Beyond Mande Mory

Beyond Mande Mory. Islam and Ethnicity in Côte d’Ivoire Robert Launay, Marie Miran-Guyon To cite this version: Robert Launay, Marie Miran-Guyon. Beyond Mande Mory. Islam and Ethnicity in Côte d’Ivoire: Islam and Ethnicity in Côte d’Ivoire. PAIDEUMA. Mitteilungen zur Kulturkunde, Frobenius Institute, 2000, 46, pp.63 - 84. ฀halshs-01062678v2฀ HAL Id: halshs-01062678 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01062678v2 Submitted on 31 May 2017 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. 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Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms Frobenius Institute is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Paideuma: Mitteilungen zur Kulturkunde This content downloaded from 193.54.110.56 on Mon, 22 May 2017 08:23:28 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Paideuma 46:63-84 (2000) BEYOND MANDE MORY Islam and Ethnicity in Cote d'lvoire Robert Launay and Marie Miran Introduction The categorisation of African peoples was a necessary adjunct to its colonial a tion by Europeans. This is hardly surprising if one accepts Foucault's assertio "power and knowledge directly imply one another [...] there is no power relatio out the correlative constitution of a field of knowledge, nor any knowledge not presuppose and constitute at the same time power relations" (Foucault Specifically, in the case of the French (and no doubt of other colonial powers the first intellectual tasks of the colonial administration was the classif Africans in terms of ethnicity and religion. Africans were divided into discret a term which, in French, does not necessarily carry as aggressively racist a con as in English (Amselle and M'Bokolo 1985). At the same time, they were ca as "fetichistes" with various beliefs and practices, or as Muslims, and further followers of one or another Sufi brotherhood (Harrison 1988). At first glance, it might seem that the logics of classification by ethnicity gion are diametrically opposed. Ethnicity is, in principle, relatively fixed and tary. Religion, on the other hand, is relatively fluid and potentially a matter o al choice. As far as the French authorities were concerned, this was particularl in the case of the 'fetishist' majority, potential converts to Christianity but course, to Islam. Moreover, the very processes whereby colonial administrato at these classifications seem to differ radically. Ethnicity itself, it has been ar very much a construction of colonial systems of knowledge (Amselle and 1985; Amselle 1990). This is not to suggest by any means that ethnic categori entirely a figment of the colonial imagination, but rather that, out of a welte parate and sometimes contradictory markers of identity and distinction authorities chose to privilege certain ones and to ignore others entirely in ord struct a mosaic of discrete and exclusive 'ethnies'. The very act of naming wa colonial gesture, if only because, often, as one of the leading scholar/administr the early colonial period lamented in a monographic study of "the Siena or S people", "[...] the people in question do not always seem to acknowledge name for themselves" (Delafosse 1908/09:17; translation by R.L. and M.M. harder to argue that Islam per se was a colonial construction. The selfsame A who might not be able to identify themselves as "Senoufo" were quite capabl cating whether or not they were Muslim. This content downloaded from 193.54.110.56 on Mon, 22 May 2017 08:23:28 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 64 Robert Launay and Marie Miran The real power of these colonial categorie administrative utility - the order they c political - or as a discourse, akin to Orienta cise of colonial authority. Rather, it was m with which Africans themselves came to tak In this respect, ethnic and religious categor to represent the primary idioms of identit However, precisely to the extent that Afri religious and ethnic communities, these dialectic relationship with one another. In o 'ethnicity' and 'religion' only made sense in assumed a dynamic of its own which eluded colonial states. This question has arisen with particular ac the remarkable diversity of the colony (an cultural, and religious terms. The country is the southern half consisting of rainforest w The area is home to approximately sixty dif ent major language families. Broadly speakin alleled by a linguistic divide, with Akan an Mande and Voltaic languages in the north.1 not correspond in precise ways to linguisti religion, aside from the obviously very dis were concealed by colonial rubrics such as ' on their arrival an important Muslim commu out much of the northern zone. Moreover, e began to make significant inroads in the sou only of Roman Catholicism but