Islam and Politics in Black Africa

...Symbolic of the changing nature of African Islam, the NIF fundamentalists did not displace a secular, non-Islamic government but one jointly controlled by the relatively tolerant political branches of Moslem Sudan's historic taruq: Mandyya and Khatmyya...

...4 Although generally SUMMER • 1992 • 409 Islam and Politics recognized as orthodox, that is, Sunni, subSaharan Islam, by retaining many pre-Islamic elements, has long remained apart from the Islamic mainstream and has been subjected to occasional doctrinal deviations...

...3 Interestingly, and significantly, ex-Soviet Central Asia has witnessed a similar development, which, as in sub-Saharan Africa, should be seen as a bulwark against fundamentalism...

...Like Libya, Iran appears to be far more interested and effective in supporting anti-American and anti-Western regimes than in producing an Islamic fundamentalist revival...

...Throughout the Sahe1, 2 Moslems constitute anywhere from an overwhelming majority (as high as 100 percent in Mauritania, some 90 percent in Senegal) to an absolute majority (Mali, Niger, Sudan) to an enormously important plurality (in Chad and, perhaps, Ethiopia...

...But now this balance is facing serious challenges to which African governments and societies will have to respond...

...2 An area making up the non-Maghreb zones of the Sahara desert, its southern reaches, whether desert or savannahs, and extending from Mauritania and Senegal's Atlantic coast in the West through landlocked Mali, Chad, and Niger to the Red Sea and Indian Ocean coast of Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia...

...Similarly, in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania the traditional Moslem leaders have supported the government while more recent Islamic groups, influenced by Middle Eastern organizations, have encouraged the opposition...

...SUMMER • 1992 • 413...

...Northern Arabs, Toubous, and Berbers have consistently rebelled against black-dominated postcolonial governments in Chad, Mali, and Niger...

...In fact, African Islam is both African and Islamic...

...These groups took a violently anti-Christian, anti-Ibo (the main, generally Christian southeastern ethnic group), antiWestern, and anti-government position, mani410 • DISSENT Islam and Politics fested in pogroms against Christians in Bauchi (April 1991), Kano (October 1991), and Katsina (January 1992...

...Influence of Mysticism In terms of both theological and practical content and in its institutional structure, sub-Saharan Islam has historically differed from its older and more deeply rooted North African and Middle Eastern counterparts...

...Their statements included the outright rejection of the country's constitution and (military, mostly Moslem) government in favor of the universal Islamic community of believers—the Umma of the Koran...

...On the other hand, wherever Moslems either are in the minority or perceive a challenge to their dominance, as in Nigeria and Sudan, they tend to be far less tolerant or cooperative with the authorities...

...But that principle applies to African Islam as well...

...A second, and equally important, difference between sub-Saharan and Middle Eastern Islam is the former's syncretic character, that is, its mixing of orthodox Muslim practices with those of pre-Islamic cults of spirits, demons, local saints, and shamans...

...Until recently, however, such deviations took politically explosive forms only rarely...

...In West Africa, the various taruq differ greatly in origins, beliefs, practices, and leadership...

...6 Suspicions about the continuing, albeit disguised, existence of slavery in Mauritania still linger...

...The fundamentalist groups' relatively recent expansion south of the Sahara—most are postindependence phenomena—tends not only to challenge the very nature of Black Africa's Islam as it has developed historically but also to make it less compatible with local traditions and beliefs, thus exacerbating existing ethnic, social, and economic tensions...

...Iran's hand could be found in al-Turabi's Sunni fundamentalism in Sudan, the pseudo-Shia mobs of northern Nigeria, and just about anywhere antidemocratic, anti-Western (and often anti-Arab) manifestations could be found, regardless of how alien they are to both Persian Shia traditions and Africa's historic Islam...

...Concerted interference from outside could, however, deny success in the long term...

...The imposition of Islamic law (Sharia) in Sudan in 1983 reignited the smoldering religious and racial conflict between the Arabic or Arabized North and the Christian or animist black South, a conflict that became intractable as the ruling post-1989 military junta came under the de facto control of fundamentalist Hassan al-Turabi's National Islamic Front (NIF...

...Blacks and Arabs Because they were largely ignorant of both Arabic, the language of the Quran, and the intricate theology developed over the centuries in the Middle East, blacks were considered inferior by the Arabs, barely above the level of "unbelievers," and were thus denied any significant role in religious affairs...

...Indeed, the fact that the Muridiyya leadership has cooperated closely with Senegal's first president, Leopold Sedar Senghor, a Catholic married to a French woman, and with his Socialist party can best be explained by the Mourids' strong national character and confidence...

