Introduction

The need for commercial expansion as a result of the industrial revolutions in England, France and Germany gave rise to increased competition over newly acquired territories as a source of raw materials.  A multitude of new companies was formed to develop Africa commercially.

European competition over the control of Africa culminated in the Berlin conference of 1884-85; the agreement reached resulted in the division of the Continent into English, French, German, Belgian and Portuguese spheres of influence. The stage was now set for these countries to colonize their respective spheres of influence.

In order to give way to a subservient political order, the colonies underwent a total transformation; new institutions replaced the old.  Secularism became the new driving force for progress and development, and nationalism the new ‘cementing' element in the modern societies.  This was achieved throughout the introduction of a myriad of new ideas developed in Western Europe.

A new elite was created through education and patronage to perform the role of intermediaries.  When power was transferred to this new elite to run the newly emerging nation-States that came into existence at the departure of the colonial powers, subservience became a permanent condition.

Africa had been prepared for colonization by three centuries of the slave trade, which had removed millions of young African man and women from their homes to become slaves in America.  This coupled with the long period of oppression made Africa an easy target for European occupation.

West Africa had known Islam since the ninth century CE.  In the course of history, Muslims in Africa produced great centres of learning and commerce and created great empires.  When the French occupied this area, during the nineteenth century, the Arabic language functioned as the official language of discourse between monarchs and governors.  It was also the language of scholarship and all legal and diplomatic proceedings.  The use of Arabic was not only restricted to Muslim kings but also extended even to pagan rulers.

Initially, the French colonial administration accepted Arabic as the language of communication.  Official proclamations and announcements of the period were routinely written in Arabic in the official newspaper of the day, the Moniteur du Senegal.  During the period of French military conquest, mainly before 1900.  Muslin opposition led by Ulama, such a Mamadu Lamine, al-Hajj Umar and Samory was ruthlessly crushed.  Once this period was over, pragmatism took over as the French policy towards Islam.1

French Islamic Policy

The problems associated with administering large territories with only a small number of European personnel, necessitated the creation of a class of intermediaries.  The Muslims who supported the French took up this role.  They had the crucial advantage not only of being literate but also of having experience in the art of ruling.2

In 1879, the director of Political Affairs for Senegal encouraged his best interpreters to learn Arabic, which was also used by commercial houses in their transactions in the hinterland.3  During this period the French even allowed the application of Islamic Law to be continued simple because it was easily available in book form and was familiar not only to the Muslim population, but also to the non-Muslim.4

These measures were based on the twin assumptions of pragmatism and the widely held view that, ‘Islam represented a necessary stage of cultural evolution between pure barbarism and the understanding of higher French civilization'.  Quellien was voicing the administration's view when he said: ‘Muslim propaganda is a step towards civilization in West Africa, and it is universally recognized that the Muslim peoples of these regions are superior to those who has remained fetishist, in social organization, intellectual culture, commerce, industry, well-being. The struggle for life and education'.5  O'Brien has called it ‘assimilation policy in retreat'; the difficulties of direct assimilation having been considered insuperable, Islam was found useful as an intermediate stage in the development from ‘fetishness' to French status.6
The impact of men like August Comte (1798-1857) on the development of human thought and civilization had a considerable effect on the thinking of French and British colonial officials.  Comte considered the history of Europe as synonymous with the history of the human race and believed that all civilizations would necessarily develop along the same lines as western civilization.  He maintained, in his ‘Law of the Three Stages of Intellectual Development', that human thought gradually evolves, passing from the lowest stage, the theological stage, to an intermediate stage, the metaphysical stage to the most advanced stage, the scientific or positivist stage.7

The thinking of Comte, coupled with the Darwinian theory of evolution, provided the moral justification for colonization; Europe was not only right to exploit the mineral resources of Africa, but also has a civilizational mission.  In the early stages of colonial administration, therefore, Islam was ‘encouraged', as Governor Faidgerbe, who laid the foundations of French Islamic policy in West Africa, believed that Islam could be used both as a vehicle for the diffusion of a higher degree of civilization among Africans and as an instrument for the unification of French-occupied West Africa.8

This necessitated the creation of ‘a controlled, a malleable, a pliable Islam that they could twist and bend to their purposes'.9  To achieve this, Muslims were, on occasion, given special privileges, donations were made towards the construction of mosques, and passages were paid to Makkah.  But where there was any hint of opposition Muslims were either harassed, imprisoned or deported.  This patronage helped in created a breed of pliable ulama, or religious elite.

