In the town of Odienné (Ivory Coast), Madou forges his faith in God by performing long sessions of solo zikr (recollection of God) after midnight. This article ethnographically explores the theme of light in this Sufi practice of concentration as an experiential form of being. It first describes how the light and darkness of the penumbra of the night co-initiate what I call “the devotional place” of zikr. Following a phenomenological writing, it then describes how, as hours go by, Madou’s concentration navigates towards “yeelen” (spiritual light) through the silence of the deep night. In doing so, this article elaborates the “corporeal mind” as synesthetic instants in this journey when the body becomes the mind and the mind faith, as the penumbra becomes silence and silence light. In other words, it explores the sensuous unboundedness of the self that happens in regular and long practice of nocturnal solo zikr. This article therefore offers a corporeal understanding of the light of God among practitioners of prolonged nocturnal solo zikr in West Africa.
When it is question of Moussa Bakayoko from Koro in Côte d’Ivoire, especially in the northwest, history and legend come together, as the character is known for his works of islamization. Paradoxically to this reputation that inscribes Koro, locality founded by Moussa Bakayoko, among the most visited areas of Mahou, considering the grave of the ‘’man of God’’, which is the subject of regular zyara (visit), any scientific study, among the 85 works enumerated on ivorian islam in 2018 by the African Studies Center, really shows the impact that karamôgô Moussa had in the consolidation of islam in the second half of the eighteenth century. Only a few works marginally describe the life of the character, and specially the traditionalists whom we met between march and september 2019 in several localities of this region, and from whom we got some manuscripts, have disclosed one part of the life of Koro’s wise man. Accordingly, this study shows Moussa Bakayoko’s itinerary and participation in the dynamic of islam in the northwest of Côte d’Ivoire, through the collected sources.
As a counterpoint to the research on Muslims in Côte d'Ivoire, this article takes a spatial approach by focusing on the building that best symbolizes the followers of the Islamic faith, namely the mosque. In this place of worship, it focuses on an aspect of the life of Muslim communities that is rarely mentioned in the scientific literature: palavers inside the mosque. Indeed, due to its centrality in the life of the Muslim community, the mosque is not immune to conflicts of interest. This situation makes the mosque a space where society is at stake. Far from being exhaustive, this article focuses on it by drawing up a typology. Following a long-term approach, it traces the plural context of the emergence of these community frictions and presents the protagonists. It evokes the role of public authorities (State, traditional authorities, bodies in charge of Muslim community life) in the occurrence and/or management of these crises as well as that of the followers. It also analyses the religious, political, socio-cultural and, above all, economic logics underlying these conflicts.
During his travel to Timbuktu in 1827–1828, René Caillié was interested in the lifestyle of the Muslims traders, his fellow travellers, and of the animist villagers along the caravans’ path. This was an exceptional experience in many ways, although this testimony must be approached critically. In particular, René Caillé described the eating practices of the traders and the animists, and of the former with the latter, according to their religious affiliations. These behaviours provide a contrasting picture of the relations between animists and Muslims, which can consist of prohibitions, tolerances, or compromises on the part of the ‘Mandingo’ traders. These practices also show different ways of being a Muslim in Sudano-Sahelian Africa at the beginning of the 19th century, depending on the pacific or expansionist tendencies of Islam, on the needs of long-distance trade, and on the prevalence of some local habits.
During the 1950s, Sheikh Yacouba Sylla opened seven cinemas in the west of the Ivory Coast. The gesture by this spiritual leader, founder of a Sufi community but also a successful entrepreneur, is totally atypical in the colonial cinematic landscape. How are we to understand this extraordinary act? What memories does it evoke for the founder’s descendants, who have preserved these now disused buildings? Through an exchange between achievements in the past and recollections at the present time, this article analyses the way in which the establishment of cinemas is incorporated into a religious, economic and social project. It also looks at the link between the functioning of the Yacoubiste community and that of the cinemas, which were open until the end of the 2000s. Interviews with representatives of the Yacoubiste community bear witness to this multifaceted activity, whilst colonial archives and historical studies complete the documentation.
Cette chronique dresse un état des lieux des relations politico-religieuses en Côte d’Ivoire avant et après les élections présidentielles d’octobre 2020, en forme de bilan, après une décennie de régime Ouattara. Elle documente en premier lieu la relative perte d’influence des chefs religieux dans l’espace public, dominé plus manifestement que par le passé par les chefs politiques. Elle questionne en particulier le lien entre un mimétisme grandissant des autorités religieuses vis-à-vis du modus operandi des autorités politiques et l’érosion de leur crédibilité. L’article chronique ensuite la reprise d’initiative œcuménique de nombreux guides religieux qui ont formé, dans la dernière ligne droite des semaines précédant le scrutin, une « Alliance des religions en faveur de la paix » pour contribuer à l’apaisement d’un climat sociopolitique devenu houleux et violent. La conclusion interroge la critique latente du public des fidèles envers ses élites et son cheminement vers des initiatives possiblement émancipatrices mais très incertaines.
