ISLAMIC SCHOLARS ARE WORKING TO CHRONICLE WHAT HAS BEEN UNTIL NOW A POORLY DOCUMENTED TOPIC: ISLAM IN WEST AFRICA. THE FAITH IS WIDESPREAD IN THE REGION, BUT INFORMATION ABOUT ITS HISTORY AND INFLUENCE THERE IS SCARCE. BUT THAT'S ABOUT TO CHANGE. MORE THAN 50 SCHOLARS AND RESEARCHERS MET LAST WEEK IN DAKAR, SENEGAL, TO PUBLICIZE THEIR OWN RESEARCH -- AND EXCHANGE INFORMATION.06-Jan-97HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS AND RESEARCH ARE FAIRLY EASY TO COME BY IN COUNTRIES CONSIDERED TO BE AT THE CENTER OF ISLAM: IRAN, TURKEY, AND THE ARABIC-SPEAKING WORLD.
BUT THAT'S NOT THE CASE IN MANY OTHER ISLAMIC STRONGHOLDS -- LIKE WEST AFRICA. RESEARCHERS THERE SAY THEY HAVE THEIR OWN RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS AND SCHOLARSHIP THAT ENRICH ISLAMIC CULTURE. BUT THEY SAY THEIR STORY IS NOT BEING TOLD.
LAST WEEK'S CONFERENCE IN DAKAR, SENEGAL, WAS ONE STEP TOWARD GETTING THE WORD OUT. IT WAS SPONSORED BY THE "RESEARCH CENTER FOR ISLAMIC HISTORY, ART, AND CULTURE," BASED IN ISTANBUL.
JOHN HUNWICK ATTENDED THE THREE-DAY SYMPOSIUM. HE'S A PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AND RELIGION AT NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY IN EVANSTON, ILLINOIS. PROFESSOR HUNWICK EXPLAINS WHY MANY MAINSTREAM RELIGIOUS RESEARCHERS BYPASS WEST AFRICA.
ONE REASON IS THERE IS A CERTAIN KIND OF (PERHAPS) SNOBBISM ... OR "CENTER VS. PERIPHERY" (ISSUE) THAT GOES ON ... THAT THE CENTER -- THE ARABIC, TURKISH, PERSIAN WORLD -- IS SEEN AS THE CENTER OF EVERYTHING. THE INSTITUTE IN TURKEY IS TRYING TO LOOK AT THE SO-CALLED "PERIPHERY." THEY HAVE ORGANIZED CONFERENCES ON SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA -- AND NOW WEST AND EAST AFRICA. THEY HAVE DONE A LOT OF WORK ON THE BALKANS -- AND THEY SAY THAT THE ARAB WORLD IS NOT THE ONLY PLACE (FOR) ISLAMIC INTELLECTUAL TRADITION AND CULTURE. THERE IS ALSO A SENSE WHERE MANY SCHOLARS OF ISLAMIC STUDIES IN THE WEST HAVE THOUGHT THAT THINGS STOPPED IN NORTH AFRICA (OR) EGYPT -- THAT ANYTHING IN OR BELOW THE SAHARA IS OF NO GREAT INTEREST. ON THE OTHER HAND, AFRICAN (SPECIALISTS) TEND TO THINK THAT WHAT BELONGS TO ISLAM BELONGS (CULTURALLY) TO ANOTHER WORLD AREA. SO ISLAM IN AFRICA IS SOMEWHAT NEGLECTED (BY BOTH ISLAMIC AND AFRICANIST SCHOLARS).
SCHOLARS LIKE PROFESSOR HUNWICK ALSO SAY WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT ISLAM IN WEST AFRICA IS DISTORTED. MANY BLAME EARLY EUROPEAN RESEARCHERS FOR THE MISCONCEPTIONS.
I THINK WE HAVE TO BE CAREFUL NOT TO THINK ABOUT WHAT THE FRENCH USED TO CALL "ISLAM NOIRE," OR A (BLACK) VERSION OF ISLAM. THERE IS NOT ONE. THERE IS A CERTAIN KIND OF RACIAL TINGE AS IF AFRICANS ARE NOT CAPABLE OF APPRECIATING HIGHER TRADITION OF ISLAM -- THEY HAVE TO APPROPRIATE IT AND BASTARDIZE IT. THIS STARTED UNDER THE COLONIAL REGIME, WHICH WANTED TO IDENTIFY MUSLIMS WHO WORKED WITH THEM. THESE PEOPLE WERE WRITTEN UP AS THE FACE OF ISLAM, BUT THIS IS ONLY ONE FACE. SO THE WRITING OF ISLAM WAS DONE BY COLONIAL OFFICIALS... THAT IS A LEGACY WE ARE STILL TRYING TO ESCAPE FROM.