The secular Muslim elite was created through education, starting with medersas or Franco-Arabic colleges.  These ‘Medersas' taught French language and culture in combination with Arabic and Islamic sciences ‘to create an Islamic elite both loyal to the regime and equipped with the requisite skills to serve the administration'.10  An analysis of the curriculum reveals that in each week twice as much time was spent on French sciences as on Arabic.11

However, during the early period the French administration was more concerned with using leaders of Sufi orders either as informal or even as formal agents of administration that with the secular Muslim elite.  Apart from Faidherbe, other administrators who contributed greatly in developing a coherent policy included Robert Arnaud, Xavier Copoolani, Emile Combes and La Chatelier.  Many of them had previous experience in dealing with Muslims in Algeria, where France had successfully constructed a sort of ‘official Islam' with ‘administrative mosques', the faithful covered by a census, civil service cadis, pilgrimage by authorization and a new model code, the bastard product of Muslim law and French jurisprudence.12

Combes proposed a similar policy for West Africa as well as other colonies:

In the first place it would appear useful to study the possibility of placing the spiritual and temporal heads of the religious brotherhoods under our direction ... They could help to attract the sympathy of our Muslim natives if, instead of keeping them at a distance, out of a sort of traditional distrust, we could give them the title of Imam of their various zawiyas, and make them submit for our approbation the diplomas they give their moqaddim.  Once these dispositions had been taken, the choice of the chioukh themselves would be ratified by our administration.  We would place the Chioukh-El-Islam, supreme heads of the Muslim religion, who would be intermediaries with an interest in aiding our work of surveillance and moral reform.13

Robert Arnaud suggested procedures which might be used to win over the leaders of the brotherhoods:

The first method constitutes a sort of decapitation of the brotherhood: it means winning over the leaders with material advantages which are easy to find when one has the administrative resources of the country at one's disposal ... A second procedure is to encourage the internal dissentions which the ambitions of certain persons exists within the brotherhood ... the principle of divide et imperas is here more applicable than ever.14

In 1906, Arnaud was entrusted with a mission by Governor General Roume to ravel throughout West Africa to prepare a report on the situation of Islam.  This was followed by a series of studies by Paul Marty on Islam in the various French territories of West Africa.  The object of such studies was, in large part, to provide assessments of individual Muslim notables, particularly with regard to their attitudes towards the French authority.  These studies were also pre-occupied with the ‘threat of pan-Islamism'.  As concern for the protection of the Uthmaniyyah Khilafat grew among the Muslims of West Africa ‘localization' of Islam became a major concern for the wider Ummah was discouraged.  In 1908, Arabic newspapers from abroad were banned.  In 1910, some local Arabic newspapers were seized; the instruction from the Governor-General was to exclude ‘all pan-Islamic' propaganda in West Africa.  This included everything in Arabic except the Qur'an and ‘strictly religious' books.15

Froelich has summarized the policy adopted towards the leaders of the brotherhoods: ‘We have favoured the heads of the brotherhoods and organized the travels of the great marabout while asking them, in exchange, to pacify spirits; we have treated them with the greatest honours; we have, at their demand, constructed schools, medersas and even mosques'.16  Once success had been achieved in this area, French policy took a new turn.

The appointments of William Ponty as Governor-General (1908-19156) introduced a new twist to French Islamic policy. Ponty favoured what he termed a politique des races, under which traditional chiefs were given greater powers that they had so far possessed.  The aim of such a policy was to preserve ethnic particularism by ensuring that each ethnic group had a chief appointed from among its own people.  The politique des races encouraged ethnic separatism and was intended to prevent the spread of Islam to non-Muslims.  The use of Arabic for official purposes was now to be avoided.17
Ponty's successor, Governor-General Clozel, gave further encouragement to the politque des races.  He believed in a greater degree of respect for ‘fetishism' and for the use of traditional (i.e. pagan) rather than Muslim law in courts.  According to him, the ulama were to be watched carefully and allowed to travel only with an administrative permit.  Mosques and Muslim schools were to be built only be administrative authorization which was rarely given.18

Clozel's policy was primarily designed to ‘build barriers' in order to prevent the further diffusion of Islam by making use of traditional pre-Islamic beliefs.  It was realized that Christian missionaries could offer no effective opposition to Islam.19  Their activities were regulated, but the motive was not religious, as religion was merely the tool of the policy.20  This failure of the Church made secular education imperative; if the Muslims could not be converted to Christianity they must be secularized.

