Muslim Youth at a Crossroads: Media and Civic Engagement in Burkina Faso

Title

Muslim Youth at a Crossroads: Media and Civic Engagement in Burkina Faso

list of authors

Lassane Ouedraogo

Advisor(s)

Steve Howard

Abstract

This dissertation examines the civic engagement as well as the online and offline discursive and performative practices of faith among Muslim youth in Burkina Faso. It specifically maps out how members of Association des Élèves et Étudiants Musulmans au Burkina (AEEMB), a Muslim student organization with over 100,000 members, negotiate the meanings of their Islamic faith and participate in debates on issues of national and global interests. Since the emergence of violent radicalism in the French speaking, Sahelian West African region over the past decade, scholars have turned their attention to political Islam with a focus on established branches of Islamic denominations such the Sunni movement, the Ahmadiyya, and the Wahhabi and salafist reformist groups. Most scholars are now widening this scope to include less well-established Muslim groups including youth associations and student militancy. One of the major underlying assumptions in this surge of research on religion in the Sahel is the persistent belief that, somehow, there is a correlation between the region being predominantly Muslim and the rise of non-state armed forces. This study challenges such assumptions and examines the communication practices of Muslim youth with a specific focus on those educated in the secular education system of Burkina Faso. It analyzes the complexity of youth activism and how youth claim their religious and other various social identities online and offline.

Type

Thèse de doctorat

University

Ohio University

Provenance

Athens, OH

Date

2020

number of pages

232

Language

Anglais

Identifier

Q113527893

iwac-reference-0000589

Spatial Coverage

Burkina Faso