The Dynamics of Liberian Vai Culture and Islam

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Periodical article

Title:	The Dynamics of Liberian Vai Culture and Islam
Author:	Holsoe, Svend E.
Year:	1987
Periodical:	Liberian Studies Journal
Volume:	12
Issue:	2
Pages:	135-148
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Liberia
Subjects:	Islam Vai Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Religion and Witchcraft
Abstract:	This paper addresses Islam from the point of view of the Liberian Vai. The concern is to understand Vai society, particularly their religious beliefs and practices and to see how Vai people accepted and/or rejected different aspects of Islam as presented to them at various times during the last one hundred and seventy-five years. It appears that Islam began its spread in the Vai area at the beginning of the nineteenth century, with a limited acceptance of those practices which were most congruent. The behaviour, dress and beliefs of the Muslim clerics also determined their acceptance. Politically upward mobile individuals capitalized on the respect and fear - the differences - which the Muslim held in the eyes of the Vai, using the Muslim's influence to act as an alternative means of sanctifying their political position. However, most Vai turned toward the new opportunity of Islam as an adaptive move only in the 1920s and later, following the Liberian government's removal of capital punishment from the hands of Vai Poro leaders, a move which shook the Vai core belief structure, and the abolition of internal servitude. Bibliogr.