...That al-Turabi holds degrees from England, France, and Egypt suggests that contacts with the West may simply serve to enable fundamentalists to justify their intolerance—in Sudan's case outright racism—in languages familiar to the French, the English, or Americans, but not to their own country's very large racial and ethnic minorities...

...While it is true that Islam, within both the majority Sunni and minority Shia groups, has developed a tradition of institutionalized mysticism, structured around mystical brotherhoods, called Sufi orders or taruq (tariqa, singular), their role in Africa is different...

...Arab influence, natural enough in the historical context, is particularly strong...

...The NIF is, in fact, the local branch of the Middle Eastern Moslem Brotherhood, strengthened by Iranian money and arms...

...On the other hand, governments in most of Africa see Western aid, capitalism, and democracy as the only alternatives to past political and economic failures...

...Although all Sufi orders in sub-Saharan African Islam are derived from Sunni tradition, they are vastly more important, politically and economically, in Africa than they have ever been in the Middle East...

...These developments are still not yet common throughout Islamic sub-Saharan Africa, but they can already be seen in countries as different as Nigeria and Sudan, Mauritania and South Africa...

...The political impact of Islam is an essential issue...

...Christianity has undergone a similar process, as demonstrated by the proliferation of syncretic African churches (such as South Africa's largest, the African Zion Church), which combine old beliefs with the new religion, to the exasperation of the Vatican...

...The Growing Impact of Politicized Religion The growing importance of Islam was made suddenly clear with the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the subsequent rise of Moslem political activism and religious fundamentalism in countries as disparate as Syria, Sudan, the ex-Soviet Central Asian republics, and Algeria...

...Where Muslims are less than a dominant majority, this would seem to benefit a national elite bent on political and economic integration...

...The Touaregs, former drivers of black slaves of the Sahara, are now in open and violent revolt against the majority (black) governments of Mali and Niger...

...Impact of Change It is thus clear that of African Islam's three major characteristics—its close connection with ethnicity and race, its disjointed and politically flexible organization around the taruq, and its syncretism, an expression of cultural adaptability—the first has become more virulent and violent (in Sudan, Nigeria, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Chad), while the other two are sharply challenged everywhere...

...Niasse's inflammatory and antisecular fundamentalist rhetoric, as well as his ties to Libya and, particularly, Iran, earned him the nickname of "Ayatollah of Kaolack...

...So far, governments have been generally successful in these efforts, not least because traditional African taruq leaders feel equally threatened...

...They are more conservative, and often more economically backward and socially rigid than their southern counterparts...

...Far less known and studied is the changing political role of Islam in Africa south of the Sahara, where the overwhelming majority of the continent's peoples live...

...Conflicts on the Horizon Clearly, conflicts are on the African horizon— between secular politics and a newly radicalized Islam, between economic realities and religious utopias, and between state and Islam (or, where Islam dominates the state, such as in Sudan, between state and large sectors of the population...

...The term Shia is rejected by those accused, but the combination of their radical rejection of the secular Nigerian state and their close ties with Iran makes the confusion at least understandable...

...African Islam, as known for centuries, is rapidly changing under the social, economic, and political pressures of the present—and most of the changes are neither indigenous in nature nor encouraging...

...Finally, in northern Nigeria, perhaps subSaharan Africa's most dynamic, dangerous, and politically active Islamic region, "Shia" groups have proliferated since the beginning of the 1980s...

...Saudi Arabia (except for its aid to Wahhabi groups) and the Gulf states, as well as Egypt since the early 1970s, have tended to support traditional Muslim elites and taruq leadership, through university fellowships, financial aid for mosques and Islamic cultural centers, and economic aid to moderate Islamic governments...

...Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, and Sudan (but also Zanzibar in East Africa) are all good examples...

...The taruq on the institutional level and syncretism on the doctrinal and practical one have also served as effective shields against any direct and sudden Middle Eastern fundamentalist influences...

...Throughout the Sahel, for example, race and Islam play related, generally 408 • DISSENT Islam and Politics reinforcing, roles...

...African politics and economics are today in a state of flux unknown since the early years of independence, nearly three decades ago...

...On the one hand, the organization of Islam into region-wide taruq often militates in most states against the establishment of narrow "national" brands of Islam...

...The development of the taruq and the selection of their native leaders on the basis of personal charisma and piety rather than theological scholarship were African responses to Arab (or other non-black) overlordship and the main instrument for the Africanization of Islam...

...The demonstrations in favor of Baghdad in Niamey (Niger), Kano, and Bamako (Mali) were more anti-Western than "Islamic...

...4 This phenomenon is not limited to Islam...

...In some countries, Islam is closely associated with a particular ethnic group while in others it is not...

...This somewhat erratic pattern of population distribution suggests the great diversity and bewildering complexity of African Islam...

