This panel will concentrate on trans-regional Islamic movements and
their appropriation by local Muslim communities. Starting at the end of the 19th
century up to contemporary times questions will be asked on how the
establishment of these movements is used to reshape localities in order to adapt
to broader transformation processes in the field of society, economy or
political systems.
Since the middle of the 19th century, African societies went through significant
changes. These transformation processes were not only shaped by e.g. the
creation of nation states, but also by the emergence of new religious movements.
Islamic movements refer to different geographical centres of Islamic thought.
Shifts of affiliations to new Islamic movements might reflect new orders of
regional or trans-regional relations. These shifts result very often in
transformations of local power relations by affecting different fields of the
local communities like generational or gender relations, the establishment of
new religious or political elites, the securing of new trading relations or the
implementation of new education systems. Tensions might be the consequence of
newly established Islamic movements inside the Muslim community itself or
between the Muslim community and neighbouring non-Muslim communities.
This panel seeks to compare effects of establishment processes of Islamic
Movements be it in African Muslim communities which exist as minorities like in
East or South Africa or Muslim communities which act in a Muslim majority
environment like in West or North Africa.
