Islam in Africa

Abstract

Those who have researched and/or travelled to Africa are struck by the distinctive, moderate and tolerant Islam practised on the continent. Indeed Eva Rosander1 has referred to this phenomenon as ‘African Islam’. By this she means an Islam that takes local context into consideration and is accommodating and flexible — not one that is dogmatically rigid. This African Islam is intimately tied to the mystical and spiritual aspects of Islam known as Sufism, or, in Arabic, tasawwuf.2 Unlike the formal ritualistic aspects of those subscribing to a more scripturalist Islam, which stress the chasm between man and god,3 Sufi brotherhoods or paths (tariqa in Arabic) stress the need to bridge that gap through love and knowledge of the true inner self. Many African Muslims were Sufi in orientation. This form of the Islamic faith is more personal and more emotional, stressing the love of god as opposed to the fear of god. Moreover Sufi Islam coexisted4 with the richness of pre-Islamic folk customs.5