Hey Webmasters! New Photo Album Service Launched - Check it out!
|
|
|
 |
'Connections and transformations in Africa' |  |
| A workshop at the African Studies Centre, Leiden, the Netherlands, Tuesday 21 November, 2006 |
return to: Index page 'Connections and transformations in Africa'
In
the framework of our new research theme, in the years to come I
would like to focus on (one of) the following two research
topics.
The
first is a research on women, religion and collective identities
in African communities in Europe. I would like to build a larger
research programme around this topic, with a couple of case
studies by different researchers. Earlier this year, we submitted
such a research proposal to the NORFACE –programme of the
EU, but despite a good rating we were not successful. I am now
thinking of preparing a new proposal for the next NWO Vidi
–round.
The
second concerns a research on transnational Islamic NGOs in West
and West Central Africa and builds on my research on
transnational Islamic NGOs in Chad in 2004. This would also
be a larger research programme with case studies in Chad, Senegal
and other countries.
In
this programme, the importance of religion in the making of
collective identities among migrant communities in Europe will
be analysed through a specific focus on African women.
In
recent debates around migration and multicultural society,
African women feature prominently; however, often not as
interlocutors but as objects around which debates on identity
evolve. Examples abound of the ways in which clichés and
stereotypes are constructed about migrant women in public and
popular discourses. For instance, in the European press, Muslim
women are often seen as the victims of a patriarchal religious
system who should be liberated from their veils. Within Muslim
diasporic communities themselves, the issue of veiling is often
emphasised as women are regarded as the representatives of the
community's moral standards. Women are generally perceived as the
weaker link; for example, in court cases over mixed marriages,
European women who want to marry a non-westerner are often
considered as victims who should be protected from the foreign
man; they therefore have difficulties in having the marriage
accepted. In cases of a marriage between a European man and a
foreign woman, marriages are more often approved of as the
husband is perceived to be protecting the wife from an
unfortunate fate, in both a cultural and an economic sense.
Among some migrant communities, lone and unmarried migrating
women are supposedly isolated and left unmarried by their country
fellows, for their purity is perceived as lost in 'their desire
for freedom'.
Behind
these clichés lie realities that are much more complex, but that
have not been studied in depth up till now. In general terms we
should, first of all, question the ways in which specific gazes
focussed on the woman and her role in society and community
differentiate between us and them, stigmatise and discriminate.
Secondly, this question also involves exploring the ways in which
these processes of 'othering' simultaneously also appear to
contribute to community cohesion and to the development of
collective identities. Then, what are the roles of women in these
processes and how are they perceived in the discourses of
different groups? African migrant women,
for instance, are surveyed by men of their own community, by
other country fellow women, by different categories of the
population in the receiving country and moreover by its
administration. Women are of course however not only passively
being constructed by others; they actively play a role in
different ways. They may for instance rebel, create their
own spaces and narratives (Ndaya forthc), and play out their role
of being victims or, more in general, reinforce cultural
stereotypes in order to access resources (Salih 2003).
Looking
at these processes of 'othering' and the construction of
collective identities, it appears that religion plays an
important role. The spaces and the roles women occupy are often
inspired and justified by religion and its notions of (public)
morality. In addition, many of the practices and processes
related to collective identity formation take place in the
religious sphere. Religion is an identity marker, a force
strengthening social cohesion, or, on the contrary, dividing the
spirits; it is a channel for the transmission of values, and it
often constitutes an important link with the migrants' homeland.
The
central research question is therefore as follows: What are the
roles and experiences of African women in Europe in the religious
sphere, and how do these influence the formation of collective diasporic
identities in the European context?
By
choosing five different case studies we aim to show very diverse
experiences but also the general trends which may occur.Together
these case studies will cover different religions, different
African communities and different European contexts.
The
various European countries’ religions are played out with
more or less strength by different populations but they seem to
be experienced with more vigour when confronted with difference,
especially with Islam which, in the current era, is becoming a
mainstream obsession. We will look into the background behind
these extreme levels of 'othering'; nevertheless we are not
restraining ourselves to African Muslim women, but we aim to
place our fieldwork also among Christians such as followers of
Orthodox and Pentecostal churches, and for instance those
involved in the African religion of voodoo.
While
there have been studies on religious practices of African
migrants in the West (i.e. Soares 2004, Van Dijk 2004), on
African women in Europe (i.eae.Evers Rosander 1999, Farah 2000),
and on collective identities (i.e.Connerton 1989, Bauman 1997..),
this research programme is the first to bring these aspects
together in a comprehensive analytical framework and to analyse
them in their mutual relationships. Moreover, the comparison
through different religions is innovative and promising, and may
help to combat 'othering' mechanisms in the study of religion.
The
study of the relation between producing and re-producing identity
seen from the experiences of African women, permits us to cast
light on the ways private and public domains are spaces where
processes of 'othering' and identifying are taking place in which
religion plays a role, from the intimacy of the family to the
broader strata of society. Processes at various levels, in
which we include the transnational one, may not be harmoniously
facilitating empowerment of women through the religious sphere or
vice versa they may not be victimising women as perceived by
collective European imaginaries, or they may all be pervaded by
the urge for women to adhere to norms and values. The various
spaces where identity is played out do not all necessarily adhere
to one another and this is where women's roles become
particularly interesting. From this perspective of linked domains
and societal levels, processes of collective identity and
community formation, including the possibility of a failure to
form a community or to construct a collective identity, can
be critically analysed.
