An African Vortex: Islamism in Sub-Saharan Africa

From African Islam to Islamism in Africa

Islam reached sub-Saharan Africa in the earliest days of the religion and spread slowly over the following centuries.[1]  Although occasionally brought by the sword, expansion was largely a peaceful affair facilitated by trade routes linking the region to the Arab world.  The process can generally be understood as one of gradual diffusion, which had the effect of overlaying Islam on – rather than wholly eliminating – local belief systems.  As a result, the Islam that developed in Africa was characterized by diverse practices, and rigid understandings of the Quran and the Sunnah were eschewed in favor of less doctrinal observances that focused on the believer’s personal relationship with Allah – evidenced by the widespread popularity of the tariqa (Sufi brotherhoods).

African Islam has been undermined in recent years by the steady expansion of Islamism – the movement’s impact felt in virtually all sub-Saharan Muslim communities.  While the historical complexities that allowed the penetration of radical Islam are many, greatest consideration is generally given to two potential sources.  First is the mixture of dire political, social and economic conditions that arose from the inability of African states to forge representative governments and strong economies following the collapse of colonialism in the 1950s and 1960s.

While Afric ahas taken desirable steps in recent years away from its economic and political backwardness, these have not been enough to discourage its Muslim populations from the Islamist lure, as Africa continues to be plagued by unaccountable and corrupt governments and underdeveloped economies.  Ironically, where democratic transformation is taking place, Islamists have been afforded greater freedom to implement their program, while sometimes painful but important economic reforms have created dislocation used as ammunition by Islamists.

Undoubtedly, poverty, disenfranchisement and general societal disorder plays a role in making African Muslims susceptible to Islamist influences.  But to assign this combination primary responsibility for an increasingly extremist African Islam would be a mistake.  Rather, the systematic capturing of the Islamic message by states from the heart of the Muslim world – who introduced radical, intolerant brands of Islam in a quest to find solutions to internal challenges and external rivalries on the global stage – has been the driving force behind the Islamist advance on the subcontinent.

State-sponsors of Islamism have been conducting their jihadist campaign in Africafor more than 40 years, but only began to gain great leverage with their burgeoning petrodollar influence in the 1970s.  Despite African Islam’s historically temperate tradition, Islamism was met by insufficient resistance to arrest its spread.  This phenomenon is explained by the scholar Eva Evers Rosander, who notes that “in relations between African Muslims and foreigners from the Arab (oil) countries, those who have the financial means dictate the Islamic discourse.”[2]

Given the initial strength of African Islam’s moderation, however, Islamists recognized the need to first promote the Islamization of Africa.  Defined as a strengthening of concern for Islamic faith and culture, Islamization has gathered momentum in the post-colonial period, evident in increasingly forceful assertions by African Muslims of their place in the umma (global Islamic community).