From "Sya" to Islam: Social Change and Identity among Muslim Youth in Bouaké, Côte d'Ivoire
- Title
- From "Sya" to Islam: Social Change and Identity among Muslim Youth in Bouaké, Côte d'Ivoire
- list of authors
- Marie Nathalie LeBlanc
- Abstract
- Based on field research conducted in 1992, 1993-1995, and 1998, the author examines how young, urban, educated Muslims of Malian origin living in Bouaké, Côte d'Ivoire, privilege Islam as the cornerstone of their individual and group identities. As Muslims, this group is moving away from their ancestral ties to Mali, expressed as 'sya', the word in the Dioula-Banmanan language which comes closest to the concept of ethnicity. The shift in identity from 'sya' to Islam is embodied in the creation and growth of neighbourhood-based Islamic youth associations since the early 1990s. Islam provides youths with a distinct identity with which to face gerontocratic relations of power, the structural changes that have affected educational and Islamic institutions in Côte d'Ivoire over the past thirty years, and recent Ivorian politics of cultural difference.
- Journal
- Paideuma
- volume
- 46
- page start
- 85
- page end
- 109
- Date
- 2000
- Language
- Anglais
- Type
- Article de revue
- Spatial Coverage
-
Côte d'Ivoire
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