Africa as tradition in U.S. African American muslim identity

Abstract

In this article I take up David Scott's "heuristic of tradition" to examine Africa as tradition in African American Muslim identity. First, I explore the structure and narrative of claims made for and to Africa by U.S. African American Muslims. Second, I ask: When U.S. African American Muslims claim an Islamic African past, to whom are they speaking and to what ends? I contend that U.S. African American Muslims find themselves neither Muslim enough to be authoritative to non-Black Muslims nor Muslim enough to be representative of U.S. American Muslims in the U.S. American popular imagination. In this context, I also trace the genealogical claims to an Africa made through hip-hop to demonstrate how a sonic religious lineage recenters U.S. African American Muslims within the broader U.S. Muslim community. Thus, I argue that as tradition, Africa labors against the erasure of the U.S. African American Muslim as legitimately Muslim.