey-Calavi (Benin) and the Université de Lomé (Togo). Beginning with his Master's research, he encountered a rapidly expanding, geographically scattered body of materials across West African archives and libraries. In contrast to colonial repositories, many postcolonial African state archives operate with extremely limited resources and are frequently fragmentary. Scarcity, restricted access, and the disappearance of entire collections are common; materials may be dispersed across several centres and lack effective cataloguing. Faced with these challenges, Madore began digitising and organising sources himself—and the workflow quickly outgrew its original scope. What started as a personal research tool evolved into something far more ambitious. Over the following decade, Madore digitised or saved more than 24,000 pages of press clippings from over 80 newspapers dating back to 1962; some 1,500 issues from 25 Islamic publications (many now defunct); and thousands of online articles preserved through the Wayback Machine. Because digital content in sub-Saharan Africa is particularly transient—platforms regularly disappear and URLs break—web archiving makes it possible to access historical pages that would otherwise be lost forever. These materials came from nine archival institutions across six countries and numerous private collections belonging to individuals and Islamic associations. These sources provide an excellent means of tracing the history of Muslim communities. Initially maintained in a private Zotero database, this accumulation could fairly be called "digital hoarding"—a personal archive whose size exceeded any one person's ability to fully analyse. As colleagues working on Islam in the region began requesting specific clippings, the limits of a private archive became clear. The decision to build a public database was shaped by the principles of open science and a commitment to making research data findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable.
Project development The transition from private collection to public resource unfolded in stages: 2018–2020: With support from a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship and in collaboration with the University of Florida Libraries and the Sahel Research Group, Madore created the Islam Burkina Faso Collection—an open-access database of over 3,000 documents. For more on this initial project, see Frédérick Madore, "La Collection Islam Burkina Faso: promesses et défis des humanités numériques", Revue d'Histoire Contemporaine de l'Afrique (2021). 2023: With backing from the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO) and the Berlin Senate, the project expanded into the Islam West Africa Collection. Through collaboration with Abdoulaye Sounaye (ZMO), coverage extended to Niger and Nigeria. IWAC was officially launched on 9 November 2023 at Media in Cooperation and Transition (MiCT) in Berlin, with over 5,000 items. The collection has since grown to more than 14,500 documents. Ongoing: The collection continues to grow. The full dataset is also hosted on Hugging Face, providing stable infrastructure for long-term preservation, version control, and seamless integration with AI and machine learning workflows.
Linked Open Data (LOD) and Semantic Web IWAC follows the principles of Linked Open Data (LOD) for publishing structured, interoperable, machine-readable data on the semantic web. Wikidata Q identifiers serve as URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers) for named entities—people, organisations, locations, events, and topics—wherever possible. This approach disambiguates entities with the same name and consolidates pseudonyms and name variants for single entities. To express hierarchical and relational connections between entities, IWAC uses the Dublin Core metadata elements "Is Part Of", "Relation", "Replaces", and "Is Replaced By". See for example the entity Communauté Musulmane du Burkina Faso.
Frédérick Madore is Data Curator at the Cluster of Excellence "Africa Multiple", University of Bayreuth (Germany), and was previously a Research Fellow at ZMO. His research sits at the intersection of Islamic studies, digital humanities, and artificial intelligence, exploring how computational methods can transform the way we access, analyse, and interpret historical archives. He is the author of Religious Activism on Campuses in Togo and Benin (De Gruyter, 2025) and La construction d'une sphère publique musulmane en Afrique de l'Ouest (Presses de l'Université Laval / Éditions Hermann, 2016). He holds a Ph.D. in History from Université Laval and previously held a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Florida.
Research assistants The work of research assistants is identified by the Dublin Core term "Contributor", indicating the person(s) responsible for publishing the resource online and identifying it.
