Burkina Faso is an exception in the Sahel in that no politicisation and ideological radicalisation of Islam has taken shape in the public space. This paper – the first version of a chapter in an upcoming book – analyses both the causes and the implications of this fact. The historical analysis of the formative process of the Burkinabe nation reveals that Islamisation is a recent development in the country as compared to other parts of the Sahel. It came about as a result of the colonial transformation of societies in the area of future Burkina Faso, in the first half of the twentieth century and progressed in competition with Catholicism. While Islam later became the country's majority religion, the singular aspects of Burkina Faso's history – again, relative to its neighbours – have created a society marked by religious pluralism, and a very specific form of ‘consensual secularism.' In this context, an Islamic public space has emerged where various doctrinal currents – modernist reformists, Wahhabis, Sufis – struggle to assert themselves, but which leads to an enduring combination of subordination to and partnership with Burkina's successive regimes, especially as influential Muslim merchants largely control the all-important trade economy of the country. This result does not imply that Muslims in Burkina are politically quiescent, but that they tend to mobilise politically not as Muslims, but as citizens of Burkina, as is testified by the country's stormy political history. The case therefore teaches us to avoid essentialising Muslims' existence in the political arena.
Benin has a distinctive Islamic school system, constantly evolving since the colonial period: Besides the Coranic schools, which are still the basic instance of religious socialization, écoles arabes were established since independence, and furthermore there is an increase in écoles franco-arabes since the past ten years. This type of school combines religious and secular education. In the process of change in the educational system teachers are considered to be the key actors and initiators. This paper traces the development of the Islamic educational system by using the example of the city of Djougou in northern Benin. It aims to analyze the motivations of teachers in this arena and explores to what extent their self-image and their understanding of ′good education′ has changed. Particular attention will be paid to those teachers who are graduates from Islamic universities abroad. These so-called arabisants have access to strong social networks and use the existing educational structures to gain and maintain social and political influence,
(L’islam au). L’islamisation au Togo s’est faite au début du XVIIIe siècle par des marchands itinérants et par l’installation de groupes de populations islamisées. Faible, la progression de l’Islam est cependant constante, et touche façon inégale les régions et les groupes ethniques. Le 27 septembre 1963, l’Islam togolais qu’aucune structure n’organisait auparavant, se dote d’une Union musulmane du Togo (UMT) qui lui insuffle une nouvelle dynamique en l’inscrivant dans le champ monopartidaire du Rassemblement du peuple togolais.
Kubafolo ou Bafilo (8° 40′ lat. N., 1° 30′ long. Est), chef-lieu de circonscription du Nord Togo, à 73 km. au Nord de Sokodé, qui doit son origine à une halte inopinée d’une colonne de guerriers gonja conduits par Mama, souverain de Pembi, au début du XIXe siècle et revenant d’une campagne militaire contre Djongou. Ils firent halte à Séméré (actuelle République populaire du Bénin) où un groupe s’installa.
The port city of Cotonou is the major urban centre and economic hub of the West African Republic of Benin (known as Dahomey until 1975), with 679,012 inhabitants in 2013 (14.2 percent were Muslim in 2002). Cotonou was a fishing settlement, tributary to the Danxome (the Fon etymon of Dahomey) kingdom (c. 1600–1894) before the gradual encroachment of the French; it was overshadowed by the older Porto-Novo, the colonial and now political capital, twenty-four kilometres to the east. From the 1850s throu…
Northern and southern Benin (formerly Dahomey), which lie in different economic and cultural areas, have been traversed since early times by merchants and by the alfas (a local term for Islamic scholar) who accompanied them and introduced Islam. Islam arrived in the north beginning in the tenth/sixteenth century, or at the end of the eighth/fourteenth, but was not established permanently along the coast until the nineteenth century. Muslim merchants from the north are first mentioned, in 1116/1704, by the Chevalier des …
Kubafolo or Bafilo, the centre of the administrative region of Northern Togo, situated in lat. 8° 40′ N. and long, 1′ 30’ E., 73 km. north of Sokodé. It owes its origin to the unforeseen halting of a column of Gonja warriors led by Mama, ruler of Pembi, and which was returning from a campaign against Djougou at the beginning of the 19th century. They stopped at Séméré (now in the People’s Republic of Benin), and a group settled there. The warriors were tired by a long march through the mountain regions, but did not dare to ask their chief to stop; however, the latter’s horse stopped to urinate, and the warriors seized the opportunity to halt. Finding the spot pleasant, they set up an encampment which they named Gobangafol (from banga “horse” and mbofol “urine”). These Gouang warriors settling there married Tern women and adopted the Tern language. The traditions vary concerning this expedition; according to Goody, it was probably commanded by Soumaïla Ndewura Jakpa, king of Pembi, and according to others, by Mama, with Séméré and Bafilo being founded by rebellious dissidents rather than by disciplined soldiers.