also of m indeed independent African Churches. We propose to examine in some detail th and ethnicity in Cote d'lvoire. At the ou pended on the articulation of prior system northern savannah zone, with the catego imposed on social realities as a means of un Specifically, Islam was associated with speci "Malinke" and "Dioula". However, such categ To make matters more complicated, the Mande branches. Southern Mande languages - for examp south of the country. Throughout the rest of the ar sively to northern Mande speakers, who acknowle fact, the medieval empire of Mali. This content downloaded from 193.54.110.56 on Mon, 22 May 2017 08:23:28 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms BEYOND MANDE nialism, took Specifically, focused not on on we new enshrining ship cuss in very how actively MORY dynamic shall urban the h centres link why, of show substantial and and a 65 in betwe ways post- self-consciously s nicity. Islam and the Mande in C6te d'Ivoire In an early survey of Islam in the relatively newly created colony of Cote d'lvoire, Marty estimated that about one- sixteenth of the total population of the co - 100.000 out of 1.600.000 inhabitants - were Muslim, the remainder being "anim ou fetichiste". In fact, Marty asserted, "la famille mande [...] renferme tous les m sulmans" (Marty 1922:5). Admittedly, there were exceptions, such as "quel douzaines" of Islamized Senufo and Kulango who, by the virtue of their very con sion - or so Marty suggested - were in the process of becoming "denational (Marty 1922:5; translation by R.L. and M.M.). Elsewhere in his survey, he mentio number of other non-Mande Muslims, for example, a number of Baoule converts the village of Aoussoukro (Marty 1922:52), not to mention a variety of individua labels "Maures", a category which, for Marty, seems to encompass all native speakers, not only from Mauritania but also Algeria, Tunisia, and even the (Marty 1922:69-76). Such exceptions notwithstanding, it was clear that, at the outset of the twent century, almost all the Muslims in Cote d'lvoire were speakers of Mande. Th verse, however, was by no means the case: according to Marty, only one in three M speakers were Muslim (1922:5). In spite of the 'Mande-ness' of Islam in Cote d'lvo (at least in the eyes of colonial observers), the relationship between language, rel and identity was by no means straightforward. First of all, there was consid dialectical variation in the Mande spoken throughout the colony; in some different dialects of Mande were mutually incomprehensible. This is particularly of the dialects spoken in the southern stretches of the savannah towards the we Cote d'lvoire: Mau Kan, spoken around Touba, Worodu Kan around Seguela Konyara Kan around Mankono (Person 1968:52). On the other hand, the fact Mande was the lingua franca of trade throughout the Ivoirian savanna - the northern half of the colony - militated in favour of a certain degree of standardi of the preservation of an mutually intelligible core alongside regional dialectical tion. This content downloaded from 193.54.110.56 on Mon, 22 May 2017 08:23:28 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 66 Robert Launay and Marie Miran The trade networks which had for centu extending well beyond its borders, were ch a religion and the use of Mande as a langua religion so apparent to Marty. On the other not involved to any great extent as particip far less likely to categorize themselves as M tain dyamuw (Mande patronyms), were scholarship. Even now, the praise songs of cialisation: "Cisse ye mande mory ye, Toure are Mande mory). In its most restricted sen Islamic scholar, and individual whose religio domain. Certain dyamuw were renowned fo for example. Much more generally, mory w hereditary membership in certain lineages, Sunni standards of piety: regular prayer fiv Ramadan, abstinence from forbidden foo dards of piety were the hallmark of Muslim many Mande were integrated; specialized were generally of mory status. In the north-west, where Mande speak rubric "Malinke") constituted the overwhel tus and Muslim identity tended to coincide northern Cote dTvoire, where Mande (re the French) lived as a minority among Kulango, Abron - most if not all Mande con essarily mory, lineages of 'warrior' status, in Kong, also usually assumed a Muslim iden religious practice (Launay 1982:23 -47; Gree it was entirely possible for individuals fro practices, without becoming mory themsel religious practices did it become (or for tha outset of the colonial period, almost all Mu majority of Mande were not Muslims; Musl and, even within the Muslim community, itary membership in lineages of different s This content downloaded from 193.54.110.56 on Mon, 22 May 2017 08:23:28 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms BEYOND MANDE MORY 67 Islam and Dioula: Ethnicity under Colonial Rule Entirely unintentionally - in large measure, in contradistinction to the state colonial policy - colonial rule was to transform radically the relationship Islam and ethnic identity. Before the colonial period, Mande speakers had no ment to a common identity as such, even if they spoke a common lang acknowledged a common (but distant) origin in the land of Manden. On the o individuals were the subjects of particular states or chief doms, not all of w ruled by Muslims or for that matter by Mande speakers. On the other, mory scious of belonging to a global network of Muslim traders and clerics wh scended linguistic boundaries. Thus, the great Mande trading towns of Bondoukou each had its marrabaso or Hausa quarter, as clearly shown on the each town drawn up by Binger (1892a:294; 1892b:167). The French acknow invented) a variety of Mande-speaking ethnic groups: Bambara, Marka, Dioula (only the latter two being 'native' to Cote d'lvoire). However, the dynamics of ethnicity did not depend exclusively on the F labelling process. Colonial rule allowed individuals considerably greater f movement, especially throughout Cote d'lvoire but also more generally throu French territories of AOF ( Afrique Occidentale Frangaise) and even to territ the Gold Coast (now Ghana) that were under the control of other coloni Specifically, the whole southern half of Cote d'lvoire, much of which lies wi forest zone, was opened up to 'northerners'. Before the colonial period, the f had in fact been jealously guarded by residents on both sides (Launay 19 shared a common interest in monopolising access to scarce goods, notably ko The opening of this southern frontier was by no means immediate. The paci parts of southern Cote d'lvoire was not complete by the outbreak of the Fir War (Angoulvant 1916; Weiskel 1980). However, as soon as it was safe Mande-speaking communities sprouted in the forest zone, close to the source as entrepots in the long-distance trade, effectively breaking the long-e monopolies of the towns along the frontier. Even more than kola nuts, coffee and cocoa were to make the southern p the country a pole for migration from the north. In the first place, the pla required seasonal wage labour, recruited not only in northern Cote d'lvoire b haps even more, in neighbouring colonies, notably Mali and Upper Vo Burkina Faso). Ultimately, many northerners were able to purchase rights ov land and to establish plantations in their own right, at the cost of incurring able resentment on the part of the local populations (Dupire 196 1985:276-302). More generally, the prosperity of southern Cote d'lvoire thro much of the colonial period and after, compared to the 'underdeveloped' sou within and outside the colony - generated the growth of large and med towns, not to mention the megalopolis that Abidjan was eventually to becom This content downloaded from 193.54.110.56 on Mon, 22 May 2017 08:23:28 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 68 Robert Launay and Marie Miran towns also constituted important poles of from northern Cote d'lvoire were particular mal sector': wholesale and resale trade, tran A very substantial proportion (though migrants were native speakers of Mande. T although Peul and Songhay speakers were a siderable number of Mande speakers from part of the country around Bobo-Dioula d'lvoire during part of the colonial era; how speakers of More (Mossi) or other relate predominated among migrants from nor a considerable numbers of Senufo, who from More). Guinean migrants too, though ers. Around this core of Mande speakers there developed a new identity: Dioula. The term itself had long existed in Mande, to refer to both professional traders and Mand speaking minorities in parts of Cote d'lvoire, but it came to have a qualitatively diffe ent meaning in the south of the country (Launay 1982:106-122). Typically, Dio were Mande speakers, Muslims, and active in the 'informal' sector or, more specific ly, in trade. This association of language, religion, and economy was to have import consequences. The movement of 'northerners', Dioula or otherwise, into south Cote d'lvoire was accelerated by the advent of modern means of transport: first th railroad, extending north from Abidjan and eventually reaching Ouagadougou; a after the Second World War, the diffusion of modern motor transportation and th construction of a network of roads throughout the colony. By the 1950s if not earlie a substantial proportion of the populations of virtually every Mande-speaking com- munity in northern Cote d'lvoire was living in the south. For example, a survey of 14 married males in the village of Kadioha in north-central Cote d'lvoire conducted 1973 found