Vincent Favier (2023) Vincent Favier processed over 1,000 bibliographical references on Islam in <a aria-label="https://islam.zmo.de/s/westafrica/faceted-browse/7#%7B%22categoryId%22%3Anull%2C%22categoryQuery%22%3Anull%2C%22sortBy%22%3Anull%2C%22sortOrder%22%3Anull%2C%22page%22%3Anull%2C%22facetStates%22%3A%7B%223%22%3A%5B%5D%2C%224%22%3A%5B%5D%2C%225%22%3A%5B%5D%2C%2278%22%3A%5B540%5D%7D%2C%22facetQueries%22%3A%7B%223%22%3A%22%22%2C%224%22%3A%22%22%2C%225%22%3A%22%22%2C%2278%22%3A%22property%5B100%5D%5Bjoiner%5D%3Dand%26property%5B100%5D%5Bproperty%5D%3D40%26property%5B100%5D%5Btype%5D%3Dres%26property%5B100%5D%5Btext%5D%3D540%22%7D%7D" data-tooltip-position="top" href="https://islam.zmo.de/s/westafrica/faceted-browse/7#%7B%22categoryId%22%3Anull%2C%22categoryQuery%22%3Anull%2C%22sortBy%22%3Anull%2C%22sortOrder%22%3Anull%2C%22page%22%3Anull%2C%22facetStates%22%3A%7B%223%22%3A%5B%5D%2C%224%22%3A%5B%5D%2C%225%22%3A%5B%5D%2C%2278%22%3A%5B540%5D%7D%2C%22facetQueries%22%3A%7B%223%22%3A%22%22%2C%224%22%3A%22%22%2C%225%22%3A%22%22%2C%2278%22%3A%22property%5B100%5D%5Bjoiner%5D%3Dand%26property%5B100%5D%5Bproperty%5D%3D40%26property%5B100%5D%5Btype%5D%3Dres%26property%5B100%5D%5Btext%5D%3D540%22%7D%7D" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Niger and <a aria-label="https://islam.zmo.de/s/westafrica/faceted-browse/7#%7B%22categoryId%22%3Anull%2C%22categoryQuery%22%3Anull%2C%22sortBy%22%3Anull%2C%22sortOrder%22%3Anull%2C%22page%22%3Anull%2C%22facetStates%22%3A%7B%223%22%3A%5B%5D%2C%224%22%3A%5B%5D%2C%225%22%3A%5B%5D%2C%2278%22%3A%5B541%5D%7D%2C%22facetQueries%22%3A%7B%223%22%3A%22%22%2C%224%22%3A%22%22%2C%225%22%3A%22%22%2C%2278%22%3A%22property%5B100%5D%5Bjoiner%5D%3Dand%26property%5B100%5D%5Bproperty%5D%3D40%26property%5B100%5D%5Btype%5D%3Dres%26property%5B100%5D%5Btext%5D%3D541%22%7D%7D" data-tooltip-position="top" href="https://islam.zmo.de/s/westafrica/faceted-browse/7#%7B%22categoryId%22%3Anull%2C%22categoryQuery%22%3Anull%2C%22sortBy%22%3Anull%2C%22sortOrder%22%3Anull%2C%22page%22%3Anull%2C%22facetStates%22%3A%7B%223%22%3A%5B%5D%2C%224%22%3A%5B%5D%2C%225%22%3A%5B%5D%2C%2278%22%3A%5B541%5D%7D%2C%22facetQueries%22%3A%7B%223%22%3A%22%22%2C%224%22%3A%22%22%2C%225%22%3A%22%22%2C%2278%22%3A%22property%5B100%5D%5Bjoiner%5D%3Dand%26property%5B100%5D%5Bproperty%5D%3D40%26property%5B100%5D%5Btype%5D%3Dres%26property%5B100%5D%5Btext%5D%3D541%22%7D%7D" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Nigeria. The references, which include a wide variety of scholarly works, have been edited and standardised to optimise access and use. Wherever possible, abstracts, keywords, and PDFs have been added or updated. He also encoded and organised a large collection of Islamic sermons by Sheikh Albani Zaria, a prominent Nigerian Salafi scholar, and worked on adding metadata to collections of Beninese newspapers (Daho-Express, Ehuzu, and La Nation). <a aria-label="https://islam.zmo.de/s/westafrica/item?property%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&property%5B0%5D%5Bproperty%5D=6&property%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=res&property%5B0%5D%5Btext%5D=1681" data-tooltip-position="top" href="https://islam.zmo.de/s/westafrica/item?property%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&property%5B0%5D%5Bproperty%5D=6&property%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=res&property%5B0%5D%5Btext%5D=1681" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">See all his contributions.
Aleksei Akseshin (2023) Aleksei Akseshin worked on the collection of Islamic sermons by Sheikh Albani Zaria in Hausa. He wrote short summaries, added detailed metadata, and inserted timestamps to mark important sections of the video recordings. <a aria-label="https://islam.zmo.de/s/westafrica/item?property%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&property%5B0%5D%5Bproperty%5D=6&property%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=res&property%5B0%5D%5Btext%5D=1682" data-tooltip-position="top" href="https://islam.zmo.de/s/westafrica/item?property%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&property%5B0%5D%5Bproperty%5D=6&property%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=res&property%5B0%5D%5Btext%5D=1682" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">See all his contributions.
Andrée-Ann Brassard (2023) Andrée-Ann Brassard worked on the Fraternité Matin collection. <a aria-label="https://islam.zmo.de/s/westafrica/item?property%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&property%5B0%5D%5Bproperty%5D=6&property%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=res&property%5B0%5D%5Btext%5D=2081" data-tooltip-position="top" href="https://islam.zmo.de/s/westafrica/item?property%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&property%5B0%5D%5Bproperty%5D=6&property%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=res&property%5B0%5D%5Btext%5D=2081" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">See all her contributions.
Collaborators Documents from other researchers' collections are identified by the Dublin Core term "Source".
2023 In 2023, ZMO received funding from the Berlin Senate Department for Science, Health and Care (Senatsverwaltung für Wissenschaft, Gesundheit und Pflege) to improve ZMO's digital research infrastructure. Part of the grant was awarded to Frédérick Madore for the development of the Islam West Africa Collection.
2018-20 The Islam Burkina Faso Collection was supported by the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships Program of Canada, of which Frédérick Madore was a fellow.
