RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY AND MODES OF COEXISTENCE IN URBAN WEST AFRICA Issouf Binaté Yunus Dumbe Musa Ibrahim Nadine Sieveking Mariama Zaami MIASA Working Paper No 2023(1) University of Ghana, Legon September 2023 MIASA Working Papers 2023(1) Edited by the Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA) Section Editor: Susann Baller The MIASA Working Paper series serves to disseminate the research results of work in progress prior to publication in order to encourage the exchange of ideas and academic debate. The series aims to publish research findings from the work of the MIASA Interdisciplinary Fellow Groups (IFGs) and other MIASA fellows in an open-access manner. Inclusion of a paper in the MIASA Working Paper Series does not constitute publication and should not limit publication in any other venue. Copyright remains with the authors. This Working Paper 2023(1) collects the findings of IFG 7 on “Religious Diversity and Modes of Coexistence in Urban West Africa”, which was hosted by MIASA from 1 September to 31 December 2022. The IFG 7 was comprised of two conveners, Yunus Dumbe and Mariama Zaami, and three further members, Issouf Binaté, Musa Ibrahim, and Nadine Sieveking. The initial preproposal for the IFG was conceived by Benedikt Pontzen and Yunus Dumbe. This Working Paper was co-edited by Musa Ibrahim and Nadine Sieveking. The research leading to these results has received funding from the Maria Sibylla Merian Centres Programme of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany, under grant n° [01 UK2024A], with co-funding from the University of Ghana. The Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA) cannot be held responsible for errors or any consequences arising from the use of information contained in this Working Paper, the views and opinions expressed are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the institute. Copyright for each contribution of this Working Paper is hold by the respective author(s): o Conceptual Reflections on Approaches to Religious Diversity and Modes of Coexistence in Urban West Africa: © Musa Ibrahim and Nadine Sieveking o The Question of Religious Authority: Ga Converts and Non-Indigenes in Muslim Identity Politics in Postcolonial Accra: © Yunus Dumbe o Turkey and Côte d’Ivoire Encounter: Dynamics, Actors, and Practices in the Field of Islam: © Issouf Binaté o Sociabilities and Religiosities in Urban Senegal: © Nadine Sieveking o Religious Diversity Through the Life Trajectories of Northern Migrants in Madina, Accra: © Mariama Zaami o Religious Diversity in Sharia-Compliant Cities in Northern Nigeria: © Musa Ibrahim WP Coordination: Agnes Schneider-Musah All MIASA Working Papers are available online and free of charge on the website: https://www.ug.edu.gh/mias-africa/miasa-working-papers Merian Institute for Advances Studies in Africa (MIASA) P.O. Box LG 1075, Legon, Accra, Ghana Tel.: 030 290 7319 Email: miasa@ug.edu.gh Website: https://www.ug.edu.gh/mias-africa/ To cite: Author name, author first name, title of the paper, in: Musa Ibrahim and Nadine Sieveking (eds.), Religious Diversity and Modes of Coexistence in Urban West Africa, Working Paper No 2023(1), pp. X–X, online: hyperlink. Table of content Conceptual Reflections on Approaches to Religious Diversity and Modes of Coexistence in Urban West Africa (Musa Ibrahim and Nadine Sieveking) ......................................................................... 5 The Question of Religious Authority: Ga Converts and Non-indigenes in Muslim Identity Politics in Postcolonial Accra (Yunus Dumbe) .............................................................................................. 17 Turkey and Côte d’Ivoire Encounter: Dynamics, Actors, and Practices in the Field of Islam (Issouf Binaté) ............................................................................................................................................................ 29 Sociabilities and Religiosities in Urban Senegal (Nadine Sieveking) ................................................... 39 Religious Diversity through the Life Trajectories of Northern Migrants in Madina, Accra (Mariama Zaami) ...................................................................................................................................................... 49 Religious Diversity in Sharia-Compliant Cities in Northern Nigeria (Musa Ibrahim) ...................... 57 Biographical Notes .................................................................................................................................................. 