ISLAMIZATION AND ARABIZATION OF AFRICA
Introduction
Arabization
and the islamization of the African continent are two different thing(process).
That also, during the classical period of Islam, these two processes were happening
simultaneously. And that this simultaneity can still be affirmed in the
contemporary times. Hence, the first argument is that, since Islam firstly came
into the African continent, precisely to the Northern part, through the efforts
of the Arabs, the northern part of Africa was Arabized and islamized at the
same time. The second argument is that the proposition that: if A is Islamized,
then A is Arabized, is almost always true.
But the converse is not always true.
In this paper,
therefore, we shall concern ourselves with the spread of Islam in the African
continent – islamization; and the intercourse of Arabic and African traditional
cultures – arabization. These shall be discussed as distinct but not opposed
forces in the evolution of the African continent. Our method of analysis in
this paper shall take the form of this formal argument: if the Arabs Islamized any
part of Africa, then, arabization is an inevitable corollary to the
islamization of those parts of Africa; and if the Arabic culture is the mother
culture of Islam then, wherever Islam goes, so does the Arabic culture. That
the Arabic culture is the mother culture of Islam means Islam is in itself Arabized. Indeed, the Arabs Islamized some parts
of Africa, therefore, the arabization of those parts of Africa was inevitable. And
Arabic is the mother culture of Islam, therefore wherever Islam goes, so does
the Arabic culture. But what is meant by arabization and islamization?
Arabization
Fuelling
the above new Islamic identity is the steady process of transformation from a
secular, inclusive and an adaptive Islam to a more textual, ritualistic and
exclusive one by exogenous forces, as ideas, practices and finances flow from
the Arab world. The term arabization can be seen as the match of Arabic culture
with other cultures it meets. It is in this idea that one can speak of
africanization, europeanization, americanization, hellenization, and the
likes... This is a witness to the empirical portent that when cultures that are
different meet, aspects of each are engrossed into the other. In the context of
our discussion, however, the arabization of Africa refers to the coming
together of Arabic and African cultures. According Omari H. Kokole, he
authenticate this description when he avers that, “by arabization, we refer to
the enculturation by which the North
Africans became, among other things, speakers of the Arabic language as well as
being imbibe into other aspects of Arabic culture.”[1]
This implies that
with the establishment of contact between the Arabs and Africans through means
of trading, and especially with the coming of the former into the lands of
Africa, the Arabic culture met with various African cultures. Indeed, a people
always go, everywhere they do, with their respective cultures. More so, the
earliest detailed contact between the Arabs and Africans seems to be at the
time when the Prophet Muhammad sent a section of his earliest followers in
615CE on hijra[2]
to Abyssinia.[3]
We can roughly deduced that these followers of the Prophet brought with them
their Arabic culture, but more importantly, they brought with them a new civilization
– Islam. Thus, the Abyssinians not only had contact with the Arabs as
Arabs and hence, with Arabic culture, they had contact with these Arab folks on
hijra as Muslims. So, they also had
contact with a new civilization, the civilization of Islam. Put simply, they
were coetaneous Arabized and Islamized.
Islamization
Like
any other civilization, Islam impacts on any set of people it comes in contact
with. When a people accept Islam and so become Muslims, they are Islamized. It
is on this sense that Omari H. Kokole, gives a crystal meaning of what
islamization means when he posits that
"islamization, refers to the
process by which the people of North Africa were converted to the Islamic
religion and they became Muslims."[4]
More so, because the North Africans were largely Islamized by the Arabs, they
were coeval Arabized and Islamized, thus, Kokole identify that “ as time comes,
North Africans that are Islamized will came to see themselves as “Arabs not as Africans
anymore.”[5]
Having noted the distinction
between arabization and islamization at the level of ideational breakdown, we
move ahead to post a question: how was African continent Islamized? And, what
are the matrices of the arabization of the African continent? It is worthy of
note that on the one hand, the islamization of the African continent is largely
historical and would here be analyzed chronologically while the arabization of
the African continent, on the other hand, seems to be a process of gradual adaptation
and assimilation of Arabic culture by Africans which may best be analyzed in
terms of “aspects of adaptation.” However, one cannot but coincide with Afis
Oladosu that though we speak of a “history” of islamization, the process of the
islamization of Africa is still ongoing.[6]
Let us turn to the question of how the African continent was Islamized and
Arabized.
