Fatou Sow writing in Open Democracy:
Secularism is being challenged in several Sub-Saharan African states which have long guarded it as a principle of governance. Its preservation is important for the protection of women's citizen rights from religious interventions.
image via Institute of African Studies
Sub-Saharan Africa includes all of the States to the south of the Sahara. It makes up a large part of the continent, subdivided into four big regions: west Africa, east Africa, central Africa and southern Africa. The largest Muslim population lives in north Africa ( Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt), but one in three people in sub-Saharan Africa is also Muslim. This population lives mainly in west Africa (Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Cameroon, Chad, Ivory Coast, Niger, Guinea, Nigeria etc.). There are also significant Muslim communities in central and east Africa, although these vary in size according to the country (Sudan, Chad, Tanzania, Somalia, the Comoros, etc.). Islamisation goes back a long way in this region, although again this depends on the country. My interest in the links between religion and politics relates only to west Africa and those states where populations are majority Muslim. The questions which interest me concern the links between Muslims (and not Islam as a religion) and politics, and the impact of this link on societies. I prefer to talk of Muslims, rather than Islam as a system of beliefs and values...[continue reading]