65 MIASA Working Paper 2023(1) 29 Turkey and Côte d’Ivoire Encounter: Dynamics, Actors, and Practices in the Field of Islam Issouf Binaté, Université Alassane Ouattara, Bouaké Abstract This text focuses on Turkey’s religious diplomacy in Côte d’Ivoire, a West African country where Islam has experienced significant growth in recent decades. Through the prism of a Soft Power, this cooperation opened Ivorian Islam – dominated by the Maliki and Salafi currents – to the religious tradition of Turkey. This process was marked by the transfers of practices as well as of religious objects, materials for the construction of mosques and support for socio-economic development initiatives. This study is mainly based on fieldwork carried out in Côte d’Ivoire (Abidjan, Bouaké and Korhogo) and Turkey (Istanbul). In addition, a digital ethnography conducted from social networks, in particular Facebook, was used. Keywords: Ivory Coast, Turkey, Islam, Soft Power, religious infrastructure Résumé La présente étude porte sur la diplomatie religieuse de la Turquie en Côte d’Ivoire, un pays d’Afrique de l’Ouest où l’islam a connu une croissance significative au cours des dernières décennies. À travers le prisme du Soft Power, cette coopération a ouvert l’Islam ivoirien – dominé par les courants malékites et salafistes – à la tradition religieuse de la Turquie. Ce processus a été marqué par des transferts de pratiques mais aussi d’objets religieux, de matériaux pour la construction de mosquées et d’appuis à des initiatives de développement socio-économique. Cette étude repose essentiellement sur un travail de terrain réalisé en Côte d’Ivoire (Abidjan, Bouaké et Korhogo) et en Turquie (Istanbul). Elle s’appuie également sur une ethnographie numérique réalisée à partir des réseaux sociaux, en particulier Facebook. Mots-clés: Côte d’Ivoire, Turquie, Islam, Soft Power, infrastructures religieuses Côte d’Ivoire is a West African coastal country known as an important member of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA). Its population is more than 25 million. According to the 2014 official population census, Muslims represented 42%, Christians 34% and other 24%. Starting from a politically marginal position during the colonial period2 compared to Christianity, which was supported by French administrators, Islam has expe- rienced rapid growth mainly due to the democratization of the political sphere,3 which allowed an Islamic revival (training, conversion, construction of mosques, etc.) and the immigration of 2 Islam represented 10% in 1945 and didn’t play an important role in the political field. The first president, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, and a large number of his government members were Christians. 3 Since 1990, the democratization of the political sphere has put an end to the one-party system and contributed to the liberalization of public space. It was an opportunity for Islam to emerge from its marginal situation and open up to secular questions. This period saw the emergence of important Islamic associations (such as the National Islamic Council [CNI]) which would participate in public debates. MIASA Working Paper 2023(1) 30 populations from countries such as Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and Senegal.4 In recent decades, with the support of local Islamic organizations and schools from Arab-Muslim countries such as Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, Islam has occupied an increasingly important place in the religious sphere. With its diplomatic activities towards Africa launched in 1998, Turkey began to take a political and economic interest in Côte d’Ivoire, as well as influencing the Ivoirian religious sphere. Although quite recent, the cooperation between Côte d’Ivoire and Turkey has seen the circulation of socio-economic entrepreneurs and students between these two countries for various purposes. This mobility of people has also led to the introduction of Turkish religious practices through the construction of new places of worship and the implementation of religious training programs in Abidjan and other Ivoirian cities. Based on fieldwork (in Abidjan, Bouaké, Korhogo, and Istanbul) and digital ethnography since 2016, this article analyses the many facets of the Turkish-Ivoirian encounter through the prism of Islam. This article presents a multi-layered approach to the study of religious diversity in urban Côte d’Ivoire. On a broader scale, it considers the