Islamic/muslim education in Africa: From north to west Africa

Abstract

The fluidity and borderlessness of knowledge make it natural and free for all societies and regions regardless of its origin and where it emanated to acquire and adopt. However, it is the ability of people or society to domesticate the knowledge in terms of its nature, structure, and impacts on the society for effective usage in the society that determines its progress and development. The Muslim societies of West Africa and in particular the Northern Nigerian Muslim areas have had experience of being recipient of Islamic knowledge through the waves of Islamization in the region. The most interesting aspects of this scenario are that the characteristic of knowledge and education was immediately customized and adapted to conform with the societal norms and conventions. The alphabets and Arabic scripts were customized into a more acceptable form in vernacular refashioned and pronounced in local languages. That indeed facilitated the learning process at the lower level. At the higher stage of learning, books that originated from North Africa, Middle East, and Europe into the region were not only studied but rendered into commentaries and margin explanation to address some specific local and peculiar issues related to the culture and tradition of people and the region. The Northern Nigerian region became one of the most vibrant hubs for Islamic education or Muslim knowledge in West Africa. This chapter provides an overview of the historical development of this education and the challenges and problems related to Islamic or Muslim education expansion in the region.