British colonial policy towards Islam in West Africa was no different.  It was grounded in similar notions of social, cultural and intellectual development and guided by similar political considerations.21

French opposition to Islam manifested itself in four ways.  First, in the persecution of resisting Islamic leaders.  Second, in the persecution of teachers of traditional Islamic sciences.  Third, in the separation of the Muslims in West Africa from co-religionists in other parts of the Muslim world.  Finally, in the distortion and ‘paganization' of Islam.

In its attempts to contain Islam the colonial administration actively persecuted those religious leaders who had not pledged allegiance to French colonial rule.  Slanderous fabrications were officially spread to lands and some even executed.  French persecution was particularly intensive from 1905-1912, when a chain of imprisonments spread across French West Africa, from Senegal to Niger and from Mauritania to Guinea.

Robert Arnaud, whose advice on Islamic matters was extremely influential in the period before the First World War, justified these actions: ‘Even if we don't admit ourselves the right to meddle into the religious affairs of a people, we are compelled to concern ourselves with individuals who desire to lead it [West Africa] in the direction of Islamic revolution'.22
The teachers of traditional Islamic science also came under strict surveillance.  Arnaud said:

It is not enough that we require a Qur'anic medersa (school) to be licensed, it is also incumbent that we closely observe those responsible for it.  The medersa's teachings and its effectiveness must be a subject of concern, at all times, for the officials of the various departments.  They should know what might result from teaching on application to public and private life.  They must be aware of what influence visiting Shaikhs, roaming Shaikhs and returning pilgrims must have...23

As stated above, after occupying West Africa, the colonialists concentrated on separating the Muslim of West Africa from the rest of the Islamic world.  Visits from foreign Muslims were restricted; observers were appointed to supervise those visits that were sanctioned.  Those who wished to perform the Pilgrimage were required to obtain licensees and procedures were made highly complicated.  On this point Arnaud writes: ‘As far as the colonial authorities are aware, those Senegalese who have traveled to Makkah in the last five years do not exceed in number eleven pilgrims or a handful'.24

In order to create disharmony among the Muslims, Islam was distorted by the infusion of local characteristic.  Arnaud wrote: ‘We have before us an honourable task in promoting in West Africa the development and persistence of an "African Islam"- in this fullest sense.  We should administer its formation in accordance with the particular ideology of every group'.25

Likewise, the colonial administration sought to entice minds in West Africa into re-envisioning Islam thorough the notions of black consciousness, on the pattern of Black Christianity in southern Africa.  Towards this end Arnaud wrote: ‘In southern Africa Christians (whose numbers are many) are proceeding to found a completely black church -named "Habashiya".  It befits us to move towards the founding of a "Habashiya Islam" in the region of West Africa'.26

French education and its Goals

The French education system in West Africa reflected their policy of assimilation.  An official document of 1909 relating to French Guinea states that one of the main aims of French education should be to ‘make of the school an instrument for the diffusion of our civilization'.  The other two aims were to train local auxiliaries, clerks, telephonists and so on, and to train skilled artisans.  The curriculum in these schools was entirely French; Arabic and Islamic studies were excluded.27

As graduates from these schools started to come off the production line, the French insisted that all African employees of the administration must be qualified from French schools and be fluent in French.  This created a demand for French education and gradually attracted young men away from the Islamic system of education.  To further this aim, financial inducements were provided for parents to send their children to French schools.  Teachers in Qur'anic schools were offered financial bonuses is they included the French language in their curricula.

The Governor-General of French West Africa decreed on 15 July 1903, and 12 June 1912, the following:

-The requirement of licensing for all new Qur'anic school.
-The power to close Qur'anic schools for public safety or for reason of unsanitary conditions.
-The prohibition of the religious instruction of children between the ages of six and sixteen during public school hours.
-An annual grant of 300 francs to every Qur'anic school that agreed to teach the French language for at least two hours every day.

Such measures were intended to extend a degree of control over Islamic education.  But the offer failed to lure any teacher.  No one agreed to alter his curriculum or requested a license to open a Qur'anic school.  However, having lost their place of eminence as centres of learning and scholarship which they had occupied prior to the coming of the French to the area, they were soon reduced to insignificance.

Christian Evangelism: its Growth and its Goals

The first arrival of a monk to Senegal was in 1779.  He took up residence in Saint Louis, the occupied portion of Senegal at that time.  In 1840, three Senegalese were elevated to the position of priesthood for the first time.  Monasteries were established in 1819 in Saint Louis, thus preparing the way for the arrival of a wave of missionaries in 1845.  In the earlier years, with the support of the authorities, Christianity rapidly spread.  In 1857, a large school for monks was opened.  In 1863, Rome sent an Episcopal representative to Seneghambia.