context of transnational mobility and entrepreneurship while focusing, at the same time, on two concrete manifestations of religious infrastructures, i.e., Muslim organizations, which have served as facilitators for Turkish-Ivoirian Muslim encounters, and mosques built in Ivoirian cities with Turkish funding. Moreover, it provides an example of religious diversity and coexistence not only between Muslims, Christians, and others but also within Islam and Muslim encounters in Côte d’Ivoire. In addition, the article sheds light on the complexities of specific configurations of religious minorities in a field dominated by Sunni and Maleki Muslims. Islamic humanitarianism in the context of religious diversity in Côte d’Ivoire Islam in Côte d’Ivoire has manifested remarkable growth during the last three decades (Sava- dogo 2005; Miran 2006). Although the practice of Islam was limited during the colonial period, its relevance changed over the years following the country’s independence. This is observable in several secular areas, particularly in the humanitarian field, where Muslims haven’t been active. This welfare-oriented approach is part of a revival of Islam which aims to reconcile religious practices and Muslims’ well-being. It relies on a charity marketing strategy mobilizing local actors and sponsors from Arab-Muslim countries around issues of public interest. Muslims’ investment in the humanitarian field in sub-Saharan Africa is prompted by two major factors: one endogenous, linked to the socio-economic crisis caused by the drought in the early 1980s in the Sahel regions, and the other exogenous, related to the oil boom in Arab- Muslim countries. These contexts have led to a surge of pan-Islamic NGOs coming to the aid of 4 In Burkina Faso, Muslim populations are around 60% and more than 90% in Mali, Niger and Senegal. MIASA Working Paper 2023(1) 31 their co-religionists in many African countries (Mattes 1993; Bellion-Jourdain 2001; Rabiatu 2007; Kaag 2008). Based on the values of solidarity advocated by Islam through the institution of Zakat and Sadaqa (Weiss 2000), this mobilisation has taken place in many countries. Not only the populations of African countries with a Muslim majority (Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Sudan, Chad, etc.), but also countries with Muslim minorities (South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, etc.) have benefited from this aid. In the context of Côte d’Ivoire, it was in the 2000s that the country welcomed the opening of the Saudi Arabian embassy and accepted its membership in institutions such as the Islamic Development Bank, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, etc. (Binaté 2019). Before that, Muslims had to rely only internally on themselves, especially when Cote d’Ivoire experienced a socio-political crisis in the early 2000s. The peculiarity of Côte d’Ivoire is linked to the evolution of Islam in this country, in particular, to the relations that the postcolonial governments have maintained with Arab- Muslim countries. Indeed, the involvement of these countries in the conflict between Palestine and Israel was decisive in the foreign policy of the government of Félix Houphouet-Boigny, the first president of Côte d’Ivoire. Following the Muslim policy of the colonial administration, this president had developed a distrust towards Islam, to the point that he wanted to keep Côte d’Ivoire away from the hotbeds of ideological tensions in the Arab countries of North Africa and the Middle East. This initial distrust notwithstanding, relations between Ivoirian Muslims and pan-Islamic organizations have evolved gradually through intermediaries and a series of activities limited to financial support for the construction of mosques and medersas (Islamic schools), and the granting of scholarships for students. At the turn of the 1990s, the end of the single-party regime opened the Ivoirian public space to more citizen engagement, with the creation of associations that promoted the establishment of pan-Islamic organizations and institutions. In 1995, the Islamic Development Bank signed a grant agreement to finance an Islamic school in Abidjan. Since 2000, the country has become a member of this institution, as well as of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA). For Turkey, the opening of this new era offered opportunities, after having successfully invested in Central Asia (Balcı 2003; Balcı and Motika 2007) and seeking to extend its sphere of influence in Africa. Côte d’Ivoire and Turkey encounter: contexts and actors In the literature addressing the Turkish presence in Africa, few works have focused on the reli- gious dimension of the soft power deployed by Turkey. Gabriella Angey (2009), Toguslu Erkan (2015), and Hamilton Shinn (2015), precursors in this field of research, have focused on the questions of Turkish international policy, the mobility of its social actors, and the economic sectors invested. These fields, which have enabled Turkey to gain social visibility and occupy an important place among the foreign powers present on the continent, have also served as a MIASA Working Paper 2023(1) 32 framework for analysis by Kristina Dohrn (2013), who worked on Islam as conveyed by the Gülen movement in Tanzanian schools. The links between the ideologies underlying the Gülen teachings and local religious dynamics in Burkinabe and Ivoirian contexts have been analysed by Maud Saint-Lary (2019) and Binaté (2019; 2022). In fact, Turkey’s presence in Côte d’Ivoire is part of a vast project to internationalize the ambitions of this Eurasian country under the heading of “Opening up to Africa”. This project has resulted in a series of missions on the continent led by the Turkish government, as well as by businessmen, humanitarians, and religious actors, who all came with the same objective: to make Turkey an important player on the international scene. In most cases, businessmen, humanitarians and religious actors have played pioneering roles with significant interventions in socio-economic areas. They have invested in the fields of construction, transport of industrial products, etc., through many internationally operating companies such as Beko, Dekoset, Inci, Fergen, Kaydan, and Limak Africa. Being mired in a military and political conflict since 2002, Côte d’Ivoire experienced Turkish soft power through humanitarian assistance and education projects. This concept, developed by Joseph Nye (1990) and adapted in American international relations in the context of the Cold War, is at the heart of Turkish foreign policy. Although economic relations based on exchanges of industrial products already existed between the two countries since the 1990s, the implementation of this policy has extended this bilateral cooperation to other areas, including education, with the opening of the Safak School Group in 2006 and the Centre Ishane for the training and education of young people (CIFEJ). With their social activities linked to Islam, these two establishments have created multiple links and exchange opportunities between Turkish and Ivoirian Muslims. Muslim organizations in Côte d’Ivoire The way Islam is organized in Côte d’Ivoire is interesting to analyse. Unlike in Mali or Burkina Faso, where Islam is managed by a federal structure, in Côte d’Ivoire, this religion is not determined by the authority of a clergy but rather shaped by Muslim umbrella organizations represented by the Supreme Council of Imams (COSIM) and the Council of Sunni Imams (CODIS). However, while these organizations serve as interfaces between Muslims and public authorities, they differ in terms of religious ideologies. COSIM is Maliki, while CODIS is Hanbali. Its doctrinal position has brought COSIM closer to Turkey, where the Islamic tradition is dominated by Hanafism, which is less contradictory to Sufi practices. The Turkish organizations involved in this religious cooperation bear the mark of state institutions – including Diyanet – and private religious foundations, in particular, the Gülen movement and Aziz Mahmud HüdayiVakfi, respectively responsible for the Safak School Group and the NGO Ishane Association for Development and Education (AIDE). At the Safak School MIASA Working Paper 2023(1) 33 Group, teaching is focused on the national Ivoirian educational program, with some time dedi- cated to the Turkish language. For instance, each class had around five hours per week for Turkish learning. The religious component, however, is limited to sharing social values linked to Islam and Turkish culture transmitted by the school staff through their know-how and life skills in terms of forms of everyday sociability, sense of sharing, prohibition of cigarettes and alcohol, etc. This discreet proselytism that characterizes the Gülen movement differs from that supported by Diyanet and developed by the Aziz Mahmud Hüdayi Foundation, which also owns the CIJEF. In this confessional establishment, Islam (tawhid, sira, nahw, safu, etc.), Arabic and Turkish are subjects of the curriculum. This openness to the world of education