THERE ARE DIFFERENT CULTURES OF ISLAM -- LIKE BOSNIAN, URDU, SEVERAL CULTURES OF ISLAM IN WEST AFRICA. THEY HAVE ALL MADE A DISTINCT CONTRIBUTION. AFRICAN SCHOLARS HAVE WRITTEN IMPORTANT WORKS ABOUT ISLAMIC LAW AND MYSTICISM, DEVOTIONAL POEMS IN ARABIC IN LOCAL LANGUAGES -- HAUSA, FULANI AND WOLOF. THERE IS A WHOLE LITERARY TRADITION OF ISLAM IN WEST AFRICA THAT IS GENERALLY UNKNOWN.
MAKING WEST AFRICA'S TRADITIONS KNOWN WAS THE FOCUS OF LAST WEEK'S MEETING IN DAKAR. AMONG THE TOPICS: THE WEST AFRICAN TRADITION IN ARCHITECTURE; THE INTELLECTUAL TRADITION OF TIMBUKTU, MALI; MYSTICISM IN SENEGAL; AND WEST AFRICA'S CONTRIBUTION TO ISLAMIC THEOLOGY, LAW, AND HISTORY.
AHMED LAJIMI [LAH-'JEE-MEE] WAS THE COORDINATOR OF THE DAKAR SYMPOSIUM. HE WORKS FOR THE DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE RESEARCH CENTER FOR ISLAMIC HISTORY, ART AND CULTURE IN ISTANBUL.
AT THE MEETING, HE PUBLICIZED THE CENTER'S EFFORTS TO DOCUMENT TRANSLATIONS OF ISLAM'S HOLY BOOK, THE KORAN, INTO THE LOCAL LANGUAGES OF WEST AFRICA.
IN GENERAL, IN WEST AFRICA, TRANSLATIONS ARE (TRANSMITTED BY MOUTH). MANY LOCAL LANGUAGES (LIKE KANURI AND FULFULDE) DO NOT HAVE AN ALPHABET. SO EVERY NIGHT, THE IMAM IN THE MOSQUE TRIES TO EXPLAIN (THE KORAN TO MUSLIMS) -- BY READING THE ARABIC VERSION AND EXPLAINING IT IN HAUSA, YORUBA, WOLOF OR OTHER LOCAL LANGUAGES. THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT HERITAGE: WE RECORDED THESE TRANSLATIONS. BUT NOW, THE QUESTION IS, HOW DO WE USE THEM? MANY OF THE LANGUAGES DO NOT HAVE AN ALPHABET. SOME OF THE LANGUAGES (USE) THE ARABIC ALPHABET, OTHERS, THE LATIN ALPHABET. SO, NOW WE WILL TRY TO DECIDE HOW TO USE THESE ORAL TRANSLATIONS.
MR. LAJIMI SAYS WEST AFRICAN SCHOLARS WILL COMPARE AND CONTRAST DIFFERENT TRANSLATIONS FROM EACH DIALECT -- AND SELECT THE BEST. AFTERWARDS, SCHOLARS MAY DECIDE TO WRITE THEM DOWN -- OR PERHAPS USE THEM FOR TEACHING.
THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE SYMPOSIUM WILL BE PUBLISHED WITHIN SIX MONTHS IN ENGLISH, FRENCH, AND ARABIC.
THE ISTANBUL RESEARCH CENTER IS ALSO WORKING ON ANOTHER PROJECT OF INTEREST TO SCHOLARS: A LISTING OF THE VARIOUS TRANSLATIONS OF THE KORAN SINCE 1980. IT WILL SUPPLEMENT AN EARLIER BIBLIOGRAPHY OF KORANIC TRANSLATIONS DATING BACK TO THE YEAR 1515.
AND PROFESSOR JOHN HUNWICK SAYS HE IS DOING HIS PART TO DOCUMENT ISLAM IN WEST AFRICA: HE'S THE CO-AUTHOR OF A SEVEN-VOLUME WORK ON ARABIC LITERATURE IN AFRICA. THE SECOND VOLUME -- DOCUMENTING ISLAMIC TRADITION IN NIGERIA, CAMEROON AND CHAD -- HAS JUST BEEN PUBLISHED. WITHIN TWO YEARS, ANOTHER WILL COME OUT LISTING WEST AFRICA'S ISLAMIC SCHOLARS -- AND EXPLAINING HOW TO FIND THEIR WORK.