From the Editor: Introduction to the Special Issue of Africa Today

Introduction to the special issue of Africa Today

The articles which appear in this special, double issue of Africa Today focus on African Muslims. Some of the articles highlight African participation in key institutional features of Islamic cultural life, such as the hajj (pilgrimage to Muslim holy sites in Arabia) or Sufism (a mystical orientation within Islam). Others analyze the ways African Muslims have participated in political life, both during the period of European colonial rule and in postcolonial contexts.

The papers can be read individually, or they can be read in groups that develop similar conceptual threads. The first three papers address, to varying degrees, the gendered nature of power and participation in Islamic contexts: O'Brien examines the role of the hajj as a social and economic resourcein the lives of primarily female healers from northern Nigeria and as a site of mutual cultural influence between West Africa and Saudi Arabia; Hutson discusses the role of women in Tijaniyya Sufi devotional practices in Kano and the profound influence of particular women in the history of the order; and Askew analyzes historical changes in the gender dynamics of dance performance as well as other social domains along the Swahili coast of East Africa. The next three papers concern Muslim participation in political life in the region comprising today's Senegal, Mali, and Mauritania: Robinson's paper locates the emergence of the region's distinctive style of non-confrontational Islamic politics in the early colonial period; Villalón's paper traces recent shifts in perceptions of the state's legitimacy and the politics of succession among powerful religious families which may foreshadow significant changes in Senegalese political life; and Clark's paper highlights the historical interdependency between secular political institutions and religious organizations in Senegal and Mali. The last two papers focus on Muslim reactions to the social upheavals of the last century: Reese's paper concentrates on urban Sufi responses to the disruptions associated with the period leading to European colonial occupation in Somalia; and Ibrahim's paper examines and contextualizes the ideas of Hasan al-Turbi, an influential political leader in contemporary Sudan.

The system of transliteration of Arabic terms adopted for this special issue is one that emphasizes simplicity for the general reader as opposed to strict accuracy for the specialist, as the latter would encumber the text with an elaborate orthographical system. Thus, diacritical marks have not been used to note glottal stops and long vowels. We have also omitted completely the ta marbuta and the Arabic consonant ayn.

I want to take this opportunity to thank all the scholars who acted as anonymous reviewers of the papers considered for this issue. I also wish to thank Jo Ellen Fair, Director of the African Studies Center at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, for facilitating the submission of the papers by Ibrahim and Villalón, who initially presented them at a conference concerning "political Islam" held at Madison.

John Hanson
Editor