has brought the Aziz Mahmud Hüdayi Foundation closer to the Muslim student youth, in particular the Association of Muslim Students and Students of Côte d’Ivoire (AEEMCI), as well as to certain Sufi organizations. Through these relations, the Aziz Mahmud Hüdayi Foundation has estab- lished itself in the Ivoirian Islamic public space (Binaté 2019). In particular, AEEMCI and COSIM played a crucial role in facilitating Turkish influence on Muslim organizations and practices in Côte d’Ivoire. Turkish organizations in the Islamic religious sphere: transfer of religious infrastructures and practices Islam in Côte d’Ivoire has presented itself as a moderate religion (“du juste milieu”), largely influenced by a Malekite tradition and supported by the umbrella organization COSIM. The Ivoirian Muslim community opens up to several Islamic currents, including different ways of practicing Turkish Islam. The crossing of diverse religious practices linked to Islam coming from various contexts constitutes what I call the “meeting of Islams” in Côte d’Ivoire. In this “meeting,” Turkey has come to play a major role. In fact, during the visit of Presi- dent Recep Tayyip Erdogan in February 2016 to Côte d’Ivoire, he promised to construct an Islamic complex for COSIM, including the headquarters for this organization and a mosque to be built following the architectural model of places of worship of the Ottomans. This project – which is still awaiting its realization – bears the mark of Turkey’s implantation strategy through the material occupation of space by religious infrastructures (Hoelzchen and Kirby 2020). It should also be noted that all the official ceremonies carried out by the Turkish institutions – embassy, Diyanet, NGOs or foundations – take place in spaces decorated with the emblems of the country: the flag of Turkey, posters of the institutions involved, religious messages from Turkish sheikhs, etc. On the occasion of festivities at the Safak School Group in 2006, the national anthem of Turkey and artistic performances (sketches) were presented by students in the Turkish language. Experienced since the opening of this school, this strategy of visibly marking space has been carried over to the religious field. MIASA Working Paper 2023(1) 34 The meeting of Turkish and Ivoirian Islams was accompanied by transfers of religious infrastruc- tures and religious practices. This observation is not new insofar as Muslims have maintained religious cooperation with Arab-Muslim countries in similar ways, as can be exemplified by the funding of many mosques both in Abidjan and in other cities of the country. While Turkey has continued this tradition of supporting building infrastructural projects, what is different in the Turkish case is that the works bear visible marks of the donors in terms of the physical aspects of the infrastructures. For example, the mosques offered to the Muslim communities of Adjamé and Yopougon were not only built according to Turkish architecture, but their interiors were decorated with equipment (carpet, clock, etc.) imported from Turkey. This logic of transferring materials has been transposed into the practices and aesthetics of worship, which is reflected in the layout of the interior space of the mosques: The mimbars (pulpits) are arranged according to the Turkish model and the frescoes on the walls are inspired by the tradition of the Ottomans. At the Turkish mosque of Adjamé, the Qur’anic training deliv- ered to women is based on educational materials published by Erkam, the publisher of the Aziz Mahmud Hüdayi Foundation. At the beginning of the 2020s, a preacher was sent from Turkey to teach students the techniques of memorizing the Koran. At the mosque of the Al Fourqane community in the commune of Koumassi, a teaching program was initiated around the thought of Turkish Sufi sheikhs such as Saïd Nursî (1878–1960), the ideologue of the Gülen movement. Figure 1: A screenshot of the Al-Farouq Community page inviting the public to one of its activities. Photo credit: Issouf Binaté MIASA Working Paper 2023(1) 35 Many Muslim communities in Côte d’Ivoire have been influenced by Islamic practices and trends imported from Turkey. The Naqshbandiyya, one of the religious orders widespread in Turkey and Central Asia, has been emulated among the Ivoirian partners of Turkish religious foundations, excluding Salafi groups, who are part of anti-Sufi movements. In Abidjan, Imam Traoré Moctar, guide of the Zou-Nouraine Association for Education and Charitable Works (AZEOB) and formerly a