The problem of Islam, however, soon confronted the bishops.  It became clear to them that the conversion of the pagan religions was significantly easier than that of the Muslim regions.  Senegal was considered a Muslim region.  Missionary groups responsible for Senegal decided that it was more advantageous to send the bet of their missionaries to region more likely to accept Christianity such as Cameroon, the Congo and Gabon.  Senegal, considered impenetrable, was left to the colonial administration to deal with.  Despite this there were some 5 percent Christian converts at the time of independence in 1960.  Power was transferred to this minority as it could be relied upon more to uphold colonial norms and values.  (Leopold Sedar Senghor was president of Senegal for twenty years, 1960-79.)

Christian missionaries were an integral part of colonialism.  Missionaries in a particular colony were largely national of the colonizing State.  Nationals of another European state were required to register with the colonial administration, especially if they were aligned with conflicting sects within Christianity (for example, Catholics as opposed to Protestants).

The Missionary Approach

Education

All level of education, from nursery to university, were employed as a means to spread the gospel.  This first school in Saint Louis was opened in 1821.  At that time schools were under the control of the Christian Society for Brotherhood.  It was soon realized, however, that Muslim parents had an aversion to missionary schools.  As a result, the first secular school in Senegal opened in 1860.  In 1906, this school, then known as the School for the Sons of Chiefs, we renamed a medersa, or Franco-Arabic College.  Similar medersas were established at Timbuktu, at Djenne and at Boutilimit in Mauritania.

Medicine and Relief

A conference of missionaries held in Senegal, in 1924, declared that ‘medicine is one of the best ways to proselytize to Christianity'.  Concern for health in Africa first came from missionary societies in 1840.  The goal at that time was to protect European missionaries from African diseases.  The first medical mission was sent to West Africa in 1892 by a missionary church.  Another medical mission dispatched to the cost soon followed, and remained there from 1895-1907.

In recent times, aid coming from western countries through either relief agencies or international Christian missions is distributed to the poor and bereaved through local church societies.  This aid, especially if in the form of medicines, helps reinforce the wealth of local churches, and assists them in their missionary task.  The drought in areas of Africa had provided missionaries with an opportunity to extend their influence.  The fact that no Islamic organization exists to provide any aid whatsoever, either at the local or the international level, ahs created a vacuum for the missionaries to fill.

The Challenges to Islamic Society

The undermining of three fundamental pillars of Islamic society, Islamic doctrine (‘Aqidah), Islamic Law (Shari'ah) and Islamic brotherhood (Ukhuwwah), has been the goal of all western education.

Islamic doctrine (‘Aqidah) was made a target of attack because of its important role in guarding Muslim societies from the assimilated effects of subservience to western thought.  The Islamic Law (Shari'ah) shields Muslim societies from the circulation of vice and immorality amongst its individuals and communities.  Because of its role in arming Muslim society against exploitation, it was targeted for elimination.  The Islamic brotherhood (Ukhuwwah) was targeted, because it acted as a strong bond between the individuals and communities of a single nation as well as between Muslim nations throughout the world.

Instruments of French Policy Implementation

Secular Education

Secular Education was envisions as the main instrument leading to the distortion and disintegration of the grip of Islamic doctrine on Muslim society.

The Law

A secular legal system, with legislative bodies, was imposed over the long established Islamic legal system, where legal decisions (fatawa) of the religious scholars (Ulama) played the legislative role.

Nationalism

Nationalism was imposed over the traditional perspective of Islamic brotherhood.  This was intended to cause the disintegration of Muslim unity through the construction of internal and external barriers between Muslims.

Neo-Colonialism

Colonialism prepared for the colonists' departure by appointing nationalists and secularists to succeed them.  Positions of authority were restricted to them, in the hope that they might be able to prise Muslims away from Islam and instead attach them to western ways.

They claimed and boasted that they were the harbingers of freedom and independence.  They were, on the contrary, no more than the henchmen of the departed colonialists were.  They would, hypocritically, claim to be the protectors of the people, while at the same time perform as their hangmen.  Marching hand in hand with their foreign sponsors, they deceived and misled many.

In each departed colony, colonialism left behind a time-bomb that would explode at a propitious time in the future.  As the civilian nationalist elite failed to deliver the goods, these time-bombs began to explode.  These bombs were in the form of the military of the new States.  Soon the military elite began to take charge of the civilization goals of their former colonial masters with much greater vigour and oppression.

The period of colonialism is not over yet.