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Commoners in the process of Islamization: reassessing their role in the light of evidence from southeastern Tanzania*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2008

Felicitas Becker
Affiliation:
Department of History, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6, Canada E-mail: fbecker@sfu.ca

Abstract

Many societies became Muslim gradually, without conquest by Muslim rulers. Explanations of this process typically focus on Muslim traders, proselytizing ‘holy men’, and the conversion of ruling elites, as the limited sources suggest. Yet it cannot be assumed that Islamization always made sense for elites as a power-enhancing stratagem, or that rulers or holy men were willing or able to shape the religious allegiances of commoners. In fact, studies of contemporary Islamic societies demonstrate the relative autonomy of commoners’ religious observance, and the tendency of elites towards accommodation. Evidence from a recently Islamized region in East Africa shows that, rather than following elite converts, ordinary villagers initiated rural Islamization. They learned from coastal Muslim ritual rather than scripture, and evoked Islam to challenge social hierarchies and assert a more egalitarian social ethos. The possibility of similar processes also exists in other sites of gradual Islamization.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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References

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21 Hodgson, Venture of Islam, vol. 2, pp. 532–74 (p. 539 for the term ‘culture gradient’).

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38 Levtzion and Spaulding, Medieval West Africa, pp. 29–30, 115–18.

39 On the Qadiriyya, see Martin, B.G., ‘Muslim politics and resistance to colonial rule: Shaikh Uways b. Muhammad al-Barawi and the Qadiriya brotherhood in East Africa’, Journal of African History, 10, 1969, pp. 471–86CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, Muslim brotherhoods in nineteenth-century Africa, Cambridge and New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1976. Martin emphasizes the interests and leadership of the Arabophone elite. For the interpretation of Sufism as a challenge to these elites, see Glassman, Feasts and riot, pp. 133–45.

40 Interview with Fadhil Zubeiri, Lindi-Mikumbi, 24 July 2000; with Mwalimu Mfaume, Kilwa-Pande, 19–20 June 2004.

41 Tanzania National Archives (henceforth TNA), Newala District Book, section ‘Laws and customs’, sheet 21/2.

42 Interview with Hassan Athuman Pachoto, Rwangwa-Likangara, 23 October 2003.

43 Nimtz, Islam and politics, passim.

44 George, Shepperson, ‘The jumbe of Kota Kota and some aspects of the history of Islam in British Central Africa’, in Lewis, I.M., ed., Islam in tropical Africa, London: Oxford University Press and the International African Institute, 1966, pp. 193–207Google Scholar; Edward Alpers, ‘East Central Africa’, in Levtzion and Pouwels, Islam in Africa, pp. 303–27.

45 Kolumba Msigala, ‘Memoirs’, Oxford, Rhodes House Library, UMCA/USPG archive box files D1(2), fos. 21–40.

46 ‘Schadensprotokolle’ assessing losses in the Maji Maji War, TNA G3/72, passim; Norbert Aas, Koloniale Entwicklung im Bezirksamt Lindi (Deutsch-Ostafrika), Bayreuth: Bumerang Verlag, 1989.

47 DeWeese, Islamization and native religion, pp. 137–9, for over-representation of Sufis in post-facto accounts of Islamization in the Golden Horde.

48 See e.g. ‘Mnero, 1930–31’, Chronik der Kongregation St Ottilien, 1931, St Ottilien: printed in manuscript form, pp. 25–7.

49 On this process among Christians, see Lamin, Sanneh, Translating the message: the missionary impact on culture, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1989Google Scholar. See the conclusion to this article for questions about Sanneh’s claims on Islam.

50 Alpers, ‘Expansion of Islam in East Africa’, pp. 172–201; interview with Ibrahim Nassoro Kimbega, Rwangwa-Mchangani, 7 September 2003.

51 The most detailed single account of unyago is Bantu M. Munga, ‘Unyago wa wavulana wa Kimakonde’, unpublished manuscript, Dar es Salaam University Library. See also Joachim Amman, ‘Sitten und Gebraeuche der Wamwera’, typescript, Ndanda mission library. For a missionary attempt to come to terms with unyago, see Terence, ‘Missionary adaptation of African religious institutions: the Masasi case’ in Ranger and Kimambo, Historical study of African religion, pp. 221–51.

52 Amman, ‘Sitten und Gebraeuche’; John, Iliffe, A modern history of Tanganyika, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979, pp. 168–70Google Scholar, on Kinjikitile.

53 E.g. Matthew Schoffeleers, ed., Guardians of the land: essays on Central African territorial cults, Umtali: Mambo Press, 1977; David Lan, Guns and rain: guerillas and spirit mediums in Zimbabwe, Oxford: James Currey, 1985.