The
Islamization and Arabization of the African Continent
It
can be averred, although not without evidence, that at the early stage, and
even at the present stage of the development of Islam, both Islamic religion
and Arabic culture are in pari-passu. That is wherever Islamic religion goes,
the Arabic culture goes with it. The prophet Muhammad, being an Arabian was
born in “the year of the elephant,”[7]
ca.570CE[8]
preached Islam in Makkah against the backdrop of religious, moral and social deterioration
in the land.[9]
He met with opposition especially from his tribe during this era of his
preaching, the Quraysh tribe. As a result of this internal opposition that made
him(Mohammad) sent a number of his weak followers to seek asylum (hijra) under the king of Ethiopia circumvent
any “danger to their faith (fitna).”[10] According
to Omari H. Kokole he states that:
Prophet
Muhammad in the very early days of Islam advised some of his initial followers
to emigrate to Ethiopia to avoid persecution in Makkah. Emissaries also seem to
have been sent to the Ethiopian monarch by Prophet Muhammad and some stayed
back, never to return to Arabia.[11]
Generally, this was
the first contact of Islam with North Africa according to historians as the
first entry of Islam into African soil. Most probably, these Arabian emigrants
spread their faith with their stay in the Ethiopian kingdom of Aksum. It was
argue by some scholars sometimes that the King Negus[12]
secretly converted to Islam,[13]
although he was Christian. More so, it is recorded by Joseph Kenny that among
these early followers of Muhammad were some African slaves residing in Arabian
cities. Prominent among this number is Bilâl b. Rabab, who “later became the
first mu’adhdhin in Islam and a personal servant of Muhammad.”[14]
Under the leadership of Muhammad and his successors, Islam
gradually became the principle of unity for the Arabian people. With this unity
came the imperative of the spread of Islamic-Arabic dominance. Accordingly, John L. Exposito notes that “Islamic
religion and the activity of the Muslim community produced a new empire and a
rich civilization which came to dominate much of Europe, the Middle East, Asia,
and Africa.”[15]
In this spirit of spreading Arabic cum Islamic influence, Syria, Iraq and
Persia came under Islamic cum Arabic rule in the 7th century,
shortly after the death of the prophet Muhammad. When the spotlight of this
expansionist tendency looked west, Africa lay as fertile and the move was made
to expand towards it too. Egypt was the first territory for this conquest.[16]
Accordingly, it came under Islamic cum Arabic influence with the efforts of Amr
ibn-al-As and Zubayr between the years 639 to 642 CE. This was under the
caliphate of Umar, the second Caliph.[17]
In 651 CE, Abdallah ibn-Sad took over Nubia, spreading Arabic and Islamic
influence further still.[18] Islam
also spread in Ethiopia towards the dawn of the 7th century.
Although it met with resistance from the Christian background already present
on its arrival, many scholars note that Islam, and hence, Arabic influence came
into Ethiopia especially through trade along its coastal areas. In this wise,
the spread of Islam in Ethiopia is duly credited to “small groups of Arab
traders, teachers and political refugees.”[19]
There is much
documented about the spread of Islam and Arabic rule in the Maghrib.[20]
The spread of the Islamic-Arabic civilization in the Maghrib[21]
is credited to a number of Arabic and Islamic distinguished men to include Amr
ibn-al-As, Umar ibn-al-Khattab, and Uqba, among others. Opposition to the
spread of Islam in the Maghrib was sustained by the Berbers.[22] Islamic-Arabic
influence came to the Maghrib mostly from Egypt,[23]
hence the mention of Amr ibn-al-As, who was sent specifically to Islamize Egypt.[24]
Concerning the
spread of Islam into the Bilad al-Sudan,[25] Nehemiah
Levtzion and Randall L. Pouwels note that “[i]n the eleventh century, Arab
nomads drove southward from Egypt to the Sudan and westward across North
Africa. These nomads contributed to the Islamization and Arabization of the
Sudan and North Africa.”[26] Moreover,
Islam and indeed, Arabic rule came to the Bilad al-Sudan through trade as it
did in most parts of Ethiopia. Thus, in speaking of the spread of Islam in this
region, mention is usually made of the ancient empires that throve there and
the trade routes that connected them. The empires are the Ghana, Songhai, Mali,
Kanem-Bornu, Hausa-Fulani nation states.
