Islam and African Traditional Religion

Although, as we have seen, Horton’s theory of the development of Islam, and Christianity, in Africa is at a level of generalisation that admits of many pieces of contrary evidence, it has the advantage of directing attention at traditional, local religious systems, pointing to their capacity to adapt and to their inherent dynamism.

Islam has often confronted the traditional religions of Africa both at the level of belief and practice, yet the relevance and immediacy of such things as masked cults and the figurative art of shrines did not always diminish under the impact of Muslim practice. Furthermore some Muslim communities have shown great tolerance towards indigenous representational art, and in some instances have even contributed to its main­tenance and development. In Bonduku in the Ivory Coast, for example, Muslims have not only participated in the Gbain cult, an anti-witchcraft masking tradition, but have also assumed positions of responsibility and control over this cult. There are other masking traditions in this area which are believed to be Muslim in origin, such as the Do masquerade, where the masks have been carved by Muslims themselves, the injunctions of the Qur’an and ‘sound’ hadiths (traditions) against imagery and representational art forms in general notwithstanding.

Just as some Muslims have been prepared to main­tain and develop aspects of African religious art and rituals, traditional religionists, for their part, have provided a ready home to Islamic imagery and custom, one of the most interesting examples being the place given in masquerades and spectacles to the image ofal-Buraq, the winged steed which is said to have carried Muhammad on his night journey (Isra) from Mecca to Jerusalem and then on his nocturnal ascent (Miraj) to the dome of the seven heavens.

While Islam and African traditional religion have, then, made something of each other in the sphere of art and in other areas such as divination, the former has also sought to eradicate many traditional beliefs and rituals, to make a clean break with the past, and on occasion this has been one motive, though by no means the only one, for the jihads (holy wars) of the nineteenth century referred to elsewhere in this volume (see pp.

But what perhaps is most noticeable in many parts of Africa where Islam has established itself is the blend or synthesis that has taken place over time, born out of its interaction with African society and culture. This can be seen not only among the Muslim Yoruba of south­western Nigeria but possibly even more clearly in the Swahili world of eastern Africa. There the language is an intermixture of Arab and Bantu elements, and the literature, which dates back at least to the seventeenth century, is written in a modified Arabic script and includes at the same time much that is Islamic by way of theology, history and hagiography and Bantu by way of proverbs expressing the world-view and wisdom of the African. The end result is not, as one might imagine, a Swahili culture that is but a pale reflection of Islamic civilisation but a distinctive culture with its own identity.