"Ein Dialog der Taubstummen": Französische vs. britische Wahrnehmungen des Islam im spätkolonialen Westafrika

This paper looks at the perception of Islam and Muslims in West Africa by French and British colonial administrators. It analyzes the political consequences this perception had, as well as its later repercussions on the post-colonial understanding of Islam in Africa. At the same time, this article offers the first comparative analysis of French and British Islamic policies. The case of the Tijâniyya Sufi order serves as the point of departure to show how the two colonial powers tried to make use of Muslims in order to achieve political control and to pursue their colonial interests. However, French and British administrators did not agree on who their enemies among the Muslims were, and each side cultivated its own idea of a "Franco-African" or a "British-African" Islam. The resulting "dialogue of the deaf-and-dumb" - as one French administrator put it - did not only lead to the failure of the Franco-British collaboration in the field of Muslim policy: it also helped many colonial views of Islam to persist as an obstacle for a deeper understanding of the evolution of Muslim societies in West Africa.