The most cited source for the spread of Islam and Arabic rule in this region
is the scholar al-Bakri,, an “Andalusian geographer.”[27] He
writes about Islamic presence in the empire of Ghana as early as 1068CE. He
notes that the earliest presence of Islam in the Mali Empire is situated at
about the 15th century.[28]
History has it that the golden age of the Mali empire was under the rule of
Mansa Musa (1312-1337), a Muslim. The presence of Islam in the Songhai Empire
dates to the 11th century when the Za dynasty converted to it. The
rule of Islam in this region is much credited to the Muslim commander Muhammad
Toure who ousted a weak Islamic ruler and established Islamic rule firmly in
the empire. Umme-Jilmi, a Kanem Bornu ruler who reigned from 1085-1097CE
invited an Islamic scholar, Muhammad bn Mani, to come and preach the Islamic
religion during his reign.[29] A. Rahman I. Doi notes that Islam entered into the Hausa land at
about the 14th century during the reign of Ali Yaji (1349-1385).[30]
Furthermore,
Randall I. Powels argues that Islam made its way into Swahili of East Africa
through trade, like it did in many other parts of Africa.[31] It spread more into the hinterland by the 19th
century. Moreover, “Islam arrived in southern
Africa as a coincidence of geography, colonization, slavery, and the
geopolitics of mercantile commerce”[32]
when Ibrahim van Bativa, a slave was shipped there in the middle of the 17th
century. The process and history of islamization in Africa, as was noted
earlier is ongoing and in fact, some Islamic scholars see in the nearest future
the africanization of Islam – the summary acceptance of Islam by the whole of
Africa. This projection, though quite ambitious, seems to ring feasible. From
the foregoing, it could be argued that during the classical period of Islam,
the arabization and islamization of Africa, particularly, northern Africa, were
simultaneous forces. Uthman S.A. Ismail
seems to corroborate this when he notes that:
In
the northern parts of Africa…Islamization went hand in hand with Arabization.
Islam was spread by Arab communities, which, although small in number compared
to the indigenous populations, succeeded in giving their religion, language and
some of their taste to the regions they conquered. These regions were thus
readily open to all the cultural currents, orthodox and otherwise, of the
classical Muslim world of which they were a part. Indeed, their contribution to
it forms a great deal of its heritage, a part that is of great value to African
history.[33]
And as a result of the Islamo-Arabization
current in these parts of Africa “today these regions and eastern Sudan, deeply
committed to Africa, represent numerically the majority of the Arab world.
Arabic is, and has been for a long time, their official and cultural language.”[34]
But, if Africa was Arabized, and since a sketch of the history of islamization
has been given above, what are some of the indices of the arabization of the
African continent?
Indices
of the Arabization of the African Continent
From
the discourse so far, arabization can be understood as both a political and
cultural wave of civilization that has come down to the African continent from
the Arab world. So, if the African continent was and/or is Arabized, it means
that Arabic political and cultural life impacted and still impacts upon the
African continent. Politically, when the Islamic Arabs spread their influence
into African soil, and with the establishment of governments subject to
Islamic-Arabic rule, they made official bilateral relations between African
nations and the Arab world possible. This relationship is on even to this day.
Indeed, this dimension of increased bilateral relations, that prior to the
coming of the Islamic religion as preached by Muhammad was based on mainly trade
contact, was further strengthened by the preaching of Islam by the Arabs and
the consequent arabization. In this regard, Omari H. Kokole notes that “Islam
has enhanced Afro-Arab co-operation partly through pilgrimages undertaken by
African heads of states and government ministers.”[35]
Culturally, the
evidence of arabization in the aspect of language is manifest in Africa. Many
African languages have words that have cognates in Arabic. The Hausa and the
Yoruba people of Nigeria, for instance, have a lot of words which are formed from
Arabic roots. Moreover, it was noted earlier that many ethnicities in the
Northern part of Africa have Arabic as their official language. It is worthy of
note also that Arabic, being the language of revelation to the prophet
Muhammad, is the official language of the religion as he preached it. Thus,
Arabic is predominantly used in Islamic worship. In this way, the Arabic
language, the language of the Arabs, goes with Islam wherever it goes. In some way therefore, even Islam is
Arabized! And being Arabized, it carries with it the Arabic civilization
wherever it goes. Furthermore, evidences of the cultural arabization of
Africa are seen in terms of architecture. In places where the Arabs made their
impact in Africa, their architectural patrimony is evident. In addition, the
algebraic numbering system is of Arabic origin and is in vogue in nearly all
parts of the world, Africa inclusive. Importantly too, the hijab can be said to be an Arabic interpretation of the Quranic
exhortation to women to be modest in their dressing.[36] This
follows from the fact that the revelation of the message to the prophet
Muhammad was firstly received on Arabian soil and so, the Arabic culture is the
first context in the interpretation of the message of the Quran as adaptable to
the human society. However, Muslim women in Africa, can be seen often dressed
in the hijab. Nevertheless, these
indices of Arabization may well be seen as equally the exponents of the
islamization of Africa, since both Arabization and Islamization occurred and
still occur almost simultaneously in Africa.