54 This topic was not amenable to formal interviews, but recurred in conversation, e.g. in the Machenza household in Lindi-Mikumbi. Visitors to the mgende shrines, some of them smartly dressed urbanites, could be observed in Liwale town, where they hired ‘bicycle taxis’ to take them to the shrines.

55 Interviews with Muhammad Chikwakwa Ntapule, Mnacho-Nandagala, 2 September 2000; with Issa Makolela, Rwangwa-Likangara, 3 September 2003; with Saidi Mponda, Mnero-Kimawe, 14 September 2000; with Bushiri Bakari Lipyoga, Rwangwa-Dodoma, 9 October 2003.

56 Alpers, ‘Expansion of Islam in East Africa’, pp. 172–201.

57 On the effects of war, see Weule, Native life; Iliffe, Modern history, pp. 193–202, 240–7.

58 TNA, file G 9/47, 161: Bezirksamt Lindi to Dar es Salaam, 12 January 1909, report on a journey through Lindi district, starting 5 September 1908; TNA G9/48: ‘Allgemein religioese Bewegungen’/Reports on the state of Islam in different districts of German East Africa, pp. 85–164.

59 Sheriff, Slaves, spice and ivory, on the British takeover of Zanzibar; Glassman, Feasts and riot, for the traumatic effects of the imposition of colonial rule for urban Muslim elites.

60 Gus Liebenow, J., Colonial rule and political development in Tanzania: the case of the Makonde, Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1971.Google Scholar

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65 Aas, Koloniale Entwicklung, passim; TNA G 3/77 on the economic losses due to Maji Maji; TNA 1733/14 Kilwa district, annual report 1923.

66 Interview with Asumini Litanda, Mnero-Mwandila, 16 September 2000.

67 Glassman, Feasts and riot, pp.133–45.

68 On the connotations of this term, see ibid., ch. 1 and passim.

69 On the role of Islamic allegiance in social exclusion on the nineteenth-century Swahili coast, see Jonathon Glassman, ‘Stolen knowledge: struggles for popular Islam on the Swahili coast, 1870–1963’, in Biancamaria Scarcia Amoretti, ed., Islam in East Africa: new sources (archives, manuscripts and written historical sources, oral history, archaeology). Proceedings of international colloqium, Rome 2–4 December 1999, Rome: Herder, 2001, pp. 209–25; Frederick Cooper, ‘Islam and cultural hegemony: the ideology of slaveowners on the East African coast’, in Paul Lovejoy, ed., The ideology of slavery in Africa, Beverley Hills, CA and London: Sage Publications, 1981, pp. 271–307; F.O. Karstedt, Beiträge zur Praxis der Eingeborenenrechtssprechung in Ostafrika, Dar es Salaam: Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Zeitung, 1912.

70 Interview with Hassan Mang’unyuka, Tanzania, 1968, quoted in J.T. Gallagher, ‘Islam and the emergence of the Ndendeuli’, unpublished PhD thesis, Boston University, 1971, p. 132.

71 E.g. interview with Muhammad Mkweka, Rwangwa-Nachingwea, 5 September 2003; with Muhammad Mperemende, Rwangwa-Nachingwea, 5 September 2003; with Issa Makolela, Rwangwa-Likangara, 6 September 2003.

72 On the beginnings of the Masasi mission, see Chauncy, Maples, ‘Masasi’, pp. 338–53; Terence Ranger, ‘European attitudes and African realities: the rise and fall of the Matola chiefs of Southeast Tanzania’, Journal of African History, 20, 1979, pp. 6382Google Scholar. On the Benedictines, see Godfrey, Sieber, The Benedictine congregation of St Ottilien: a short history of the monasteries, general chapters and constitutions, biographies of its superiors general, St Ottilien: Eos Verlag, 1992.Google Scholar

73 According to the statistics kept by the Mission Benedictines, St Ottilien, library.

74 See anonymous, anecdotal reports in Missionsblätter von St Ottilien, e.g. 14, 1910, pp. 163–5; 45, 1950, pp. 140–1; 52, 1948, pp. 159–62; 53, 1949, pp. 15–16.

75 This is particularly tangible in the handwritten chronicles of Benedictine mission stations. See Chronikbuecher Ndanda and Nyangao, Archiv der Erzabtei St Ottilien.

76 Interview with Rashid Selemani Selijira, Rwangwa-Dodoma, 12 October 2003.

77 Interview with Bushiri Bakari Lipyoga, Rwangwa-Dodoma, 9 October 2003.

78 David, Parkin, The sacred void: spatial images of work and ritual among the Giriama of Kenya, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992Google Scholar; Bill, Bravman, Making ethnic ways: communities and their transformations in Taita, Kenya, 1800–1950, Oxford: James Currey, 1998.Google Scholar

79 Interviews with primary court judges Brigita Pira, Lindi-Jamhuri, 7 September 2004 and Damas Gakwinya, Mingoyo, 9 September 2004.

