A workshop with Murtala Ibrahim, Brian Larkin, Abdullahi Shehu, Mamadou Diouf, Matthew Engelke, and M. Sani Umar.

In recent years religious movements in Nigeria have increasingly sought to assert themselves by taking over public space. This occurs physically, through the massing of bodies, but also visually through posters, stickers, banners, and sonically through public preaching and loudspeakers. While these actions have roots in doctrines and rituals internal to religious movements they are also a means to assert mastery in highly rivalrous and competitive religious environment. Accusations about the ‘invasion’ of public space by other religious movements and abuse over loudspeakers and have become increasingly tense and have given rise to bitter conflict. Repeated attempts to impose limits, or ban outright, the use of loudspeakers, public preaching and public assemblies indicate just divisive this issue is, not just between religions but within them as well. While control of space has always been an element of religious practice, this is now central to the operations and expansion of contemporary religious movements. It is a means of asserting identity, attracting adherents and imposing control. 

This workshop examines the relation between religion and public space focusing on Muslim movements in Northern Nigeria. It approaches the question in three main ways. First it brings to the foreground the many and diverse ways Muslim movements assert their presence over public space and the response by other movements and by the state. Second, it shows – in contradistinction to contemporary arguments – that these issues are not new and that control of public space has long been an aspect of West African religious life: from the masquerade tradition, to the rise of mass Sufi movements in the 1950s, to the emergence of African Independent Churches in the 1960s and 1970s.  Finally, while we recognize these actions emerge from deep traditions within religious movements they also reveal  a common religious ecology. Different religious movements – often bitter enemies – end up developing practices that borrow from each other even while they are in competition. We seek to draw out the broader nature of this mixed religious ecology.

Presenters:
Murtala Ibrahim (Utrecht University)
Brian Larkin (Anthropology, Barnard)
Abdullahi Shehu (Bayero University Kano)

Responders:
Mamadou Diouf (MESAAS, Columbia)
Matthew Engelke (Religion, Columbia)
M. Sani Umar (Ahmadu Bello University

This is a discussion-based workshop and depends upon participants reading the pre-circulated papers ahead of time. Email mp3699@columbia.edu to register.

This workshop is part of the Rethinking Public Religion in Africa and South Asia project at IRCPL (in collaboration with the Institute for African Studies and the South Asia Institute). The project is funded by the Henry Luce Foundation.