Controlling Knowledge: Religion, Power and Schooling in a West African Muslim Society (review)

The schools known as médersas are the fastest growing sector of the Malian educational system. As the very name—a colonial French rendition of the Arabic term madrasa—implies, this is a hybrid institution, dispensing instruction in Arabic with a curriculum whose structure, though not its content, derives from a European model.

Controlling Knowledge is a remarkably detailed and acute historical and sociological analysis of mmédersaseacute;dersas in Mali, written from a sympathetic but hardly uncritical standpoint, with sharp attention to the paradoxes that such a hybrid system embodies. First and foremost, Brenner argues persuasively that this system, which emphasizes Muslim values in self-conscious opposition to French-language state-run schools, is far closer in spirit to the latter than to the Quranic and majlis schools that had typified Islamic education in Mali until well into the twentieth century. The mmédersaseacute;dersas and the state schools are governed by an "episteme" that Brenner characterizes as "rationalist," as opposed to the "esoteric" character of the precolonial system of education. This contrast is framed in overly Weberian terms. "Rationalism" is arguably a misleading concept, and such terminology overlooks other crucial dimensions: for example, the precolonial system of transmission was intrinsically personalized, as opposed to the depersonalized and disembodied paradigm of knowledge shared by the mmédersaseacute;dersas and the state schools. Be this as it may, Brenner is absolutely right to insist on the underlying modernity of the assumptions that underpin the mmédersaseacute;dersas and the French-language schools.

The contemporary success of the mmédersaseacute;dersas was indeed the result of a long and difficult struggle. As the title of the book aptly highlights, control over knowledge (and, by extension, over the right or capacity to educate) is an absolutely strategic resource in every society, and was so in Mali throughout the twentieth century. Indeed, the Malian pioneers of the médersa system in the colonial period faced fierce opposition on two fronts: established Islamic notables wanted to resist any challenges to the system of Quranic and majlis education that mmédersaseacute;dersas embodied, while the French administration wanted to maintain state control over formal schooling. Ironically, it would seem that some of the founders of the early mmédersaseacute;dersas had in fact wanted to integrate into the colonial system as civil servants in schools that would teach French and Arabic, and secular and religious subjects—a project that initially elicited sympathy from the colonial administration. Brenner punctiliously details the different origins and histories of these early mmédersaseacute;dersas, and of the ways in which their founders were involved in broader religious controversies within the Malian Muslim community.

These three competing educational institutions—"traditional" Quranic schools, state schools, and mmédersaseacute;dersas—continue to compete with one another in modern Mali. Brenner explains the spectacular success of the mmédersaseacute;dersas was partly due to the abysmal failure of the state school system, most of whose pupils never finished school and found and still find themselves alienated and unqualified for employment. The mmédersaseacute;dersas' stress on religious as opposed to secular values partly explains their popularity with anxious parents, particularly as the state-run schools were and are hardly a passport to success; yet, as Brenner points out, they do not prepare students for any job other than teaching in médersa schools in turn.

In short, Brenner admirably combines rich documentation and a profound appreciation for historical context with analyses that are as perceptive as they are sensitive. This is far more than a case study with relevance principally to scholars interested in Mali. Attempts to modernize religious education pervade the Muslim world, in Africa and elsewhere. Control over schooling, not to mention differing visions of what an Islamic education should comprise, remain critical arenas of controversy for Muslims everywhere, and certainly in Africa. Controlling Knowledge is...