...On the other hand, the crossnational makeup of nearly every tariqa can, and often does, reinforce ethnic divisions, thus raising further obstacles to nation-building...

...Because of its fairly recent and mixed origins, sub-Saharan Islam has long been relatively autonomous and self-contained, and until recently it has remained largely impervious to radical shifts and emotion-laden inducements originating from the outside...

...They also tend to regard themselves as superior to the blacks to their south even within the same country, largely due to the blacks' past, though relatively recent, history of being slaves or subjects of the northerners...

...Youths, particularly those from the poorest areas, which often (in Sudan, Nigeria, Ethiopia) tend to be largely Moslem as well, are attracted to fundamentalism as a magic solution to problems created by their own lack of skills, lower government social expenditures, and what seems to be a new and threatening economic and social order that they neither understand nor accept...

...5 When questioned about the Sharia's imposition of limb-severing penalties for theft, for instance, al-Turabi's response, in perfect French and English, was that it was (regrettably) seldom imposed at all...

...A few basic facts about the scope and nature of African Islam are in order if we are to avoid the two most common errors committed by many outside observers, Moslem and nonMoslem alike: that African Islam is nothing but Islam in Africa or, conversely, that African Islam is an African (or Africanized) set of religious beliefs that bears only limited similarities to Islam...

...In Senegal an economically dominant and politically active tariqa, the Muridiyya (Mourids), is closely associated with the dominant Wollof ethnic group, and thus tends to give rise to a national, if not nationalistic form of Islam...

...Foreign interference in the politics of African Islam should be understood more as an aggravating than a causal factor...

...Increasingly manipulated from outside, reactionary in its political, economic, and social, as well as ethnic and racial attitudes, African Islam is now in danger of becoming part of the problem rather than of the solution...

...Not only is Islam one of Africa's two dominant religions, but ever since the last century, together with and in competition with Christianity, it has greatly expanded its area of influence at the expense of traditional animistic religions...

...Of the forty-five states of sub-Saharan Africa,' most have significant Moslem communities and perhaps one-third or more— including giant Nigeria, which itself has one-quarter of sub-Saharan Africa's population— may have a Moslem majority...

...But there are significant exceptions...

...For better or worse, sub-Saharan Africa in general and the Sahel in particular are extremely vulnerable to both subtle and direct external intrusion in their affairs...

...Notes 1 The widely accepted although arbitrary definition of "sub-Saharan Africa" includes all African countries but the five mostly Arab ones of the Maghreb: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt...

...All these changes, and Africa's longstanding vulnerability to external promises, influences, and ideas provide ample opportunities— or pretexts—for other states to interfere in the region under the guise of helping coreligionists...

...The political effect of this fragmented organization of Islam on African nationalism is somewhat paradoxical...

...Western (Christian) influence also alienates the same poor youths as it does the sophisticated intellectuals...

...The Senegalese Christians' small numbers only strengthened that confidence...

...the radical wing of the Hamalliyya tariqa in COte d'Ivoire, Niger, and Burkina Faso...

...their prominence tends to give West African (and Sudanese) and, to a far lesser extent, East African Islamic institutions a disjointed quality...

...Furthermore, the fact that the appeal of the "new" sects seems to be strongest among the youth suggests that their impact is a lasting one, just as their appeal to the extremes of the society — intellectuals and the poor—is a clear indication of their political potency...

...It is in this historical context that one has to understand the present separatist, regionalist, or religious agitation in sub-Saharan Africa...

...Nowhere was this conflict clearer than during the Gulf War, when most African Moslem states supported the anti-Iraq coalition (not surprisingly, Sudan and Mauritania were conspicuous exceptions), but only two (Senegal and Niger) had the courage to actually participate, however symbolically...

...Furthermore, as in Senegal and Sudan, the fundamentalists' ire was directed against traditional Islamic authorities, accused of cooperating with the government—and their actions resulted in heavy loss of human lives...

...Not surprisingly, many African governments, under sectarian pressure, have cracked down hard on the fundamentalists, and have attempted to manipulate traditional Islamic leaders (ulema, mallam, marabouts) and symbols against the fundamentalists in support of an "official" view of Islam that is more respectful of secular power...

...These serve to exacerbate the deep-rooted problems Africa has inherited since independence...

...Its manifestations reflect longstanding infra-Arab conflicts...

...Libya, on the other hand, after failing to attract support for Colonel Qaddafi's rather unorthodox views on Islam, has been willing to support any group, from Islamic to Marxist, provided it has the potential to destabilize 412 • DISSENT Islam and Politics countries on Tripoli's list of enemies, particularly Senegal, the Gambia, Chad, and Niger...