Evaluation
and Conclusion
It
can comfortably be asserted therefore, that islamization is a religious wave
while arabization is a cultural and political wave of civilization. Both of
them seek to establish the civilization that they are wherever they go. One
notes, however, that, in Islam, the religious and the cultural-political
spheres coincide. It is little wonder then that when the Arabs came with the
religion of Islam into Africa, it was easy for the Arabic culture to be
integrated as the religion was integrating and adapting to the African milieu. Indeed,
this was inevitable, because apart from the fact that Islam was spread into
some parts of Africa by the Arabs, Arabic is the language through which the
revelation given to and through prophet Muhammad reached human sensibility. To
this day, Arabic is the official language of worship in any Muslim region in
all parts of the world. In fact, Gordon D. Newby avows that “The majority of
Muslims in the world speak a native language other than Arabic, but the Arabic
language and some aspects of Arab culture bind Muslims together.”[37] Further,
Many scholars credit arabization more to the Arabic traders and islamization to
the itinerant scholars of Islam, the al-Muhajirun,
most of whom accompanied these merchants, most probably as spiritual directors
and as preachers of Islam. The al-Murabitun,[38] also known as the al-Moravids, contributed to the spread of both Islam and Arabic
culture and dominance.
Finally,
it was stated at the beginning of this discourse that the focus of discussion
is the establishment of the fact that the Arabization and Islamization of the
African continent are two different things. It has been noted that this is true,
by and large. It has been recognized also that in some way, the two are
inevitably interwoven. This is so especially in the African case, where Islam
came into this part of the world largely by the efforts of the Arabs, who came
as traders, preachers and soldiers spreading the civilization of Islam and
inevitably, that of Arabic culture. This inevitability follows from fact that
the civilization of Islam is in so many ways itself, Arabized. One sees this
clearly in the fact that Arabic still remains the language of the worship of
Allah among Muslims wherever they can be found. More so, Arabic is the official
and authentic language of the Quran, being the language of revelation to the
prophet Muhammad. Indeed, Muslims believe that the holy Quran cannot, after being
translated from Arabic, remain the holy Quran![39]
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[1] Omari H. Kokole “Islam
and Cultural Changes in Africa” in Nura Alkali et al (eds.) Islam in Africa: Proceedings of the Islam in
Africa Conference (Ibadan: Spectrum Books Limited, 1993), p.234
[2] Joseph Kenny, The Spread of Islam through North to West
Africa, 7th to 19th Centuries (Lagos: Dominican
Publications, 2000), p.13
[3] Abyssinia is present
day Ethiopia.
[4] Omari H. Kokole “Islam
and Cultural Changes in Africa” in Nura Alkali et al (eds.) Islam in Africa: Proceedings of the Islam in
Africa Conference, p.234
[5] Omari H. Kokole “Islam
and Cultural Changes in Africa” in Nura Alkali et al (eds.) Islam in Africa: Proceedings of the Islam in
Africa Conference, p.234
[6] In the introduction of
the book Islam in Contemporary Africa: On
Violence, Terrorism and Development, edited by Afis Ayinde Oladosu, this
feature of Islam is described in these words: “Islam is constantly seen
arriving, returning, never permanently departing.”
[7] Cf. Joseph Kenny, The Spread of Islam through North to West
Africa, 7th to 19th Centuries, p.12
[8] John L. Exposito, Islam: The Straight Path (New York:
Oxford University Press, 2005), p.5
[9] John L. Exposito, Islam: The Straight Path, p.7
[10] Joseph Kenny, The Spread of Islam through North to West
Africa, 7th to 19th Centuries, p.13
[11] Omari H. Kokole “Islam
and Cultural Changes in Africa” in Nura Alkali et al (eds.) Islam in Africa: Proceedings of the Islam in
Africa Conference, p.233
[12] This is probably the
title of the Ethiopian monarch.
