John Hunwick

A considerable contribution to the study of Islam and Muslim societies in sub-Saharan Africa has been made by the African Studies Centre (ASC) and the Centre d’Études d’Afrique Noire (CEAN) in Bordeaux.

The project has received generous funding from the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with additional support from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Drawing on the combined research expertise of the ASC and CEAN, the main objective of the project has been to improve our understanding of Islam and Muslim societies given the momentous changes of the last ten or fifteen years across the African continent. Economic and political liberalization, democratization, the weakening of the state (or in some cases even its collapse), increased global interconnections, and the spread of new media technologies have all had a dramatic impact on Africa. These processes have also influenced the practice of Islam and Muslim societies in Africa in ways that are still not well understood.

Funded by the ASC-CEAN project, more than a dozen academic researchers working in countries across Africa have undertaken research on Islam with particular reference to relations with the state, processes of political and economic reform, globalization and transnationalism. Their individual research projects, in countries such as Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan and Tanzania, have covered topics including Muslim youth, Muslim associations and activists, Islamic NGOs, debates about Islamic law, secularism and minority rights, and Muslims and the political process in both conflict and post-conflict settings. Together, these research projects are making a major and timely contribution to understanding Islam and Muslim societies in Sub-Saharan Africa.

This volume is being worked on now, though it will be so large and detailed that it will no doubt take several years to complete it for publication. The principal area it covers will be the current state of Mauritania, where there are several [public] manuscript collections; and many manuscripts of authors of the Western Saharan region will also be found in West African countries such as Mali and Senegal; and also in North Africa - notably in Morocco; and some in France, and perhaps other European countries.