Introduction to Special Issue: Performing Islamic Revival in Africa

This special issue offers different case studies that pursue a set of common propositions in the analysis of the Islamic revival in Africa. Topics covered include activities of Muslim Bible preachers in public spaces in East Africa (Ahmed), performances of collective prayer in West African towns (Schulz), narratives of (re-)conversion to Islam in Northern Nigerian video films (Krings), and demonstrative conversion to Islam as an instrument of struggle for gang leaders in Southern Nigeria (Montclos).

First, these studies transcend the widely used distinction between instrumentalist and essentialist interpretations of religious performance by looking at their topics as means for African Muslims to internalize Islamic revivalist ideas developed in Arabic countries. At the same time, they internalize other important features: the habitus of competition and performance particular to many African cultural practices, and the conversion methods and strategies of African Pentecostal churches.

Secondly, these studies ask how these performative practices of Islam in sub-Saharan Africa have been perceived by other religious actors, Muslims as well as Christians, who are all engaged in the African "market of religious conversion."

From the beginning of the era of independence to the end of the 1980s, the public sphere in Africa has been dominated almost entirely by the state and its propaganda. The end of the Cold War, symbolically marked by the fall of the Berlin Wall, saw processes of liberalization and democratization everywhere in the world, including sub-Saharan Africa. Since then, non-governmental groups—associations, foundations, NGOs, political parties, and religious organizations—have started to take over the public sphere. In particular, Islam and Christianity have established strong new public movements. Both religions had been present in the public sphere before, with public ceremonies such as Christian masses and processions and the Islamic Mawlud. Celebrations for the two main Islamic holidays, 'Id al-Fitr and 'Id al-Adha, had always been an important part of the religious tradition, but in the 1980s, religious public presence began to change substantially. Currently, it is the Pentecostal churches and the Salafiyya that show the strongest public presence.

These extremes of religious activism have not completely superseded other religious groups, but they are by far the most active in the public sphere. The articles in this volume look at a plethora of Islamic agents active in the public sphere, ranging from extremist Salafism to moderate forms of Islam.¹

Mass, Enactment of Power, and Conversion

The current increase of groups promoting the expansion of Islam in sub Saharan Africa must be contextualized within the historical framework of religious activism in the region: it has to be considered in relation to the degree of concurrence these groups face in a genuine market of religious conversion.

Another point that merits closer attention is the efficient organization of these groups in networks. Modern means of communication not only render fundraising easier, but also help propagate the religious message and thus gain new adherents. Newspapers, books, propaganda leaflets, and audio-and videotapes containing sermons are sold in bookshops, at markets, and in streets throughout Africa. The religious message is transmitted to a wider public through radio and television broadcasts and the Internet. As if this was not enough, huge public events are organized, including mass prayers or sermons or a mixture of the two, as in the case of the famous Pentecostal "crusades."² The latter gained a certain notoriety with the controversial stagings of the German missionary Reinhard Bonnke (Heuser 2006; Kürschner Pelkmann 2002).

Despite their Christian origin, these methods of appropriating the public sphere have been imitated and adapted by Muslims. Since the 1980s, these forms of performance have become an important manifestation of Islamic revivalism in sub-Saharan Africa. In fact, one of their aims is to take over the public sphere, emphasizing the power of the group and attracting new converts. These hopes are shared by both Muslim and Christian activists, who engage in new forms of religious performance.

However, there are certain differences between Muslims and Christians in the field of public performance. In seminaries and public prayer assemblies, Christian Pentecostalists and Charismatics focus on techniques of healing...