In Senegal ‘each mosque tells a story’ (p. 5), Cleo Cantone notes in the introduction to Making and Remaking Mosques in Senegal, a sweeping study of Senegalese architecture based on the doctoral research she conducted in the early 2000s. Put differently, the historical transformations of Islam have left their mark on local mosques, with religious factions advertising their own vision of Islam through the use or absence of certain stylistic elements, such as the dome and the minaret. From precolonial times to the contemporary period, the evolution of religious architecture in Senegal can thus be mapped onto distinct periods of the region's history to reveal the ‘transmutations of Islamic identity through time and space’ (p. 6). Because precolonial mosques – which resembled ordinary dwellings and were built of perishable materials – did not conform to Arab geographers’ and European travellers’ conception of Islamic architecture, they were largely excluded from the record. Added to the fact that the corpus of scholarship on local monumental architecture is incomplete, few of these mosques have survived. This makes Cantone's meticulous historical reconstruction all the more remarkable.
The impact of colonialism on mosque architecture was profound. During the early colonial period, the French policy of assimilation led to the emergence of church–mosques. With the later turn towards ‘association’ (during which colonial subjects were encouraged to preserve their cultural identity), mosques came to acquire a recognizable Islamic aesthetic known as the neo-Sudanese style. Sufi leaders who resisted colonial influence increasingly looked to the Maghreb for inspiration; their efforts to forge a distinctive Senegalese Muslim style resulted in the building of smaller, self-funded structures that Cantone calls ‘veranda mosques’. Meanwhile, repatriated slaves who built mosques using techniques they had learned in Brazil were credited with the creation of local Afro-Brazilian architecture. Buildings not financed by the colonial administration incorporated diverse stylistic influences, contributing to the heterogeneity and originality of Senegalese mosque architecture.
After independence in 1960, a new generation of mosques emerged that reflected Senegalese Muslim leaders’ attempts to shake off a burdensome colonial legacy and return to the roots of Islam. The dominance of Moorish styles nevertheless remained discernible in Sufi architecture through the extent to which tariqa mosques made reference to the Maghreb, from whence certain Sufi traditions originated. In contrast, mosques built by the Ibadou, or Sunni reformist, movement signalled a greater concern with an austere aesthetic based on reformist ideology. More than simple sites of prayer, they served (and continue to serve) as the location for charitable and educational activities.
Key to Cantone's approach is an effort to incorporate a description of building typologies with a discussion of mosques as social spaces providing a window into the lives of Senegalese Muslims. In this respect, the last chapter of the book, which focuses on the ways in which women have ‘appropriated and contested [these] spaces’ (p. 297) in recent times is a refreshing addition to a body of literature that has long ignored gender and the place of women in Islam. Yet, and notwithstanding the author's contrite opening statement, the chapter is problematic if only because by ‘confining women to the end’ (p. 297), as she puts it, it ultimately re-inscribes their historical invisibility. Moreover, the discussion lacks focus, makes contradictory claims, and relies on outdated sources. Admittedly, Cantone provides evidence of the ‘new’ visibility of Muslim women in the public sphere and of how reformist mosques are now designed (or transformed) with women in mind. But to assert that ‘the practice of veiling is essentially alien to West Africa’ (p. 342), or that some languages spoken in Senegal and elsewhere are more African than others, is troubling for what it suggests about her understanding of African culture and history.
Even more disturbing is the author's reliance on the work of noted Afrocentrist scholars to support her contention that West African mosque architecture originated in Egypt. The theories of Cheikh Anta Diop and A. M. Lam – who posited that ancient Egypt was the cradle of African civilization – are out of synch with current scholarship and cannot be entertained seriously in a study that claims to advance our knowledge of Islamic architecture in West Africa. There are other errors and inconsistencies that are more easily forgiven. However, as a reader, I could not ignore the numerous misspellings, run-on sentences and other typographical errors that appear in every chapter. It is unfortunate that no editor saw fit to clean up the text and tighten the arguments.
Despite these shortcomings, Making and Remaking Mosques in Senegal is an important book. It makes a critical contribution to the study of Islam in Africa by examining the correlation between religious architecture and Muslim identity over time and by exploring how, as gendered spaces, mosques are experienced – and occasionally struggled over. It is also richly illustrated, containing close to 150 photographs. As a breakthrough study on a neglected topic, it provides a glimpse of how scholarship on Islam in Africa can be enriched through greater attention to architecture and built space.