that nearly 40 % were living in other towns of the country (about 23 % the south); that nearly 70 % had spent some time as migrants elsewhere (the v majority for over five years) and that no less than 34 % had lived abroad for ten or more years (Launay 1982:98-99). While one cannot extrapolate such figures too erally for other communities - much less for twenty years or so beforehand - they in cate an order of magnitude which was, to judge from accounts of life histories Kadioha residents, no recent phenomenon. Migrants such as the men and (to a somewhat lesser extent) the women Kadioha and other such villages were easily integrated into the Dioula communities southern Cote d'lvoire. Such integration was virtually obligatory for anyone w wanted to enter the informal trading sector. More to the point, becoming Dioula al entailed becoming 'Muslim', if one was not already. This 'Dioual-ization' of Man speakers in southern Cote d'lvoire led to the virtually total Islamization of Ivoir This content downloaded from 193.54.110.56 on Mon, 22 May 2017 08:23:28 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms BEYOND MANDE Mande, not speakers MORY only in spread, 69 the not town only thr colonies, most notably Mal numbers to their more pro Bamana, whose whelmingly The a or this began to to indeed But to do A one of of impure verts. a melodic, vehicle place, kind for if tions - a sou Dioula the double only pa in th rout education Koran (i invariably aff identity in procedures Abi classified for prescrib Zayd there virtually o family strictly Ibn rel articulation of p wher were the extent, are regu the different not requirements, (kalan), of hardly for of he homoge was standard proper Risala a 'form even urban boys markers mation the of This from important were three communities, Young passages dialec urban regarding inappropriate, received Mande predominate the meats. accountable 1992). in kind by The i shopping. piety speaking e language) population, practiced 2 the rigueur similar ards in official their the Dioula culture. Dioula-kan Ivoirian by a homogeneous emerge as de of name considerable only guage less urban subject (the Muslim emergence more of very develo sermons, as al 'alms' for (sar The causes and consequences of t Mande but more generally in and Soares (1999). the This content downloaded from 193.54.110.56 on Mon, 22 May 2017 08:23:28 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 70 Robert Launay and Marie Miran Funerals - particularly sermons - were in community. A good preacher was also a rous of sociability most appropriate to older m Adolescents - young men {kambelenw) an likely to participate in dance association were, like funerals, instrumental in the ela throughout the towns of Cote d'lvoire and, from the south to the south, they also spr Indeed, it was not obligatory for urban backgrounds. Large numbers of Senufo f grated to the south also converted to Isl Dioula-kan in public (though not necessarily and 'Dioula-ized' converts adopted not on names - Amadou, Bakari, Fatoumata, or patronyms such as Coulibaly or Kone, reinf as a religion with Mande ethnicity. This urban Dioula culture did not, by any ularities if not particularities within the b In the first place, the urban Dioula commu munities sharing a common home of korhogo-ka (people of Korhogo) etc. The -ka cally relative. In the town of Korhogo, a na would be labelled waraniene-ka\ in the town ual would be 'from Korhogo'. In this manne prised of a limited number of regional sub as networks of support and power bases in of mosques, as well as for various economic ences, for example in marriage practices and divisions within the Dioula community (LeB cultural and religious unity. Like the -ka su as symbolic markers for differences of vary In her description of Dioula of Malian origin in th gest that Dioula identity is largely salient in terms ly as a marker distinguishing 'northerners' from th dominant Baoule, whereas 'ethno-cultural' differenc ties of origin in their home country. However, her associee a une base de pratiques culturelles specifi which the construction of a relatively homogeneous significant historical break with past practices, one dered relatively invisible and eclipsed by cultural di See Lewis for a detailed analysis of the internal d southern town (1970). This content downloaded from 193.54.110.56 on Mon, 22 May 2017 08:23:28 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms BEYOND from MANDE the MORY Odienne 71 region surrounding villages; town; between indeed, Korhogo. Perhaps the most fundamental difference, and certainly the one with the greatest political significance, was between Dioula who considered themselves fully Ivoirian and those who hailed from neighbouring countries such as Mali, Guinea