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- Convenor:
-
Abdoulaye Sounaye
(Leibniz Zentrum Moderner Orient)
Send message to Convenor
- Stream:
- Religion
- Location:
- Chrystal McMillan, Seminar Room 2
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 12 June, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
Once dominated by secular ideologies, universities are now arenas of religious competition. Religiosity has become a major force as religious groups compete for the souls of students.How is this affecting the University? What alternative visions of self, state and society result from these dynamics?
Long Abstract:
University campuses in general are spaces of debates and encounter between competing ideas, value systems and epistemologies. This certainly hold true for contemporary Africa. Once dominated by leftist movements and secular ideologies, many African universities are now growing into arenas of religious competition. As a result, religious groups have become major forces, each claiming precedence over the other as they compete for the "souls" of the students. Some claim this process is nothing but a readjustment of an institution that has been for too long informed by colonial values, and for that reason has remained foreign, unreligious and disconnected from the broader society. Resorting to "God squads on campus" and "Jihad Week," others argue for the need to morally redress the course of an institution that is supposed to train an elite responsible for the wellbeing of its people. Still others fight to "decolonize" the university. As these groups resort to religiosity and insist on the dangers of dismissing God, how are these dynamics affecting the University as a learning and training institution? What alternative visions of the self, the state, and the society are emerging out of these dynamics? Calling for a critical examination of these developments, the panel seeks to discuss the reconfiguration of the relationship between the secular and religiosity on University campuses in Africa. Prioritizing ethnography, the papers to be presented on this panel will pay a particular attention to the last fifty years.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 12 June, 2019, -Adama Ousmanou (University of Maroua, Cameroon)
Paper short abstract:
Islamic education on Campuses is increasingly visible, recognized and discussed in public spaces, especially since the early 2000s, with the renewal of scientific and political debates around the problem of the relationship between this form of schooling and violent extremism.
Paper long abstract:
Education as well as Islamic education is the mechanism by which a society produces the necessary knowledge for its survival, sustenance and transmits it from one generation to another, mainly through youth training. This education can be non-institutionalized, but more generally organized and structured specially designed for the guidance of young people and the training of generations with university campus as theater. In the Cameroonian context, for the Muslim community, Islamic education is increasingly visible, recognized and discussed in public spaces, especially since the early 2000s, with the renewal of scientific and political debates around the problem of the relationship between this form of schooling and violent extremism. The establishment of Islamic higher education is the stumbling block between the Muslim community and the state in a context of secularism and counter-terrorism in northern Cameroon. The purpose of the present research is to grasp - through empirical approach - the dynamics around the paradigm of the regulation of the Islamic higher education in Cameroon in the context of the counter violent extremism.
Issouf Binaté (Université Alassane Ouattara) Frédérick Madore (Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient)
Paper short abstract:
This paper analyzes Islamic organizations on university campuses in Côte d'Ivoire since the 1970s through the emergence of "Muslim Intellectuals" using French as a language of Islam, the rise of Salafism and religious entrepreneurship.
Paper long abstract:
In the 1970s, many Ivorian Muslim students had an "inferiority complex" regarding their Islamic identity in a space dominated by secular and Christian ideologies. With the support of elders educated in arab countries, young Muslims created the Association des Étudiants et Élèves Musulmans de Côte d'Ivoire (AEEMCI) in 1972.
This paper is based on fieldwork conducted on university campuses of Abidjan, Bouaké, Daloa and Korhogo in 2014, 2015, 2018, and 2019. First, we claim that AEEMCI activities have greatly contributed to the progression of French as a legitimate language to spread Islam in Côte d'Ivoire, but also to the emergence of an elite claiming a status of "Muslim intellectuals". Secondly, we show that with the rise of Salafism in Côte d'Ivoire from the 1990s, universities have become arenas of competition between rival Islamic organizations with the creation of the Communauté des Élèves et Étudiants Musulmans de Côte d'Ivoire (CEEMUCI) and Al-Mouwahhidoun. Thirdly, although the main objectives of these organizations is still to train its members to better know Islam, religious entrepreneurship involving humanitarian activities and socioeconomic development are now deemed very important for these groups. Islamic organizations on university campus are actively contributing to the recent phenomenon of NGO-ization of Islamic organizations in Côte d'Ivoire.