Togo, Islam in the West African Republic of Togo. The Islamisation of what is now the Republic of Togo dates from the beginning of the 18th century, through the activities of traders and the settlement of Islamised population groups. Islam has been weak there, but has constantly progressed, whilst affecting different regions and groups in a variable manner. On 27 September 1963, what had been previously completely unstructured saw the formation of the Muslim Union of Togo (UMT), breathing into its structure a new dynamic as part of the one-party state of the Rassemblement du peuple togolais.
Kabou, a locality in Togo (9° 25′N., 0° 50′E.), 24 km. to the north of Bassari, an important market whose prosperity, in pre-colonial times, was based partly on the barter of crude iron given to the Kabre iron-smiths of Lama-Kara in exchange for slaves, and partly on its function as a halting place on the kolacaravan routes. The presence in Kabou of Muslim outsiders (particularly Ḥawsa and D̲j̲erma) was therefore not unusual.
The article, in a chronological manner, presents the academic literature from the initial studies on religions in Burkina Faso in the late 1950s to the present and according to the different subjects covered. The first part dis-cusses the classical works of anthropology of religion, the second part deals with historians' publications on pro-cesses of Islamisation and Christianisation in Burkina Faso. Finally, a third part analyses the publications that focus on religious diversity and contemporary religion as well as the comparative studies of Burkina Faso with other countries in the sub-region. The last part addresses the issue of radicalisation and its reception in research in religions in Burkina Faso. The common thread that runs through the different parts is the emphasis on the interactions between the political and religious situation of the country, researchers' interests and global interest in relations between Muslims and Christians. By way of conclusion, the article proposes a set of questions and initial interpretations that constitute opportunities for further research and new paths of exploration.
Le Dahomey, couloir de 670 kilomètres de long sur 200 de large, coïncé entre le Togo et l’immense Nigeria, est un des pays du golfe de Guinée les plus anciennement connus.
La côte est basse, bordée de lagunes, tandis que la zone centrale est formée de plateaux et de monts isolés; la partie septentrionale, enfin, est plus élevée, prise en écharpe par les monts de l’Atacora, culminant jusqu’aux environs de 800 mètres. Dans le Sud particulièrement, l’hygrométrie est forte et la température à peu près constante, bien qu’il y ait double saison des pluies et double saison sèche.
La population du D…
This text focuses on Turkey’s religious diplomacy in Côte d’Ivoire, a West African country where Islam has experienced significant growth in recent decades. Through the prism of a Soft Power, this cooperation opened Ivorian Islam – dominated by the Maliki and Salafi currents – to the religious tradition of Turkey. This process was marked by the transfers of practices as well as of religious objects, materials for the construction of mosques and support for socio-economic development initiatives. This study is mainly based on fieldwork carried out in Côte d’Ivoire (Abidjan, Bouaké and Korhogo) and Turkey (Istanbul). In addition, a digital ethnography conducted from social networks, in particular Facebook, was used.