or Upper Volta. The attitude of Ivoirians towards these and other foreigners has long been profoundly ambivalent. On one hand, immigrant labour is essential to the Ivoirian economy. On the other, the country has seen repeated - sometimes violent - waves of xeno- phobia, such as the riots directed against Togolese and Dahomeans in 1958 (Zolberg 1969:245-248) or, much more recently, against Ghanaians. For some southerners, all Mande speakers, all Dioula, were not only 'northerners' but, to all intents and purposes, 'foreigners', whatever their origin. Ivoirian Dioula had an interest in stressing their status as 'natives' fully entitled to a share in the country's relative prosperity. On the other hand, the informal sector, particularly in the domains of trade and transportation, depended on maintaining trans-colonial (and later trans-national) networks linking Ivoirian and foreign Dioula. In short, an individual's identification with one region of origin or another out- side southern Cote d'lvoire was an integral component of Muslim Dioula identity. Such identification cut both ways. On the one hand, it tended to structure internal divisions - and sometimes divisiveness - within the broader umbrella of the Dioula community. On the other hand, it ensured that, however long Dioula had been living in the south (and increasingly, in the case of Dioula born in the south, all their lives), they identified themselves and were identified by others as 'northerners'. This identification of Ivoirian Dioula living in the south with their 'home' communities in the north, was, as we shall see, to have important political consequences in the post-colonial era. In some instances, cultural conservatives of one stamp or another might fight rearguard actions against the assimilation of their own people into the Dioula cultural amalgam. Launay witnessed parents in Korhogo who would upbraid their children about the 'proper' way to speak, insisting that they maintain the use of local dialectical particularities rather than speaking like the 'riff-raff on the street. The likelihood, however, that such admonitions would receive a sympathetic ear among adolescents was minimal, to say the least. In a different vein, certain Senufo intellectuals writing in the 1970s and 1980s were harshly critical of fellow Senufo who had adopted Dioula patronyms, converted to Islam, and more generally conformed to Dioula cultural norms, using colonial ethnography to depict the Dioula as literally antithetical to the "Senoufo".5 Paradoxically, these very intellectuals had used Western-style education 5 Coulibaly (1978); Tuho (1984). See also Launay (1999). This content downloaded from 193.54.110.56 on Mon, 22 May 2017 08:23:28 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms and betwe memb 72 Robert Launay and Marie Miran - familiarity with the French language, no into the formal sector, whereas a far greate used the possibility of assimilating Dioula c sector. Despite their numerical predominance, the Dioula were by no means the only Muslim group in the south of Cote d'lvoire. Many migrants from Upper Volta, notabl the Mossi, were not Mande-speakers, and did not assimilate into the Dioula category even though a large proportion of them converted to Islam. Many of these Voltaics were employed in sectors of the economy for which, unlike trade, religious identity wa not particularly salient, such as unskilled wage labour and domestic service.6 Asid from the Dioula, these Voltaics were no doubt the largest, though not necessarily the most conspicuous, category of Muslims. Moors from Mauritania, Wolof from Senegal, Peul from Mali and Upper Volta, and Hausa from Niger formed visible communities, especially in Abidjan but also in other towns of Cote d'lvoire.7 In short, the Muslim community of colonial Cote d'lvoire was characterized in the first place by a division between the Mande-speaking Dioula majority and a minor ity of 'foreigners': Voltaics, Senegalese, Peuls, Hausa. The Dioula, in turn, were furthe divided between 'native' Ivoirian Mande-speakers and 'foreigners' from Mali, Guinea or Upper Volta. Last but not least, the Ivoirian Dioula were subdivided into commu- nities acknowledging different regions of origin. In principle, such divisions ought to have been irrelevant in the domain of religion, especially given the specifically univer- salist discourse of Islam. In fact, they were often reflected in factional rivalries, specif ically over the control of mosques. In the 1930s, the Muslim communities of Agboville, Bouake, Daloa, Dimbokro, Gagnoa and Man witnessed factional struggles over the position of Imam. These divisions almost always corresponded to differences in ethnic or regional origin. For example, in Gagnoa in 1934, a quarrel