12/07/2025 08:30
- 10:45
HALL: Lecture Hall 21
Proponent:
Andrewsen Y.C.
Chair:
Andrewsen Y.C.
Speaker:
Andrewsen Y.C.,
El-Sharif F.,
Finch A.L.,
Marcus-Sells A.
This panel explores the landscape of Islamic theology in West Africa, focusing on the intellectual debates and developments that have shaped the region's theological traditions. Taking a wide definition of theology, ranging from rational to experiential modes, this panel examines the parameters and debates within West African Islamic thought. It offers a valuable focal point for understanding how West African Muslim communities engaged with, contributed to, and were shaped by transregional religious discourse.
Islam in West Africa has often been associated with its early adoption by elite trading networks and rulers. Their support facilitated the religion's establishment in urban centres and intellectual hubs through peaceful diffusion, trade, and the integration of Muslim courtiers and clerics into pre-Muslim empires, rather than military conquest. While these elites laid the foundation for Islamic institutions, the integration of Islam into rural and non-elite communities often took longer to materialise. Despite this rich history, studies of Islam in West Africa have yet to provide a comprehensive picture of the engagement with, incorporation of, and production of theological works in the region. While clerics played critical roles in the halls of power, the foundations, sources, and adaptation of theological discourse to West African scholarly debates and social contexts remain under-explored aspects of the region's Islamic intellectual tradition.
Key questions include: How has theological discourse responded to intellectual, political, and social challenges? How do Sufism and kalam intersect in shaping West African Islamic thought? What are the parameters of theological debates in West Africa? How have theological ideas shaped public life?
This panel seeks to illuminate the competing and coinciding strains of theological explanation that have defined Islamic thought in the region.