Islam, Ethics, Revolt: Politics and Piety in Francophone West African and Maghreb Narrative (review)

This important study examines francophone African novels from the 1950s to the 1990s that "directly and robustly engage Islamic ethical critique of egoism and idolatry" (20). Despite its claim of using a "specifically Islamic conceptual-evaluative vocabulary," as evidenced by the presence of words such as Jahiliyya (239), it relies more heavily on terms such as "iconoclasm," "ethical revolt," "imperializing egoism," and "idolatry," only one of which (the last) is common in Islamic discourse. The author contends that "ethical revolt may be said to characterize Islamic piety in the precise sense that submission (Islam) enjoins a life-transforming revolt against all within oneself that tends to treat as unconditional goods one's own appetites, one's sense of one's own privileges and dignity, one's predatory hold upon other people and things"(2). No Islamic source is referenced to justify the use of the term revolt (which sounds oddly strong in that context) as a core concept. Moreover, superfluous mentions of Levinas (a non-Muslim, non-Islamologist) abound throughout, most perplexingly as a reference in a discussion about Islam and Sufism (92–93). Most problematic, these constant references to Levinas undercut Wehrs's assertion that the Islamic ethics these authors incorporate in their work is distinctive (109), since they imply that this Islamic ethical discourse can be subsumed under a universal ethics. Meanwhile, some basic precepts of Islam are not properly described. For instance, what Wehrs names a prayer on page 181 is in fact the shahada, one of the five pillars of Islam. Proper identification might have led to a less tentative conclusion. Because Wehrs is at times at pains to show an original contribution, he downplays (and grossly misreads at times, particularly on page 241) Bangura's and Bourget's contributions. Typos mar many of the French quotes. Since there is no discussion of the specificity of the francophone context and given that the author is a professor of English, one can regret the absence of anglophone novels from the corpus.

Nonetheless, Wehrs's book sheds new light on some classics of francophone literature. Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 5 in particular bring fresh and provocative readings to well-known novels. In the first chapter, Wehrs convincingly demonstrates that Camara Laye's L'enfant noir "intimates that the combined force of Mande acculturation and Islamic piety is such that French colonial influence is virtually inconsequential in shaping the narrator's identity and actions" (24). The second chapter contrasts Camara Laye's novel with Cheikh Hamidou Kane's L'aventure ambiguë. The third chapter analyzes "Modernity in Revolt against Islam" in Ouologuem's Le devoir de violence and Boudjedra's La répudiation. The fourth is on Kourouma's Les soleils des indépendances, the fifth on Mariama Bâ's Un chant écarlate, and the last two on Djebar's L'amour, la fantasia, Loin de Médine, and Le blanc de l'Algérie. The conclusion puts "Islamic Ethical Revolt in Historical and Philosophical Context." Contrasts and cross-references between chapters highlight each novel's stand and establish thought-provoking connections.

Despite its limitations, Wehrs's work is a valuable addition to the growing body of scholarship analyzing Islam as more than a sociological feature in African literature.