Dogon Muslims, ‘Pagan’ Saints, and other seeming oxymorons in West Africa - Fellows' seminar by Benjamin Soares

“Dogon Muslims and ‘pagan’ saints are key figures emblematic of the dramatic social transformations Mali has witnessed since the mid-20^th century. They are also often alleged to be oxymorons, that is, contradictions in terms that cannot or should not exist. Anthropology long held up the Dogon as quintessential ‘traditional’ Africans who practiced ‘traditional’ religion. Indeed, the Dogon were immortalised—perhaps most famously—by French anthropology, almost turning their ‘traditionalism’ into dogma with the very idea of a Dogon Muslim as an oxymoron,” said Benjamin Soares of the Department of Religion at the University of Florida. “This project is as much a critique of anthropology that required the Dogon to be ‘traditional’, as it is of scholarship that refuses to contemplate religious transformations among the Dogon and their neighbours who have overwhelmingly embraced either Islam or, to a lesser extent, Christianity and made such religions their own, and the complexity of their religious traditions. This historical anthropological study elucidates the mass Islamisation of the Dogon and the fluidity of their religious practices over time. It will also build analytical tools for understanding the connection between changing modalities of religious expression, different modes of belonging, and emergent social imaginaries in this setting and more generally.” Soares’ book project is a study of how the practice of religion changed during the colonial period in Mali and how it has changed since. “It’s about both ongoing changes and lived religion,” he said. “The book is based on long-term historical research, including archival work using colonial, military, and missionary archives, as well as written and oral histories. It also draws on fieldwork, ethnography and interviews.” He explained that before French colonial rule in Mali there were large political formations in the 18^th and 19^th centuries in the regions where there were earlier medieval empires and kingdoms. By the 1890s the French colonial armies defeated various Muslim rulers and took control of Mali, making it part of French Sudan, seizing such cities as Timbuktu and Ségou. The book pays particular attention to the Dogon, the ethnic group from the central plateau region of Mali.  Soares pointed to the colonial and Christian missionary lexicons employed to denigrate the Dogon for their unfamiliar and strange practices as ‘animist’, ‘pagan’ and instances of ‘fetishism’ and ‘idolatry’.

Enter the White Fathers and Muslim missionaries

Into a complex milieux came Roman Catholic missionaries, most importantly the Missionaires d’Afrique or White Fathers, a society formed in 1868 by Cardinal Charles Lavigerie, the Archbishop of Algiers. This group focused their activities on Africa and followed the French armies to conquered places in sub-Saharan Africa. Soares described the close association of the White Fathers with the colonising army and colonial administration.  They were dependent on the administration for security, access to land, communications networks and new infrastructure such as roads (constructed using forced labour). The White Fathers sometimes served on colonial administrative councils, were involved as advisors in colonial agricultural schemes and helped to influence colonial industrial policy. They also helped to contribute to the colonial health service, education and census taking. Using the example of Ségou, Soares explained it was part of a “pre-colonial Islamic polity. When the French arrived, many inhabitants fled eastwards eventually reaching what is today Nigeria and Sudan. Ségou became one of the most important posts for the White Fathers. They sheltered slaves and other socially marginalised individuals who became the first Catholics and are still memorialised today.” However, according to Soares, the White Fathers were dependent on changing colonial personnel with shifting views of the Roman Catholic church – with the growth of secularism in France, anti-Catholic attitudes, religious ambivalence as well as ideas about French cultural superiority. Meanwhile Muslim missionaries like Sekou Salah Siby were also very active, pursuing their own conversion campaigns and building over 100 mosques and Quranic schools to hasten the dramatic spread of Islam. Soares explained that the Muslim missionaries were similar to the White Fathers in their proselytisation efforts but there were striking differences. “Eventually, the White Fathers set about to document and record ‘pagan’ practices while Muslims usually worked to eradicate them.” The power differentials between the two groups sometimes generated tensions and conflict. At a personal level conversion also frequently caused generational conflict when young people converted to Islam or Christianity. Gender was also an important factor since young men were often the first converts to Islam, and young women sometimes the first converts to Christianity. “One of the unintended consequence of French colonial rule was mass Islamisation,” said Soares. “There was only minimal conversion to Catholicism and Protestantism,” he continued. “Maybe about 2 per cent of the current population in present-day is Christian which is striking because the Christian missionaries have been there for 135 years. In contrast Islam spread far and wide. The vast majority of the population is Muslim today.” “Many Muslim converts saw an emancipatory promise, but this wasn’t borne out in the post-colonial era,” he added.

Religious pluralism

It is these historical as well as current encounters between Christianity, Islam and African ‘traditional’ religion that Soares is particularly interested in. Africans were fashioning new social and religious identities that are central to understanding how religion was and is practiced today. He pointed to examples of a contemporary religious leader who purports to bring Dogon traditions, Christianity and Islam together. Although this has been very controversial, individuals in Mali sometimes do engage with different religions. In addition, certain young people have been rejecting Islam and embracing African ‘traditions’. This is without mentioning the rise of Islamist movements and jihadism in the region in the recent past which adds additional complexity to the religious landscape in Mali. “Placing Muslims and Christians and Islam and Christianity within the same analytical frame offers a productive way to ask questions about ‘conversion’ and changes in religious practice. Moreover, the study of religious encounters and such seeming oxymorons as Dogon Muslims might even help us to rethink the history of lived religion which is still not well understood.” As Soares argued, such research “also has far-reaching comparative implications for understanding religion in Africa and more generally in an increasingly interconnected world.” Michelle Galloway: Part-time media officer at STIAS Photograph: SCPS Photograph