Sun 07 July 2019:
In this interview, we explore the early history of Islam in West Africa with Professor Ousmane Kane, who has mapped out the networks of Islamic learning in the region. We discuss intellectual history, the curricula of madrasas and a day in the life of a 16th-century student in Sankore. We then turn to the role of language in West African Muslim intellectual production, and the effects of colonialism on education, broadly. West African Islam is neglected by both Islamic Studies and African studies, despite its rich history, from the first centuries of Islam to the present. We end with a discussion of how these disciplines draw boundaries that have thus far discouraged many from looking beyond material exchange in Timbuktu to the broader study of Islamic intellectual history in West Africa.
Ousmane Oumar Kane holds the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Chair on Contemporary Islamic Religion and Society at the Harvard Divinity School and the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization at Harvard University. Kane studies the history of Islamic religious institutions and organizations, and he is engaged in documenting the intellectual history of Islam in Africa. Kane has also focused on the phenomenon of Muslim globalization.