During the French colonial administration of Cote d’Ivoire, two educational systems coexisted: the western type of education and the Quranic schools. Based and organized around the Koran, the later was devoted to the promotion Islam and the spread of Islamic civilization. Introduced in Cote d’Ivoire from the northern region before the fifteenth (XVth) century, Islam spreads all over the colony through trade carried out by the Mande and Dioula networks (formed of traders, marabouts, etc.) under French colonial administration control. This study takes into consideration the Islamic education in a context of close religious control by French colonial administration in Cote d’Ivoire. Through a diachronic analysis, this paper intends to dynamically study the relationship between Islamic education and the French colonial administration in Cote d’Ivoire by highlighting the the French Muslim policy in its implementation in a broad context of social religious order in western Africa.
The landscape of Education in Côte d'Ivoire is strongly marked by the existence of two types of training, one formal and one informal. Islamic education, one of the last mentioned, is also one of the forerunners of educational institutions in the country. Under the authority of an individual, or a community, not of the State, Koranic training institutions have eventually finished over time by spreading all over the Ivorian territorial space. Different from each other by the organization of the administration and the curricula, these institutions offer training programs out of step with the national education system. This raises the issue of the credibility of this training and of the future of graduates who are not recognized by the State. Arrangements were made by the State and the National Islamic Council (CNI) at the end of 1993 to allow these institutions to enjoy the same status as the Catholic and Protestant denominational schools. This initiative, bound as it was to get the Koranic educational system out of a rut, still meets difficulties on the ground. Through a historical study of Koranic education in Côte d'Ivoire, this study will analyse the dynamics of evolution of this educational system over the past two decades.
Ce chapitre examine la manière dont divers acteurs de l’Université Abdou Moumouni de Niamey, au Niger, perçoivent l’histoire du Niger, indépendant depuis 1960. À côté de l’historiographie universitaire, composante majeure de l’histoire nationale officielle, des étudiants et des leaders religieux produisent également des récits historicisants que ce chapitre se propose de comparer. Quel rapport ces différents acteurs entretiennent-ils au passé et quelle(s) histoire(s) racontent-ils ? Quelles temporalités mobilisent-ils ? Quel est le rôle de la religion dans ces discours historicisants ? Comme ce texte le montrera, ces discours cherchent dans l’histoire, parfois lointaine, les mythes fondateurs qui pourraient créer une adhésion des Nigériennes et des Nigériens à un projet national commun. Or, les appartenances ethniques, les affinités religieuses ou idéologiques, la mémoire collective, sont autant de rapports au passé qui compliquent la réalisation d’un contrat social nigérien. Dans une perspective anthropologique et historique, ce chapitre compare trois cas qui mettent en évidence différentes visions de l’histoire par rapport à l’historiographie universitaire. L’objectif est de comprendre dans quelle mesure l’histoire est au cœur des enjeux de cohésion sociale et nationale au Niger, mais aussi la manière dont les individus cherchent dans le passé les ressources nécessaires pour se projeter dans l’avenir.
À l’instar du reste de la société, les campus ivoiriens ont connu une diversification du paysage religieux, notamment islamique, à partir des années 1990. Ce terrain intéressera des organisations transnationales, en l’occurrence la Jama’at Tabligh, présente en Côte d’Ivoire au lendemain de l’accession du pays à l’indépendance, qui y fera des émules parmi les étudiants. Au regard de ce constat, on peut se demander comment la « conversion » de certains étudiants au mouvement Tabligh a façonné leur expérience religieuse et leurs interactions dans leur environnement immédiat ? Pour répondre à cette question, l’étude s’est inscrite résolument dans une perspective empirique. Elle repose sur un travail de terrain qui a débuté en 2013 et s’est déroulé dans les campus de Cocody, à Abidjan, et de Bouaké. Ainsi, la méthode biographique et ethnographique a été mobilisée. Il en est ressorti, d’abord, que, loin de voir leur affiliation au Tabligh comme une conversion, les adeptes l’interprètent plutôt comme une revivification de la foi. Cette appartenance s’est traduite, ensuite, par le déploiement d’activités de prosélytisme. Enfin, on observe une prise de distance par rapport aux activités religieuses des autres associations musulmanes sans toutefois se couper de leurs mosquées.
À la suite de l’avènement de la démocratie et de la liberté d’association au Niger au début des années 1990, les étudiants de l’Université Abdou Moumouni de Niamey mirent en place des associations confessionnelles afin d’organiser leurs activités religieuses. L’impact significatif du prosélytisme qui s’en est suivi fut la conversion et l’affirmation de l’identité religieuse des étudiants, tant musulmans que chrétiens, dans un espace marqué jadis par les idéologies marxistes-léninistes. Ce chapitre traite de la construction de l’identité religieuse des étudiants salafis et pentecôtistes en se focalisant sur le concept local de la tuba. En partant de l’exemple de deux étudiants, l’un salafi et l’autre pentecôtiste, le texte analyse les trajectoires des étudiants salafis et pentecôtistes et leurs discours respectifs. Ces deux cas constituent des figures de conversion les plus observées parmi les étudiants. Les résultats font ressortir deux figures de convertis : le radical, un converti interne, et le sabon tuba, un converti externe.
