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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Moving Frontiers: contestations in Muslim communities in Africa
| Panel |
56. Moving Frontiers: contestations in Muslim communities in Africa
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| Paper ID | 712 |
| Author(s) |
Santen, José van
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | This paper deals with the influence of the Tidja-niy brotherhood in Muslim communities in Cameroon. Though most Muslims in this country deny that brotherhoods play an important role or even exist, they have been part of the Islamic landscape: in former days it was 'common knowledge' that religious 'know how' ought to be searched on the other site of the (litteral) border, that is in North Nigeria. Young adventurous persons travelled to this area and stayed long periods to sometimes return after years with 'their Islamic' understanding. It gave them status and they were thus in a position to carry out their awareness of Islam into local communities. As brotherhoods were more active in Nigeria, its influence did become part of everyday Muslim practices while most people did not necessarily realise so. An example is the use of the rosary; though mostly found within Islamic mystic movements, in Cameroon it is used by every believer and only recently its employ is questioned by members of resurgence movements while in the past only very outspoken forms of brotherhood practices were questioned by political and religious leaders, if not totally forbidden.
Though Cameroon is a laic state, especially in the North, Islam is very much part of the public sphere. Due to the subjugation of the area by Islamic kingdoms in the 18th and 19th century most political leaders were Muslims though their citizens were not necessarily from the same faith. Thus Muslim communities were constantly confronted with a non-Islamic 'other', while remaining rather homogeneous in itself. National developments (a Christian president, and an economic crisis) and a politically changing landscape (an in name-multi party system and a decrease of political power positions of the Muslim population) give way to more pronounced waves of Muslim (religious) identities. These days a variety of Islamic discourses can be discerned: 'Pakistani' Islamic devotees come to preach, but very important is also the Muslim Youth. They no longer need to travel to Nigeria to find religious knowledge; on Internet they can travel all over the world in search of it and in many instances they oppose to what they call un-Islamic 'traditional' practices. Thus Islam in Cameroon constitutes 'moving frontiers' and all these developments introduce new dynamics in the (re-) articulations of local Islamic identities in relation to the nation-state. As a consequence also membership of the Tidja-niy brotherhood, though in former days disguised in daily religious activities, gets more pronounced and is condemned or embraced by other Muslims.
The paper will be accompanied with a short film. |
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