For
the years to come one of the main challenges for the study of
Islam in Africa will be the interweaving of global, national and
local dynamics in shaping both Muslim discourses and practices,
the role of Islam in the political and social realm, and
processes of Islamisation. How do African people manage to make a
living, dealing with the constraints and seizing the
opportunities set by local, national and global developments and
what role does religion play in this (cf. Kaag et
al 2003)? What are the effects of the
increased mobility of people, money and ideas, on manifestations
of Islam, in Africa and beyond (cf. Coulon 2002, Roy 2000)? How
can we explain the re-emergence of religion as a political force
(Otayek 1990)? In what ways do Islamic groups react to increased
political and economic liberalisation and the concomitant opening
up of the public sphere? And how is African reality at the basis
influenced by the events of 11 September 2001 and their aftermath
(cf. Ellis and Killingray 2002)? All these phenomena cannot be
analysed by taking a local, national or global stance only.
Besides
this urgency born of the current social and political moment,
there is also a more basic scientific urgency, namely the need to
overcome the dichotomies by which Africa, African people, and
African history still are ‘othered’, set apart from the
rest of the world, in the cultural (Piot 1999), political sense
(Bayart 1996, 2000), or religious sense (Westerlund &
Rosander 1997). As Bayart (2000) rightly argues, there is no, and
there has never been, a rigid distinction between the internal
dimension of African societies and their insertion in the
international system. What is needed is to empirically trace the
interlinkages and to develop methods to investigate these.
In
this context, the present research programme aims to study the
contributions transnational Islamic relief organisations make to
local and national dynamics in different countries in West amd
West Central Africa. Transnational Islamic NGOs constitute an
interesting research subject because of their supranational
backing and their locally oriented action, which combination
makes that they often also acquire political and social
significance in the national context. The study of transnational
Islamic NGOs from the perspective outlined in the foregoing thus
implies a focus on the following issues of more general
relevance: The interrelationships between local, national, and
transnational processes in shaping Islam in Africa; The
relationships between current hot issues and longer term
processes and dynamics; the role of Islam in social and political
processes as well as in ongoing conflicts in Sub Saharan Africa.
Adding value to this research is the fact that up to now, Islamic relief organisations and their functioning in a social context have very rarely been studied. The few studies available are mostly overview articles focusing on form and organisational characteristics (Glew 1996, Mumuni 2002, Salih 2002). Another case in point is the fact that studies on intervention and transnationalism in Africa have up till now mainly focused on western forms of intervention and neglected Islamic transnational influence in Sub Saharan Africa (see, for instance, Callaghy, Casimir & Latham 2001).
As
can be deducted from the above, transnational Islamic relief
organisations constitute a challenging research object in view of
the theme of the Islam in Africa project. Firstly,
they at
once embody the local, national and transnational aspects of the
renewed visibility of Islam in Sub Saharan Africa.They act beyond
national borders and as Islamic organisations they represent one
of the power blocs that are deemed globally relevant nowadays.
They are also of local importance in that they try to enhance
people’s livelihoods in a material and/or moral way (Osman
2002). These characteristics - global backing and local presence
- make that they often also acquire a charged political and
social meaning in the national context.
Secondly,
and related to the first point, the current upsurge of
transnational Islamic NGOs in many African countries coincides
with a disengagement or even crisis of the State. Political and
economic liberalisation associated with Structural Adjustment
Policies, has offered room for other actors to take up the tasks
of basic service provision and socialisation abandoned by the
State. Many transnational Islamic NGOS therefore deploy
activities in the realm of education, health, water provision and
the like. Also in cases of a crisis or real breakdown of the
State such as in Sierra Leone and the Casamance (Marut 2002),
transnational Islamic NGOs have seen the need and the chances to
intervene. Do transnational Islamic NGOS by their interventions
contribute to a further weakening or even fading (cf. Hoeber
Rudolph & Pescatori 1997) of the African state or should they
be considered as helping to restore and stkerengthen the fabric
of society? In this context, the question of civil society
suggests itself. While in many respects it can be debated whether
in Africa, we can really speak of civil society, I agree with
Otayek (2000) that the concept remains a useful tool to gain a
better understanding of the social modes of political action and
the social dynamics shaping state-society relations. In the
framework of the present research project, it will be analysed
what role(s) transnational Islamic NGOs play in these dynamics.
Thirdly,
the expansion of Islamic NGOs profits from the new possibilities
of mobility and communication offered by the globalisation.
Zakat is no longer only distributed within
the confines of the nation state (cf. Weiss 2002), but also
utilised to help the poor in other regions of the world. In
addition, Islamic NGOS in their proselytising activities make use
of modern technology such as radio cassettes and the internet.
Contrary to popular opinions, they are not so much against
technological development; what they are against is cultural
uniformity and 'westoxication' under the pretext of universality
(Otayek 2000, Roy 2002). It will be important to know how these
enhanced possibilities of movement and communication have
influenced people's perceptions of the Umma,
the (global) community of the faithful, and how this is
manifested in African Muslims' practices.
return to: Index page 'Connections and transformations in Africa'
bravenet.com