Women and Islamic Revival in a West African Town

Women and Islamic Revival in a West African Town PDF Author: Adeline Masquelier
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253003466
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 377

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Book Description
In the small town of Dogondoutchi, Niger, Malam Awal, a charismatic Sufi preacher, was recruited by local Muslim leaders to denounce the practices of reformist Muslims. Malam Awal's message has been viewed as a mixed blessing by Muslim women who have seen new definitions of Islam and Muslim practice impact their place and role in society. This study follows the career of Malam Awal and documents the engagement of women in the religious debates that are refashioning their everyday lives. Adeline Masquelier reveals how these women have had to define Islam on their own terms, especially as a practice that governs education, participation in prayer, domestic activities, wedding customs, and who wears the veil and how. Masquelier's richly detailed narrative presents new understandings of what it means to be a Muslim woman in Africa today.

Women and Islamic Revival in a West African Town

Women and Islamic Revival in a West African Town PDF Author: Adeline Masquelier
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253003466
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 377

Get Book Here

Book Description
In the small town of Dogondoutchi, Niger, Malam Awal, a charismatic Sufi preacher, was recruited by local Muslim leaders to denounce the practices of reformist Muslims. Malam Awal's message has been viewed as a mixed blessing by Muslim women who have seen new definitions of Islam and Muslim practice impact their place and role in society. This study follows the career of Malam Awal and documents the engagement of women in the religious debates that are refashioning their everyday lives. Adeline Masquelier reveals how these women have had to define Islam on their own terms, especially as a practice that governs education, participation in prayer, domestic activities, wedding customs, and who wears the veil and how. Masquelier's richly detailed narrative presents new understandings of what it means to be a Muslim woman in Africa today.

Remaking Islam in African Portugal

Remaking Islam in African Portugal PDF Author: Michelle Johnson
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253052769
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 189

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Book Description
When Guinean Muslims leave their homeland, they encounter radically new versions of Islam and new approaches to religion more generally. In Remaking Islam in African Portugal, Michelle C. Johnson explores the religious lives of these migrants in the context of diaspora. Since Islam arrived in West Africa centuries ago, Muslims in this region have long conflated ethnicity and Islam, such that to be Mandinga or Fula is also to be Muslim. But as they increasingly encounter Muslims not from Africa, as well as other ways of being Muslim, they must question and revise their understanding of "proper" Muslim belief and practice. Many men, in particular, begin to separate African custom from global Islam. Johnson maintains that this cultural intersection is highly gendered as she shows how Guinean Muslim men in Lisbon—especially those who can read Arabic, have made the pilgrimage to Mecca, and attend Friday prayer at Lisbon's central mosque—aspire to be cosmopolitan Muslims. By contrast, Guinean women—many of whom never studied the Qur'an, do not read Arabic, and feel excluded from the mosque—remain more comfortably rooted in African custom. In response, these women have created a "culture club" as an alternative Muslim space where they can celebrate life course rituals and Muslim holidays on their own terms. Remaking Islam in African Portugal highlights what being Muslim means in urban Europe and how Guinean migrants' relationships to their ritual practices must change as they remake themselves and their religion.

The Routledge Handbook of Islam and Gender

The Routledge Handbook of Islam and Gender PDF Author: Justine Howe
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351256556
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 488

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Book Description
Given the intense political scrutiny of Islam and Muslims, which often centres on gendered concerns, The Routledge Handbook of Islam and Gender is an outstanding reference source to key topics, problems, and debates in this exciting subject. Comprising over 30 chapters by a team of international contributors the Handbook is divided into seven parts: Foundational texts in historical and contemporary contexts Sex, sexuality, and gender difference Gendered piety and authority Political and religious displacements Negotiating law, ethics, and normativity Vulnerability, care, and violence in Muslim families Representation, commodification, and popular culture These sections examine key debates and problems, including: feminist and queer approaches to the Qur’an, hadith, Islamic law, and ethics, Sufism, devotional practice, pilgrimage, charity, female religious authority, global politics of feminism, material and consumer culture, masculinity, fertility and the family, sexuality, sexual rights, domestic violence, marriage practices, and gendered representations of Muslims in film and media. The Routledge Handbook of Islam and Gender is essential reading for students and researchers in religious studies, Islamic studies, and gender studies. The Handbook will also be very useful for those in related fields, such as cultural studies, area studies, sociology, anthropology, and history.

To be Free and French

To be Free and French PDF Author: Lorelle Semley
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110710114X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
An ambitious new vision of French citizenship from the perspective of Africans and Antilleans living in the colonies and mainland France. Lorelle Semley explores the ways in which these colonial subjects used French democratic ideals to demand rights and redefine the meanings of freedom and 'Frenchness'.

A Companion to African History

A Companion to African History PDF Author: William H. Worger
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119063574
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 543

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Book Description
Covers the history of the entire African continent, from prehistory to the present day A Companion to African History embraces the diverse regions, subject matter, and disciplines of the African continent, while also providing chronological and geographical coverage of basic historical developments. Two dozen essays by leading international scholars explore the challenges facing this relatively new field of historical enquiry and present the dynamic ways in which historians and scholars from other fields such as archaeology, anthropology, political science, and economics are forging new directions in thinking and research. Comprised of six parts, the book begins with thematic approaches to African history—exploring the environment, gender and family, medical practices, and more. Section two covers Africa’s early history and its pre-colonial past—early human adaptation, the emergence of kingdoms, royal power, and warring states. The third section looks at the era of the slave trade and European expansion. Part four examines the process of conquest—the discovery of diamonds and gold, military and social response, and more. Colonialism is discussed in the sixth section, with chapters on the economy transformed due to the development of agriculture and mining industries. The last section studies the continent from post World War II all the way up to modern times. Aims at capturing the enthusiasms of practicing historians, and encouraging similar passion in a new generation of scholars Emphasizes linkages within Africa as well as between the continent and other parts of the world All chapters include significant historiographical content and suggestions for further reading Written by a global team of writers with unique backgrounds and views Features case studies with illustrative examples In a field traditionally marked by narrow specialisms, A Companion to African History is an ideal book for advanced students, researchers, historians, and scholars looking for a broad yet unique overview of African history as a whole.