80 The fear of being fed pork was a constant problem for Muslim students at mission boarding schools. See e.g. interview with George Mpwapwa and Ludwina Mpwapwa, Rwangwa-Nachingwea, 31 October 2003.

81 J.N.D. Anderson, Islamic law in Africa, London: Frank Cass, 1970.

82 Interview with Issa Makolela, Rwangwa-Likangara, 3 September 2003.

83 Interviews with Mohamed Abdallah Mperemende, Rwangwa-Nachingwea, 5 September 2003; and with Mohamed Selemani Mkweka Mpulumundo, Rwangwa-Nachingwea, 6 September 2003.

84 In Swahili, the main language of East African Muslims, the term madrasa is applied to Qur’an schools mostly of a very basic level, in distinction to shule or skuli, the words used for schools derived from missionary and colonial state precedents.

85 I attended this women’s madrasa fairly regularly while conducting interviews in Rwangwa during September and October 2003. The interviewees included the three main teachers: Mohamed Mkweka on 6 September, Bakari Lipyoga on 9 and 19 October; Hassan Pachoto on 23 October. Saidi Mtolea, Mkweka’s blind disciple, contributed to the group interview on 19 October, as well as Lipyoga and Mohamed Kawambe.

86 Michael, Gilsenan, Recognizing Islam: religion and society in the modern Arab world, New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 1982Google Scholar, p. 16.

87 Conversations with Zuhura Mohamed, Mnacho-Nandagala, August 2003, and numerous comments at bars and restaurants.

88 For an account of missionary ‘Swahilists’ in Kenya, see Alamin, Mazrui, Swahili beyond boundaries: literature, language and identity, Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2007Google Scholar, ch. 3. German missionary scholars of Islam in present-day Tanzania included Martin Klamroth and Carl Becker. The latter’s ‘Materials for the understanding of Islam in German East Africa’, tr. B.G. Martin, Tanzania Notes and Records, 68, 1968, pp. 31–61, is an inventory of books known on the coast.

89 Representative of this attitude are Martin Klamroth, ‘Ostafrikanischer Islam’, in Allgemeine Missionszeitschrift, 37, 1910, pp. 477–93; Lyndon Harries, Islam in East Africa, London: Universities Mission to Central Africa, 1954; and numerous writings in Missionsblätter, the organ of the Catholic mission present in the region discussed here.

90 TNA1733/14, Kilwa district annual report 1923.

91 Nimtz, Islam and politics, pp. 59–66 and passim, indicates this shift of focus.

92 Levtzion, ‘Toward a comparative history’, pp. 16–18.

93 Rafael Israeli, ‘Islamization and sinicization in Chinese Islam’, in Levtzion, Conversion to Islam, p. 160.

94 DeWeese, Islamization and native religion, pp. 59–66, especially 63–4.

95 Gibson, Islamic narrative and authority, introduction.

96 A particularly clear and unapologetic statement of the claim that Islamization constitutes an, albeit limited and problematic, form of ‘modernization’ is found in J.N.D. Anderson, ‘Tropical Africa: infiltration and expanding horizons’, in Gustave E. von Grunenbaum, ed., Unity and variety in Muslim civilization, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1955, pp. 261–83.

97 On the ironies and aporias of modernization theory in the contemporary ‘Third World’, see e.g. James Ferguson, Expectations of modernity: myths and meanings of urban life on the Zambian copperbelt, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1999, and Lockman, Contending visions, pp. 99–147.

98 E.g. Ronald, Lukens-Bull, ‘Between text and practice: considerations in the anthropological study of Islam’, Marburg Journal of Religion, 4, 2, 1999, pp. 118.Google Scholar

99 See e.g. Ernest Gellner’s insistence that unity rather than diversity is the explanandum in the study of Islamic societies, in his Muslim society, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981, introduction.

100 For the persistence of this tendency, see Lockman, Contending visions, ch. 7, especially pp. 216–18, 249–51.

101 Andrew, Shryock, Nationalism and the genealogical imagination: oral history and textual authority in tribal Jordan, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997.Google Scholar

102 Brinkley, Messick, The calligraphic state: textual domination and history in a Muslim society, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1993.Google Scholar

103 Lapidus, Islamic societies, p. 183.

104 Sanneh, Translating the message, pp. 211–38; Louis Brenner and Murray Last, ‘The role of language in West African Islam’, in J.D.Y. Peel, ed., ‘Popular Islamsouth of the Sahara, Manchester: Manchester University Press in association with the International African Institute, 1985, pp. 432–46.