Constructing religious authority and transnational Muslim community in the militarized border zone of Mali/ Niger
This project investigates how rising levels of insecurity and related international efforts of “securitization” in the context of a Global War on Terror in the Sahara and northern Sahel, affect constructions of religious authority, proper Muslim identity and transnational community in the militarized border zone of Mali and Niger. For this purpose, the project focuses on the religious self-understandings, discourses and practices, and transborder economic activities of the Dabakkar, a Muslim group that, centered on its spiritual leader, shaykh Abdousalam ag Mohammadan, has remained outside the radar of scholarly interest and investigation. By addressing the highly topical question of how the militarization of the Western Sahara/ Sahel affects Muslim religious authority and identities in the area, and by focusing on the practices and understandings of a Tuareg status group whose distinctive social and religious practices of the Tijanyya spiritual path have gone unnoticed so far, the project fills in an important lacuna in the scholarship on Islam in West Africa. It redresses the conventional narrow scholarly focus on noble Tuareg religious clans, their religious expertise and authority credentials. Also, by examining the Dabakkar’ changing understandings and material practices of religious authority, community and proper Muslimhood under present conditions of physical, material, and political insecurity, the project places scholarly debate on Muslim religiosity and authority in sub-Saharan Africa in the context of an increasingly globalizing politics of religion.
This map introduces to the border area of Mali and Niger where intense activities of Al-Qaida and the Islamic State affiliated groups take place since 2012. These activities and related international efforts of “securitization” in the context of a Global War on Terror in the Sahara and northern Sahel have restricted the across border mobility of people in and around Menaka, Anderamboukane (Mali) and Ouallam (Niger). The residents can only use camels or donkeys for long distance trips.
The present-day context of insecurity undermines the Dabakkar transborder economic activities, affects their religious self-understandings and discourses on Muslimhood, but consolidates the shaykh’s charismatic authority and followers’ sense of community West Africa.