member of the Tidjaniya Hamawiyya community, joined the Naqsh- bandiyya, as did some beneficiaries of Turkish social assistance. Since 2013, many female Muslim students have attended the school Fasl-ı Bahar KızKur'an Kursu for their Islamic training in Istanbul. These study programmes have introduced some of them to the Fiqh, Tasawuf, and Aqida, as well as to secular cultural elements such as the Turkish culinary tradition. In addition, the Aziz Mahmud Hüdayi foundation supports Sohoba, a periodic seminar organized by AEEMCI on Islamic as well as secular topics. The maintenance of religious ties is also done through donations on the occasion of Islamic festivities, in particular the fasting of Ramadan, the celebrations of Eid and the pilgrimage to the holy places of Islam. Figure 2: Kurban: Ceremony of immolation and distribution of beef during Eid 2016 in Abidjan. Photo credit: Issouf Binaté MIASA Working Paper 2023(1) 36 Conclusion By a form of subtle proselytism, the Turkish-Ivoirian encounter contributed to the diversity of Islams in Côte d’Ivoire, where new religious movements close to Turkish preachers emerged. Some Ivoirian national Muslim organisations have been instrumental in advancing Turkish influence. This development has been accompanied by the construction and architectural reconfiguration of mosques as well as numerous investments in the religious infrastructure of Ivoirian cities. 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Weiss Holger (2000), Zakat in Northern Ghana: Not an Institution But a Goal to be Achieved, in: Hémisphère, 15, pp. 141–157. 65 Biographical Notes Issouf Binaté is a research scholar at Université Alassane Ouattara (Côte d‘Ivoire). His research interests focus on Arab-Islamic education, the revival of Sufi Islam, Islamic NGOs (including Turkish and Arab World organizations) and Islamic Online Studies in Côte d’Ivoire. After a post- doctoral position at the University of Florida (US) in 2022, he is currently Associate Director of the Contemporary Islam Chair in West Africa (UQAM, Canada) and fellow of the Pilot African Postgraduate Academy (Point Sud, Bamako). From September to December 2022, he was MIASA fellow and member of IFG 7. Yunus Dumbe is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. In 2009, he completed his PhD in the Study of Religion at the University of Ghana. He was awarded postdoctoral fellowships at the Södertörn University, Stockholm, and the Centre for Contemporary Islam, University of Cape Town. From September to December 2022, he was co- convener of IFG 7 at MIASA. His research focuses on Islamic movements in sub-Saharan Africa, and more specifically in Islamic reform and Islamic radicalization in West Africa. Musa Ibrahim is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Cultural and African Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi. He is also an Associate Fellow of the African Research Institute for Religion, Ethics, and Society at the University of Cape Town. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow for the Henry Luce Foundation’s Initiative on Religion in International Affairs at the University of Florida between 2019 and 2021. In 2022, Dr. Ibrahim was a MIASA fellow in Accra. His research focuses on religion, media, popular culture, ethics, and moral economy. He earned his PhD from the University of Bayreuth, Germany. Nadine Sieveking is an anthropologist with research experience based on fieldwork in Germany and West Africa, covering various domains of embodied social practice and gendered dynamics that have emerged from translocal and transnational entanglements. She has particularly focused on dance practices as transcultural phenomena, and on religiosities in Muslim contexts. She earned her PhD from the Free University of Berlin, and has worked as a lecturer and a senior researcher at the Universities of Bielefeld, Leipzig and Göttingen. In 2022, she was a MIASA fellow at the University of Ghana. Mariama Zaami is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Geography and Resource Develop- ment and an Interfaculty member of the Centre for Migration Studies (CMS), University of Ghana. After her Master at the University of Bergen, Norway, she completed her PhD in Sociology at University of Calgary, Canada, in 2017. Her research focuses on the gendered migration patterns from rural to urban locations and the implications of these movements for household livelihoods and religious diversity in Ghana. From September to December 2022, she was co-convener of IFG 7 at MIASA.