Unveiling Modernity in Twentieth-Century West African Islamic Reforms

Contesting the idea that the rise of Islamism in the Western African countries of Ghana and Burkina Faso were imposed from without, Kobo (history, Ohio State U.) traces the local contingencies that led to the rise of Wahhabi-influenced programs in the region, finding a connection between the search for spiritual purity and the ideas of modernity that helped draw on dissatisfaction and undermine Sufi religious norms. These local roots of Wahhabi influence are traced through biographical analyses of the leading Islamic scholars that promoted Wahhabi ideas in Ghana and Burkina Faso, which lead Kobo to find the beginnings of the rise of Wahhabi institutions in an alliance that developed between Arabophone scholars and Muslims educated in colonial institutions. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Ousman Murzik Kobo, Ph.D (2005), University of Wisconsin-Madison, is Professor of History at Ohio State University. His research and teaching interests include 20th century West African social and religious history as well as the social history of West African migrants in the United States. His publications include The Development of Wahhabi Reforms in Ghana and Burkina Faso, 1960–1990: Elective Affinities between Western-Educated Muslims and Islamic Scholars (Comparative Studies in Society and History, 2009).