Muslim Modernity in Postcolonial Nigeria: A Study of the Society for the Removal and Reinstatement of Tradition (Islam in Africa, 1) (Islam in Africa, 1)

Covers Muslim modernity in a country with the largest single Muslim population in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is devoted to the study of the largest single Muslim fundamentalist organization in postcolonial Sub-Saharan Africa, the Society for the Removal of Innovation and Reinstatement of Tradition.

This book deals with Muslim modernity in a country with the largest single Muslim population in Sub-Saharan Africa. It provides much needed new grounds for comparative study. Until now, virtually all socio-anthropological works about any specific African country are either authored by nationals of that country or by Western scholars. This book is an exception because its author is an Islamicist and a social scientist from Senegal trained in the French social science tradition. Therefore, his work does offer an original perspective in the study of Nigeria. In addition, the study of Islam south of the Sahara has so far focused on Sufi orders, which form the mainstream of Islam, but which by no means, covers the whole Islamic field; socalled Islamic fundamentalist movements are also part of the religious landscape.
This book is devoted to the study of the largest single Muslim fundamentalist organization in postcolonial Sub-Saharan Africa, the Society for the Removal of Innovation and Reinstatement of Tradition.

"This book deals with Muslim modernity in a country with the largest single Muslim population in Sub-Saharan Africa. It provides much needed new grounds for comparative study. Until now, virtually all socio-anthropological works about any specific African country are either authored by nationals of that country or by Western scholars. This book is an exception because its author is an Islamicist and a social scientist from Senegal trained the French social science tradition. Therefore, his work does offer an original perspective in the study of Nigeria. In addition, the study of Islam south of the Sahara has so far focused on Sufi orders, which form the mainstream of Islam, but which by no means, covers the whole Islamic field; so-called Islamic fundamentalist movements are also part of the religious landscape." "This book is devoted to the study of the largest single Muslim fundamentalist organization in postcolonial Sub-Saharan Africa, the Society for the Removal of Innovation and Reinstatement of Tradition."--Jacket Contents 10 Abbreviations 11 Acknowledgments 12 Orthography 16 Glossary 18 A 18 B 18 C 18 D 18 F 18 G 18 H 19 I 19 K 19 L 19 M 19 Q 20 R 20 S 20 T 21 W 21 Y 21 Z 22 Introduction: Normative versus alternative modernity 23 Chapter One: Agents and Aspects of Social Change in Twentieth-Century Nigeria 51 Chapter Two: Kano in the Nigerian Context 75 Chapter Three: The Fragmentation of Sacred Authority 91 Chapter Four: The Social Base of the Yan Izala 126 Chapter Five: Worldview and Recruitment Patterns of the Yan Izala 145 Chapter Six: Counter-Reform Movements 171 Chapter Seven: The Politics of Muslim-Christian Confrontation in Nigeria 200 Chapter Eight: The Domestication of Izala 229 Conclusion 249 Bibliography 275 Appendices 293 1: English translation of the pamphlet: Hujojin da suka hana bi dan tarika salla 295 Index 299 A 299 B 299 C 300 D 300 E 300 F 300 G 300 H 301 I 301 J 301 K 301 L 302 M 302 N 302 O 303 P 303 Q 303 R 303 S 303 T 304 U 304 V 304 W 304 Y 305 Z 305 Scholars have scorned the notion that an organization with such a name could be a proponent of modernity, but Kane (international and public affairs, Columbia U.) stands his ground. He argues that unless the Western trajectory to modernity, and particularly to cultural modernity, is seen as one of many, no significant headway can be made in understanding modernity in its diversity and complexity. In a revision and translation from the French of his 1993 doctoral dissertation for the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris, he considers such aspects as agents and aspects of social change in 20th-century Nigeria, and the worldview and recruitment patterns of the Yan Izala (Society for the Removal of Innovation and Reinstatement of Tradition). Annotation (c) Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)