| Kommentar |
Between the early nineteenth century and the end of the twentieth century, the African continent was the theatre of a mostly slow, but sometimes spectacular expansion of Islam. While Muslim rulers lost sovereign power in all parts of the African continent where populations had already in part converted to Islam, the religion continued to make considerable headway. This process was characterized by several waves, and by different influences from religious centres in North Africa or the Middle East. In many cases – in particular in West Africa – progress of Islam was connected to challenges against the regional social order, and was intimately linked to the creation of syncretistic compromises between what was defined, in Marrakech, Cairo, or Mecca, as orthodox strands of Islam, and other local beliefs. The agents of European colonial powers originally had little sympathy for Islam, which they defined as a decadent religion and as characteristic for despotic, “oriental” rulers and systems. They regarded reformist tendencies within the religion as dangerous, and discussed the inroads made by Islamic preachers in some regions with outspoken hostility. Different periods of the creation of colonial rule, including in particular the phase of conquest, are dominated by attempts at repression directed against Islamic movements. These early clashes became more infrequent during later stages of colonial penetration. In many cases, European administrators became aware of the fact that they could establish a modus vivendi with many Islamic religious leaders – in particular if the movements in question did not challenge the social position of groups that cooperated with the colonial rulers, and did not attack European rule in itself. Both in West Africa and in East Africa do we encounter situations in which European domination finally contributed to an adaptation and to the greater success of local Islam. Senegal and Tanzania will be our principal cases of discussion, but these cases will be regarded from a comparative perspective that also involves global trends of the nineteenth and twentieth century. |
