La crise de la communauté musulmane de Haute-Volta: L'islam voltaique entre réformisme et tradition, autonomie et subordination

Crisis in the Upper Volta moslem community: islam between reform and tradition, autonomy and subordination.- The situation of islam in Upper Volta is ambiguous: while dominant in numbers it remains in a subordinate position in the polity. Within the contemporary context of moslem political awakening, peaceful Voltaic islam looks like an oddity, whose origins lie in the history of islamization. In the Mosi kingdoms moslems occupied a marginal position and the vectors of islamization were extraneous. Despite their role in the royal courts, moslems were accepted only on tolerance and the political system was free of islamic influence. While the colonial system did not bring any deep change in this status, the disruption of traditional structures accelerated the rate of conversions. Nevertheless, due to its divisions and to its inability to cope with modernization, Voltaic islam has been unable to produce a political élite which could have claimed leadership in the post-colonial State or put forth a social design of its own. Islam remained thus exposed to the most various ideological, religious and secular influences, which perpetuated its subordinate position. This led to the 1983 crisis in the Communauté musulmane de Haute-Volta, the most serious since the creation of this important islamic association.