Connectivities compared: Transnational islamic NGOs in chad and Senegal

Abstract

A remarkably persistent idea is that Africa only became connected to the outside world with the arrival of European traders in the sixteenth century and during the subsequent colonial conquest. This kind of Eurocentrism prevents us from recognizing that Africa has in fact been connected to the Arab world for a long time, for instance, through Islamic scholars, trade, and people performing the hajj. Economic links, such as trans-Saharan trade, became weaker after colonial conquest but religious exchanges continued throughout the colonial era. The last 20 years have seen a reintensification of links between Africa and the wider Islamic world due to better transport and communication possibilities, the oil boom in the Gulf, and the efforts of postcolonial African governments to reinforce relationships beyond those ties inherited from colonialism (Hunwick 1997; Bennafla 2000).