This article recounts the conversion to Islam of El Hadj Akan Charif Vissoh, born in Benin to a Mahi (Fon) family following the traditional vodun cults and Catholicism. Co-written by the convert himself, later imam of Allada’s central mosque, and the chronicler of his conversion, it presents a life history, a conversion narrative, a "reformist" speech for the defense of converts to Islam in Southern Benin as well as a historical cum-anthropological analysis of this multilayered discourse. In a comparative perspective, the article also sheds light on the experiences of other converts to Islam in XXth century southern Ghana and southern Côte-d’Ivoire. The conclusion revisits the debates on religious conversion in Africa and beyond.
