Roman Loimeier is a leading scholar of Islam in Africa. He has been active in the field for more than thirty years, and he is one of the rare researchers to have conducted field and library research in regions throughout the continent. He started his career studying Islam in northern Nigeria, a project leading to his book Islamic Reform and Political Change in Northern Nigeria (1997). He subsequently initiated a second research project in Senegal leading to the publication (in German) of Secular State and Islamic Society: The Relationship Between Sufi Orders and Movements of Islamic Reform in Twentieth Senegal (2001).Footnote 6 After that, Loiemeir opened a third sphere of field research centered in East Africa, which resulted in Between Social Skills and Marketable Skills: The Politics of Islamic Education in 20th Century Zanzibar (2009). In 2013, Roman Loimeier produced another book, which is a comprehensive historical ethnography of Muslim societies on the African continent that covers North, East, West, Central, and southern Africa.
The book under review here, Islamic Reform in Twentieth-Century Africa, is the second comparative study of African Muslim societies accomplished by Roman Loimeier. It focuses on Islamic reform movements. It builds on the abovementioned works and approaches the question of reform more comprehensively than is typical in the current literature. With the notable exception of John Paden's Religion and Political Culture in Kano (1973), which investigates efforts for reform within the Sufi orders, most of the literature on Islam in Africa tends to contrast Sufi orders, construed as ‘traditional’ Islam, with movements influenced by Wahhabism (also referred to as Salafism), which are regarded as reformist. By comparison, Loimeier takes a more expansive approach to reform by exploring the various ways in which Muslims in Africa attempt to revivify the faith. Loimeier looks both at what he calls Sufi-oriented reform movements, as well as Salafi-oriented reform movements.
The book is comprised of eight chapters. The first two chapters are more theoretical. They conceptualize the idea of reform in a way that is inclusive of Sufi orders and their opponents, the Salafis. They are followed by several case studies that are organized geographically and that cover Senegal and Mali; Northern Nigeria and Niger; Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia; Tanzania and Kenya; and the Indian Ocean islands of Zanzibar and the Comoros. In the conclusion, Loimeier restates the argument of the book and discusses the comparative implications of patterns and peculiarities of Islamic reform movements in Africa.
Loimeier defines reform as ‘any transformation that is linked with an implicit or explicit program of change’ (22). Thus reform indicates a form of distancing from earlier generations of religious scholars and leaders, and often from established social structures and religious customs. Instead of ‘blind imitation’ of the practices of the past, reformers seek to offer solutions to contemporary problems by establishing a direct link to the foundations of the faith. After laying out this general definition, Loimeier identifies four ideal types of reform movements. First, there are the Sufi reform movements, such as the Tijaniyya Ibrahimiyya and the Qadiriyya Nasiriyya. Second, there are the Salafi movements, which Loimeier distinguishes further. There are those Salafi reformers who seek, if not to capture political power, to at least to play a major role in politics in order to eventually build an Islamic state. The Islamic Movement led by Ibrahim El Zakzaky in Nigeria fits this model well. Then there are those Salafi reformers who regard doctrinal purity and the purification of the faith as more important than political power, and they consequently focus on education, or tarbiya. Third, Loimeier identifies as another reform type what he calls jihadi movements, which, he asserts, are not concerned with doctrine and are unwilling to cultivate paths of accommodation with the state. The Harakat Shabab al-Mujahidin in Somalia known as the Shabab and Boko Haram in the Lake Chad region serve as examples of this kind of movement. Fourth, Loimeier considers as reformers Muslims who refute politically oriented action to stress the value of individual religiosity. This commitment is illustrated by Jamaatou Ibadourahmane in Senegal and the Society for the Removal of Innovation and Reinstatement of Tradition, known as Yan Izala in Nigeria and Niger. Throughout his consideration of these movements, Loimeier strives to analyze the complex interactions between reformers and state, society, and the global Muslim Ummah (community). In this way, he traces transformations and reformulations in their structures, doctrines, and strategy.
Loimeier must be credited for having written the first and most comprehensive overview of Islamic reform movements in twentieth-century sub-Saharan Africa. But it is unfortunate that in the present book Loimeier fails to adopt the same model that he used in his last book, Muslim Societies in Africa: An Anthropological Approach (2013), which focuses on both northern and sub-Saharan Africa. That study treats the Sahara as a connective space and integrates evidence from across the continent.
That critique notwithstanding, Islamic Reform in Twentieth-Century Africa is a remarkable contribution to both African Studies and Islamic Studies. It is rare to find in one single book such a great wealth of information clearly presented and compellingly analyzed. It will be very useful to students, teachers, policymakers, and the general public eager to understand religion and social change in Africa.
