Islam in Africa 
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| Title: | Islam in Ghana: its major influences and the situation today |
| Author: | Ryan, Patrick J. |
| Year: | 1996 |
| Periodical: | Orita: Ibadan Journal of Religious Studies |
| Volume: | 28 |
| Issue: | 1-2 |
| Pages: | 70-84 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Ghana |
| Subjects: | Islam Hausa Manding |
| Abstract: | Muslims in Ghana today account for 15 percent of the population. The main sources of Islamic influence in Ghana are the Wangara and the Hausa. The Wangara Muslims from the Mande cultural area of West Africa came to what is now the Brong-Ahafo region to trade in gold as early as the 15th century. Well-known for their nonproselytizing presence in non-Muslim or traditionalist areas, they have gradually emerged from their religious quarantaine and become assimilated as Gonja or Wala or Asante Nkramo ('Muslims of Asante'). The Hausa influence was more Islamizing than that of the Wangara. Contact with the Hausa, especially after the Fulani jihad in Hausaland (1804-1809), created a militant attitude among Hausa Muslims and the Hausa 'zongos' (encampments) had a great formative effect on the Dagomba, the Mamprusi and other chieftaincy societies in northeastern Ghana. The Wangara and Hausa Islamic traditions meet and mix in Ghana's larger urban centres, especially in the southern half of the country. In addition, the urban areas have over several decades experienced various traditions of Islam coming from South Asia and the Middle East, and inner-Muslim tensions have been evident in the development of Ghanaian Muslim society over the past few decades. Notes, ref. |