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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Conversion Against the Grain: ‘Autochthonous’ Muslims in 20th c. Coastal West Africa
| Panel |
14. New Modes of Sociality in Muslim Africa
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| Paper ID | 696 |
| Author(s) |
Miran, Marie H.
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | This paper will explore some aspects of the question of conversion to Islam, understood as the movement from one religion to another — from either African traditional religions or Christianity to Islam — (hence not internal conversions) as well as the movement from a majority to a minority religion — either on a demographical or political standpoint. Broadly defined, the local context is coastal West Africa in the 20th century. More precisely, the focus will be on Southern Côte d’Ivoire (Adjoukrou, Ahizi, Agni, Bété and Baoulé societies), Southern Ghana (Ga and Asante) and Southern Benin (Fon, Gun, and Mahi). The perspective will be comparative and the approach historical-cum-anthropological. While the paper will revisit some aspects of the old debate on “African conversion”, it will also draw parallels with recent sociological studies on European converts to Islam. The objective is to study religious change as an enlightening prism through which to study social and cultural change. ‘Autochthonous’ converts to Islam are indeed meaningful actors located at the crossroads of local/indigenous, national, and global/pan-Islamic identities, movements, and politics. The paper will question the emergence of new Islamic religious cultures or new ways of being (and becoming) Muslim in Atlantic West Africa from the colonial period to the age of globalization. |
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