Acknowledgments This website would not have been possible without the help and support of several people. In particular, the project director would like to thank: Ulrike Freitag and Sonja Hegasy of the ZMO for their support; Dodji Amouzouvi (Université d'Abomey-Calavi); Michael Schutz for his technical assistance; Alisher Karabaev for his knowledge of open science and his help with ZMO's Institutional Repository; Yael Netzer for her training on Omeka S, the semantic web and linked open data; Aïssétou Sawadogo, Lassane Ouedraogo, Fiacre Anato, Farid Bah-Traoré, Koudbi Kaboré, Paul Amoussou and Samba Koné, who helped secure copyright permissions from various newspaper editors and Islamic associations; Tim Fedke for designing the website banner; Perry Collins for her invaluable help with the previous Islam Burkina Faso Collection; Leonardo A. Villalón, Daniel Reboussin and Tiffany Esteban for their contributions to earlier discussions on the project.
While many digitisation initiatives in African studies have prioritised manuscripts—particularly those from Timbuktu—this focus risks overlooking the rich print culture of West Africa. IWAC fills this gap by preserving newspapers and Islamic publications: essential but undervalued sources for understanding contemporary Islam in the region.
A living record of Muslim communities Since the 1970s, the mainstream press has provided sustained coverage of Muslim life in the region. Early reporting focused mainly on major religious celebrations (Eid al-Adha, Eid el-Fitr), the pilgrimage to Mecca, the inauguration of new mosques, or the passing of religious leaders.
From the late 1980s, coverage expanded dramatically. Political liberalisation and the growth of Islamic associations prompted journalists to document community activities, internal debates, leadership dynamics, and the increasingly visible public presence of Muslims. The result is a rich, contemporaneous record that captures how Muslim communities have evolved over six decades.
Why newspapers matter Unlike oral histories, which are vital but vulnerable to memory lapses and the loss of witnesses, newspapers provide fixed chronological anchors: precise dates, direct quotations, and immediate reactions to contested events. They offer both an inside and outside perspective on the activities of various Muslim individuals and groups—a dual viewpoint that enriches historical understanding. This journalistic record illuminates many dimensions of Islam in West Africa: Religious practices and theological debates: From controversies over Mawlid celebrations to the organisation of the Hajj—including the logistical, financial, and political debates surrounding pilgrimage management Islamic diversity: Coverage of various currents within Islam, including movements like the Ahmadiyya, their social initiatives, interfaith activities, and relations with other Muslim communities State-religion relations: Debates on secularism, Islamic education, reforms to the family code, and political participation Social issues: Women's rights, youth engagement, family planning, begging, and interfaith dialogue Humanitarian action and Islamic economics: The growing role of Islamic NGOs and associations in social welfare, as well as explorations of Islamic finance as an alternative economic model Community organisation: The activities of associations, leadership transitions, internal tensions, and reconciliation efforts Transnational connections: Diplomatic visits and cooperation with Muslim-majority countries, engagement with international bodies like the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the Islamic Development Bank, and local responses to global events affecting Muslims Security concerns: Terrorism, radicalisation, and Muslim community responses to extremism
Voices and power dynamics The press gives direct access to the speeches and positions of Muslim leaders on religious, social, and political issues. Testimonies and interviews with imams, association presidents, and "ordinary" believers reveal how communities understand their own experience. Newspapers also expose power dynamics. Comparing pro-government outlets with opposition press reveals how state-aligned media grant privileged coverage to Muslim groups close to power while marginalising movements and leaders suspected of opposition sympathies. In Burkina Faso, for instance, young Francophone "Muslim intellectuals" eclipsed traditional community spokespersons during the transition period following the fall of President Blaise Compaoré in October 2014. The press reveals who gains media visibility—and who is marginalised.
Islamic publications: Voices from within Islamic publications—newsletters, magazines, and pamphlets produced by associations, mosques, and educational institutions—complement external journalism. They articulate community concerns, theological positions, and organisational strategies often absent from mainstream media. Because these materials circulate through small print runs and informal networks, they are at acute risk of disappearing. Digitising them is urgent.
Born-digital content: Preserving the ephemeral Contemporary Islamic discourse has migrated online. Websites, social media posts, and YouTube channels now serve as primary venues for religious instruction, mobilisation, and debate. Yet digital content in sub-Saharan Africa is particularly transient—platforms disappear and URLs break. Research shows that 38% of webpages become inaccessible within a decade. IWAC's systematic preservation of over 4,000 online documents through the Wayback Machine captures a fragile but essential record of 21st-century West African Islam.
A note on languages Most newspaper articles and Islamic publications in this collection are in French, reflecting the perspective of Western-educated Muslims who followed French-speaking, secular, or Christian school curricula. This means the collection offers less direct access to Arabisants—prominent Muslim leaders trained in madrasas and major Islamic universities who use Arabic or national languages such as Mooré, Dioula, or Fulfulde to reach non-French-speaking audiences. However, the French-language press regularly gives voice to Arabic speakers, and the collection's audiovisual materials include recordings in Hausa and Arabic.