Muslim Space invites you to participate in a 3-part Ramadan halaqa titled Revolutionary Ramadan. The third session will be led by Br. Yahaya Halidu
“Revolutionary Ramadan: Impact of Colonialism on Islam and Muslim Societies in West Africa”.
We are fortunate to have Br. Yahaya Halidu present the third session.
About the topic
Today, people in present-day West Africa feel they’ve lost something. In this talk, we aim to try to go back to the archives and reconstruct this history. People have a sense of loss, and they need an empirical accounting of what the loss is. Learning about colonialism and the resultant violence (and resistance associated with such ills of colonial rule), from historical archives allows people to contextualize the uncomfortable and heavy topics they see in the media daily and through readings of the rewritings of historical accounts. As such, this talk explores the impact of British & French imperialism on states in colonial West Africa. The work attempts to examine colonial West African states’ social, political, religious and economic structures both within the context of the colonial power structure and among the local states. This present seminar seeks to challenge the efforts to water-down the devastating effects and significant impact of colonialism on Islam in Africa and Muslim Societies by highlighting the role of the Traditional Rulers and educated elites in tandem with the British & French imperial policies and how those impacted Islamic societies. To unravel this, the talk requires the explanation of longitudinal social transformations, overtime politico-economic activities, natives’ propositions, British and French imperial policies, and their denouement. In brief, the talk seeks to highlight the role of the Traditional Rulers and educated West Africans in what could be classified as the processes of institutionalization and bureaucratization in colonial States.
This talk will also examine the historical distaste for secular education within Muslim communities and the growing enthusiasm of West African Ministries of Education in transforming Qur'anic schools to integrate secular subjects. The popularity of the Qur'anic schools has remained as places - either under trees, at courtyards, or at street corners - where pupils simply recited the Qur'an, relevant only because it is fundamentally religious. We will center on how those colonial policies have had lasting impacts on Islam and Muslim societies in general and why Muslims still battle the conundrum of secular education to this day and age.
About the presenter
Br. Yahaya Halidu, from Northern Ghana, is a PhD student in African History at UT Austin. He holds multiple master’s degrees, has more than 10 years of teaching experience, published in prestigious journals, and received numerous awards, including UT Austin’s History Fellowship and Turkish Government Scholarship.