Frédérick Madore’s Religious Activism on Campuses in Togo and Benin makes a vital contribution to our understanding of West African faith-based student associations at the University of Lomé (Togo) and the University of Abomey-Calavi (Benin) from their founding in 1970 through 2023. Through an impressive body of research – 81 formal interviews and focus groups, participant observation during multiple field visits spanning 2019–2024, and extensive archival work – Madore documents how Christian and Muslim student groups have not merely survived but thrived under authoritarian regimes, through periods of democratisation, and amid shifting applications of laïcité (secularism) on campuses.
Madore argues that these associations developed innovative ‘social curricula’ that integrated academic knowledge with spiritual and moral development, thereby challenging the secular intellectual traditions of these universities and prompting a reassessment of religious expression within frameworks of laïcité and religious pluralism. He positions universities as microcosms of broader societal dynamics and highlights the overlooked influence of religious student organisations on leadership formation and campus politics.
Madore’s central argument unfolds across three key claims. First, he contends that faith-based associations demonstrated resilience and adaptability by carving out spaces for religious expression even under authoritarian regimes in the 1970s–1980s that strategically manipulated religious affairs while suppressing student dissent (chapter 3). These groups were not merely passive victims of state repression but actively negotiated with authorities and leveraged transnational networks to survive. Second, he argues that these associations fundamentally redefined student activism by positioning themselves as moral arbiters and mediators during the political upheaval of the 1990s and by developing a ‘social curriculum’ that addressed the crises of university ‘massification’ and graduate unemployment from the 2000s onwards. Their ‘entrepreneurial turn’ represented an adaptive strategy responding to neoliberal economic realities while maintaining their religious identities (chapter 5). Third, he maintains that universities functioned as ‘incubators for a new religious elite’ (167), with former activists leveraging campus-acquired skills to shape religious governance and public discourse, particularly Muslim intellectuals who adopted more assertive stances than their Catholic counterparts. Finally, Madore challenges narratives of recent decline, arguing that rather than disappearing, faith-based activism has been reconfigured by financial pressures, digital transformation, and stricter applications of laïcité, reflecting broader shifts in how students pursue the ‘good life’ in contemporary African societies (chapter 7).
The book’s strengths include its comparative framework examining both countries and multiple faith traditions, its attention to transnational influences, and its documentation of overlooked histories. Madore convincingly demonstrates that these associations provided alternative pathways for pursuing ‘the good life’ amid economic precarity and political uncertainty.
The book is densely packed with historical facts and organisational details, but I was sometimes frustrated by its limited sustained argumentation in developing its theoretical interventions. The concept of ‘social curriculum’, while useful, remains somewhat undertheorised beyond descriptions of the skills and activities religious groups offered. Similarly, while Madore identifies the ‘entrepreneurial turn’ as significant, a deeper analysis of its implications for religious subjectivity, neoliberalism, and social justice would have strengthened the argument.
The book’s scope is simultaneously a strength and a limitation. By covering five decades and multiple organisations across two countries, Madore provides invaluable documentary evidence and breadth. Yet, sustained focus on the evolution of particular associations or on specific activists’ trajectories is sometimes sacrificed in favour of comprehensive coverage. The chapter on former activists’ post-university paths, for instance, offers intriguing glimpses but lacks the deep ethnographic texture that might fully illuminate how campus experiences shaped subsequent careers and commitments.
While present, gender analysis remains underdeveloped. Madore acknowledges male dominance in leadership and his own gender-related fieldwork challenges, noting this ‘merits more in-depth study, ideally by researchers who can navigate the gender-specific cultural and religious norms more freely’ (21). Given the significance of women’s participation for understanding these movements’ full impact, this limitation is worth noting.
Despite these criticisms, Madore has produced an important work that documents previously neglected histories and demonstrates the significance of faith-based associations in shaping student activism, religious dynamics, and elite formation in West Africa. The book will be valuable for scholars of religion and higher education in Africa, students of social movements and those interested in how religious identity intersects with political and economic change. It challenges assumptions about secularisation and highlights how religious individuals and groups navigate – and actively shape – ostensibly secular institutions. By positioning universities as incubators of religious elites and sites where competing visions of the good life are articulated and pursued, Madore makes a compelling case for taking faith-based student activism seriously in understanding contemporary African societies.
