Islam in Africa 
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| Title: | Jihad as Dialectical Movement and Formation of Islamic Identity among the Fulbe |
| Author: | Shimada, Yoshihito |
| Year: | 1993 |
| Periodical: | Senri Ethnological Studies |
| Issue: | 35 |
| Pages: | 87-117 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | West Africa |
| Subjects: | jihads Fulani State Religion and Witchcraft Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) |
| Abstract: | What is the role played by the Fulbe in the so-called Fulani jihads and the subsequent formation of Islamic theocratic States in West Africa in the 18th and 19th century? How have the Fulbe changed during this process? The author addresses these questions, arguing that the Fulbe jihads were synthetic movements of a highly complex nature involving political, economic and religious elements. Both the Fulbe and the Toorodbe or other indigenous Islamic clerics had an important role. They combined in a complementary manner to create a new Islamic world. In the process, the Fulbe conquerors changed radically so as to be integrated into the Islamic super-ethnic society which they had fought to construct. In this sense, the Fulbe jihads were dialectical 'self-destructing' movements. The Fulbe conquerors settled, abandoning their pastoral way of life and their ethnic solidarity. They developed intimate socioeconomic relationships with their 'maccube' (captives) and entered into a new commercial economy. Fulbe sedentarization 'liberated' the Fulbe from pastoralism and from pastoralist marital strategies. Cattle were no longer immobile capital and could be used for economic, political and religious ends, underpinning the newly established Islamic society resulting from the jihads and leading to the emergence of an 'Islamic cattle complex'. Examples are taken mainly from the Fulbe jihad in old Adamawa, northern Cameroon, in particular the case of Rey-Buuba, where the author carried out field research in 1979-1980. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. |