Giving a name to Islam South of the Sahara: an adventure in taxonomy

Giving a name to Islam South of the Sahara: an adventure in taxonomy

Author: 
Triaud, Jean-Louis
Publisher: 
Cambridge University Press
Date published: 
2014
Record type: 
Region: 
Journal Title: 
Journal of African History
Source: 
The Journal of African History, Vol. 55, No. 1, March 2014, pp. 3-15
Abstract: 

This article revisits the concept of islam noir (black Islam) crafted in the context of French rule of sub-Saharan Muslims. For the French colonial administration, islam noir connoted the idea of a degraded Islam tainted by animist practices and therefore different from the pure Islam practiced in Arab countries. This differentiation was a way to separate it from ‘Arab Islam’, which was considered a subversive model. This distinction was not entirely new for it had already a long history behind it. Arabic sources had often shown a high distrust of sub-Saharan Africans who converted to Islam; they never really enjoyed a status equal to that of Arab Muslims. After the end of colonial rule, the story still continues. The theme of a specific sub-Saharan Islam (African Islam) remained a convenient category that was used by scholars, regardless of old prejudices. In the latest period, some African intellectuals have also embraced this concept, conjoining it with the pride of blackness, as a kind of Islam de la négritude, while praising its orthodoxy. It is this long epistemological and taxonomical adventure of islam noir that is examined here.

Language: 

CITATION: Triaud, Jean-Louis. Giving a name to Islam South of the Sahara: an adventure in taxonomy . : Cambridge University Press , 2014. The Journal of African History, Vol. 55, No. 1, March 2014, pp. 3-15 - Available at: https://library.au.int/giving-name-islam-south-sahara-adventure-taxonomy-3