[13] Hussein Ahmed “Trends
and Issues in the History of Islam in Ethiopia” in Nura Alkali et al (eds.) Islam in Africa: Proceedings of the Islam in
Africa Conference (Ibadan: Spectrum Books Limited, 1993), p.206
[14] Joseph Kenny, The Spread of Islam through North to West
Africa, 7th to 19th Centuries, p.13
[15] John L. Exposito, Islam: The Straight Path, p.2
[16] Cf. Joseph Kenny, The Spread of Islam through North to West
Africa, 7th to 19th Centuries, p.15
[17] Cf. Joseph Kenny, The Spread of Islam through North to West
Africa, 7th to 19th Centuries, pp.15-17
[18] Nubia was also known as
Kush. Nubia is today part of Northern Sudan and Southern Egypt.
[19] Hussein Ahmed “Trends
and Issues in the History of Islam in Ethiopia” in Nura Alkali et al (eds.) Islam in Africa: Proceedings of the Islam in
Africa Conference, pp.205-208
[20] Joseph Kenny dedicates
the whole of chapter three of his book The
Spread of Islam through North to West Africa, 7th to 19th
Centuries (2000) to the Arabic cum Islamic conquest of the Maghrib.
[21] Maghrib also known as Maghreb
is the Arabic word for West (sunset). The geographical designation covered
areas of the western part of North Africa.
[22] Cf. Muhammad Nura
Alkali “Islam in the Central Bilad al-Sudan and the Emergence of the Kingdom of
Kanem” in Nura Alkali et al (eds.) Islam
in Africa: Proceedings of the Islam in Africa Conference, p.170
[23] Cf. Nehemiah Levtzion
and Randall L. Pouwels “Patterns of
Islamization and Varieties of Religious Experience among Muslims of Africa” in
Nehemiah Levtzion and Randall L. Pouwels (eds.) The History of Islam in Africa (Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2002),
p.1
[24] Gordon D. Newby, A Concise Encyclopedia of Islam (Oxford:
Oneworld Publications, 2004), p.28
[25] The Land of the Blacks
[26] Nehemiah Levtzion and
Randall L. Pouwels “Patterns of
Islamization and Varieties of Religious Experience among Muslims of Africa” in
Nehemiah Levtzion and Randall L. Pouwels (eds.) The History of Islam in Africa, p.1
[27] Nehemiah Levtzion
“Islam in the Bilad al-Sudan to 1800” in Nehemiah Levtzion and Randall L.
Pouwels (eds.) The History of Islam in
Africa, p.63
[28]
Cf. A. Rahman I. Doi “Spread of Islam in West Africa
(part 2 of 3): The Empires of Mali and Songhay” http://www.islamreligion.com/articles/303/spread-of-islam-in-west-africa-part-2/
accessed 6/12/2015
[29]
Cf. A. Rahman I. Doi “Spread
of Islam in West Africa (part 3 of 3): The Empires of Kanem-Bornu and
Hausa-Fulani Land” http://www.islamreligion.com/articles/302/spread-of-islam-in-west-africa-part-3/ accessed
6/12/2015
[30] Cf. A.
Rahman I. Doi “Spread of Islam in West Africa (part 3 of 3): The Empires
of Kanem-Bornu and Hausa-Fulani Land” http://www.islamreligion.com/articles/302/spread-of-islam-in-west-africa-part-3/ accessed 6/12/2015
[31] Randall I. Powels “The
East African Coast: c.780 to 1900CE” in Nehemiah Levtzion and Randall L.
Pouwels (eds.) The History of Islam in
Africa, p.251
[32] Robert C. H. Shell
“Islam in Southern Africa, 1652-1998” in Nehemiah Levtzion and Randall L.
Pouwels (eds.) The History of Islam in
Africa, p.327
[33] Uthman S.A. Ismail, Some Aspects of
Islam in Africa (South Street, UK: Ithaca Press, 2008), p.6
[34] Uthman S.A. Ismail, Some Aspects of
Islam in Africa, p.6
[35] Omari H. Kokole “Islam
and Cultural Changes in Africa” in Nura Alkali et al (eds.) Islam in Africa: Proceedings of the Islam in
Africa Conference, p.240
[36] Cf. Quran 7:26; 24:31;
33:36; 33:53; 33:59
[37] Gordon D. Newby, A Concise Encyclopedia of Islam, p.2
[38] These were soldiers
[39] Gordon D. Newby, A Concise Encyclopedia of Islam, p.4
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