...It is allegedly conducted in the name of minority rights, but in fact on behalf of historical dominance and with the help of foreign (Libyan, Iranian) arms and money...

...It is an order perceived by the Hausa and Fulani Moslem youths of Nigeria's north as favoring southern (and Ibo) Christians and by the Arabized Sudanese as threatening "their" country's unity...

...3 One important aspect of the taruq's role in sub-Saharan Africa is that, from their transplantation to the subcontinent, they have become the main organizational vehicle of black influence in the Islamic community...

...The anti-Christian pogroms in Katsina, Nigeria were provoked by the missionary activities of a German preacher and there has been substantial public unhappiness expressed by Zambia's Moslems about the recent election of an Evangelical president...

...African Islam, which was previously an important element in nation-building efforts and an essential factor in the self-definition of many African states, is—at least in many of its recently politicized forms—threatening now to become an obstacle to both...

...African Islam has recently lost many of its historic traditions of political adaptability, relative tolerance, and flexibility in favor of a variety of largely exogenous fundamentalist approaches...

...A similar development occurred in Senegal after 1979, when a descendant of one of the important tariqa leaders, Ahmed Niasse, advocated (with Libyan and later Iranian money) the establishment of an Islamic party, rejected both the government's socialism, such as it was, and its pro-French policies...

...While these groups cannot be properly equated with the (Sunni) Muslim Brothers (the Ikhwan) in the Middle East in general — Sudan being a conspicuous exception—or to the Shia fanatics of Iran, they are disturbing the already fragile ethnic and racial balance in a number of states, notably Nigeria, Niger, Mali, and Chad...

...However, it is also more African than orthodox, even as it is today becoming less "African" and more "international" than it has historically been...

...Black Africa's ongoing transition from the postindependence passion for statism and single-party systems and its infatuation with SUMMER • 1992 • 411 Islam and Politics Pan-Africanism, nativism, and third-world solidarity is as radical as the similar changes going on in the former "second world," although it is largely missed or neglected by the world at large...

...Outside the Sahel and the Horn of Africa (where the entire population of Somalia and Djibouti is Islamic), Moslems are seldom dominant, although significant communities exist in East Africa (Tanzania, Mozambique, Malawi), and Islam is the official religion of the Comoros...

...Tehran is more and more influential in Africa, but its influence seems opportunistic more than anything else...

...This has proven to be the case even in countries where the government has been supported by the traditional taruq leadership...

...This often seems to be the case in countries that are overwhelmingly Moslem...

...Furthermore, because African Islam is also in flux, due mostly to the spillover of fundamentalism from the Middle East, its political impact has a significance that goes beyond the domestic politics of any given African state...

...In such circumstances, racial, cultural, and linguistic differences may acquire a religious dimension through the development of local fundamentalist sects that form along racial or linguistic lines...

...Within this region, the northern inhabitants tend to be non-blacks (Berbers, Moors, Arabs, Toubous, Touaregs), who are more devoted to traditional Middle Eastern Islam, with which they retain close links...

...Like Libya in the recent past, Iran is now attempting to increase its political influence in sub-Saharan Africa by taking advantage of the strong anti-Western sentiment so common among the young...

...In southern Africa the only significant Moslem communities are to be found among South Africa's Indians...

...These changes are, inevitably, traumatic— and as times inevitably grow more difficult, the popularity and proliferation of outside-sponsored and armed fundamentalism can only be expected to continue...

...Wahhabiya is a form of Islamic fundamentalism that originated in the Arabian peninsula in the eighteenth century...

...5 When Mauritania's Moor majority decided to expel blacks from its southern area, thus coming close to war with Senegal, the government used long-standing Moorish contempt for their formers black slaves, the haratin, to whip up nationalism—that is, antiblack racism, since the Senegalese are, like most of the haratin, black...

...In addition, indigenous extremist groups contribute to instability locally and regionally...

...Previous Libyan encouragement, Saudi bribes, and, more recently, Iranian organizational skills, money, and slogans have made Islamic religious activism in Nigeria, Sudan, Chad, or Ethiopia, to mention just a few cases, more explosive, but external intrusion did not invent domestic receptivity...

...These include the Yen Izala sect (followers of the "prophet" Ahmed Marwa "Maitatsine") in northeastern Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger during the early 1980s...

...That most of subSaharan Africa is seeking new solutions to old problems is obvious, as is the fact that those solutions should come from within Africa...

...and some Saudi-sponsored Wahhabiya groups throughout West Africa...

...The Islamic community in each African state has unique characteristics, although certain common features can also be found at the regional level...

...The reason was not that most Moslems supported Saddam Hussein, but that most of them saw the war as a Western attack against a non-Western, Islamic country...