Society of the Righteous

Society of the Righteous PDF Author: Kimberly T. Wortmann
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253071178
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 227

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Book Description
Although the rule of the Omani sultanate in Tanzania came to an end following the Zanzibar Revolution in 1964, the legacy of its empire still exists today, along with its distinctive religious identity. The Ibadhi Muslims of Omani descent, who are neither Sunni nor Shi'a, have used a message of tolerance and harmonious coexistence to spread their beliefs across North and East Africa in a post-revolution and post-independence era. In Society of the Righteous, Kimberly T. Wortmann explores how the Ibadhi-Omani community in Tanzania has engaged in charitable activities, cooperation within the Muslim community, and economic development, despite facing suspicions of foreign influence and elitism. The focus is on the Istiqaama Muslim Community, an international charity network established in Oman and Tanzania in 1995. This ethnographic and transregional study documents the strategies employed by the "People of Truth and Righteousness" to preserve their unique religious practices and beliefs. Society of the Righteous moves beyond the typical discussions on global Muslim religion and politics, such as tradition versus modernity, conflicts between different branches of Islam, and the global war on terror. Instead, it explores the intricacies of a religious community whose significance has been obscured by the limitations of area studies paradigms. It illuminates the complexities of religious identity, transnational networks, gender relations, and the power of collective memory in shaping narratives of belonging, cultural preservation, and change in an increasingly interconnected world.

Practicing Islam in Egypt

Practicing Islam in Egypt PDF Author: Aaron Rock-Singer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108681069
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 403

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Book Description
Following the ideological disappointment of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, an Islamic revival arose in Egypt. Yet, far from a mechanical reaction to the decline of secular nationalism, this religious shift was the product of impassioned competition among Muslim Brothers, Salafis and state institutions and their varied efforts to mobilize Egyptians to their respective projects. By pulling together the linked stories of these diverse claimants to religious authority and tracing the social and intellectual history of everyday practices of piety, Aaron Rock-Singer shows how Islamic activists and institutions across the political spectrum reshaped daily practices in an effort to persuade followers to adopt novel models of religiosity. In so doing, he reveals how Egypt's Islamic revival emerged, who it involved, and why it continues to shape Egypt today.

The Oxford Handbook of Modern African History

The Oxford Handbook of Modern African History PDF Author: John Parker
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191667544
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 559

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Book Description
The Oxford Handbook of Modern African History represents an invaluable tool for historians and others in the field of African studies. This collection of essays, produced by some of the finest scholars currently working in the field, provides the latest insights into, and interpretations of, the history of Africa - a continent with a rich and complex past. An understanding of this past is essential to gain perspective on Africa's current challenges, and this accessible and comprehensive volume will allow readers to explore various aspects - political, economic, social, and cultural - of the continent's history over the last two hundred years. Since African history first emerged as a serious academic endeavour in the 1950s and 1960s, it has undergone numerous shifts in terms of emphasis and approach, changes brought about by political and economic exigencies and by ideological debates. This multi-faceted Handbook is essential reading for anyone with an interest in those debates, and in Africa and its peoples. While the focus is determinedly historical, anthropology, geography, literary criticism, political science and sociology are all employed in this ground-breaking study of Africa's past.

Bargaining for Women's Rights

Bargaining for Women's Rights PDF Author: Alice J. Kang
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 145294427X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
Gender relations in Muslim-majority countries have been subject to intense debate in recent decades. In some cases, Muslim women have fought for and won new rights to political participation, reproductive health, and education. In others, their agendas have been stymied. Yet missing from this discussion, until now, has been a systematic examination of how civil society groups mobilize to promote women’s rights and how multiple components of the state negotiate such legislation. In Bargaining for Women’s Rights, Alice J. Kang argues that reform is more likely to happen when the struggle arises from within. Focusing on how a law on gender quotas and a United Nations treaty on ending discrimination against women passed in Niger while family law reform and an African Union protocol on women’s rights did not, Kang shows how local women’s associations are uniquely positioned to translate global concepts of democracy and human rights into concrete policy proposals. And yet, drawing on numerous interviews with women’s rights activists as well as Islamists and politicians, she reveals that the former are not the only ones who care about the regulation of gender relations. Providing a solid analytic framework for understanding conflict over women’s rights policies without stereotyping Muslims, Bargaining for Women’s Rights demonstrates that, contrary to conventional wisdom, Islam does not have a uniformly negative effect on the prospects of such legislation.

The Palgrave Handbook of African Colonial and Postcolonial History

The Palgrave Handbook of African Colonial and Postcolonial History PDF Author: Martin S. Shanguhyia
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137594268
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1360

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Book Description
This wide-ranging volume presents the most complete appraisal of modern African history to date. It assembles dozens of new and established scholars to tackle the questions and subjects that define the field, ranging from the economy, the two world wars, nationalism, decolonization, and postcolonial politics to religion, development, sexuality, and the African youth experience. Contributors are drawn from numerous fields in African studies, including art, music, literature, education, and anthropology. The themes they cover illustrate the depth of modern African history and the diversity and originality of lenses available for examining it. Older themes in the field have been treated to an engaging re-assessment, while new and emerging themes are situated as the book’s core strength. The result is a comprehensive, vital picture of where the field of modern African history stands today.