broke out concerning the appearance of the new moon marking the beginning of Ramadan, which uncovere smouldering tensions between odienneka and worodouka (from the Worodougo region around Mankono.) The worodouka refused to follow the lead of the odienneka, one of whom held the office of Imam. The quarrel turned violent, and several rioters were jailed by the colonial authorities. As a result, the worodouka decided to split off from the rest of the Muslim community and build a new mosque. Eventually, throug the mediation of an outside religious leader8 a compromise was reached whereby the worodouka would pray separately during the week in their own mosque but join the odienneka in the Friday mosque (Lewis 1970:314-315; Gilles n.d.). Conceivably, Muslims would have been at a disadvantage as servants, if they were expected to serve alcoholic beverages or, worse, prepare pork for dinner. One of the neighbourhoods of Korhogo, for instance, was named "Hausabougou" (Hausatown). Admittedly, Hausa hardly constituted a majority in the neighbourhood, but their presence was, as the name suggests, conspicuous. Seydou Nourou Tall, a Senegalese leader of the Tijaniyya and direct descendant of al Hajj Umar Tall, but also a Muslim cleric {marabout) with very close ties to the French colonial authorities This content downloaded from 193.54.110.56 on Mon, 22 May 2017 08:23:28 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms BEYOND MANDE During rel the broke mosque. very out The in from mosque was be known, the status nity of mediator, tinct It is and other al in the mosques - each Tre wit exagg all any the e.g., often, M mea larges the "Peul mosques convenience brotherhood by most and w marks: the "Texaco mosque" Michel mosque" (near the St. Most But Onc the Not by re lead 1931 avoid consequently labels. commun mosque community. splits "Wolo Imam. to o builders mosques, factional ty the situation, important c group follow initially the a the Dioula Friday Muslim by a built Volta, Muslim to dif Senegalese secondary of defusing a as of the refused ership by first for period, along mosque, with intention prayer same Haute built Tukolor, 73 1931 old Dioula also MORY affiliation occasional factional This was, in fact, crises h lines. 1930s, less than gregation, when Sail, the porarily the the long other contingent not to Dioula mosque" run, as and for of reflecting in This content downloaded from 193.54.110.56 on Mon, 22 May 2017 08:23:28 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms well he wa the the "D the the the lea Sail's though, mosques mention only over When prevailed "Senegalese In of after not conflict Tukulor. backing what decade including another was a rather dictate c cap overa colony 74 Robert Launay and Marie Miran Post-colonial Politics.- Severing the Ethnic Link The 'Dioula-ization' and Islamization of large numbers of Ivoirians and of im from neighbouring countries was initially a response to changing economic namely the opening up of an informal sector throughout the forest zo d'lvoire. However, in the context of the newly independent Republic of Cot Islam and ethnicity were to play a very different role within the context o identity politics. For its small size, Cote d'lvoire remains remarkably divers cally, linguistically, culturally and religiously. Upon independence, no si enjoyed a majority of any sort. The one-party state which Houphouet-Boign lished and ruled until his death in 1993 was predicated on the maintenance cate balance whereby all major groups in the country had - admittedly in q ing degrees - some stake in the system. Broadly speaking, the complex ethn crystallised into five major regional blocs: the north (Dioula and 'Senufo'), t (Baoule), the east (Agni), the west (Bete), and the coast (lagunaires, lagoo including, among others, Ebrie, Alladian, and Aboure). Houphouet-Boign came from the centre, which was commonly acknowledged to receive a tionate share of the 'spoils' of the system. The location of the capital, Abid coast also privileged that region.10 The east and west were the major coffee producing regions in the country, the basis of its prosperity during the econ period, the so-called (and short-lived) 'Ivoirian miracle' of the first dec Independence. However, for this very reason, a sizeable proportion of t which these plantations were situated had been acquired by 'outsiders' region, Dioula, but also 'Baoule' among others. As a result, separatist m emerged in both the east in 1959, just before Independence, and in the west (Zolberg 1969:292-293; Dozon 1985:344-346); both movements were rap forcefully suppressed. The north was, by contrast, distinctly 'underdevelop economically and educationally. Within this regional system, the situation of the Dioula was in some anomalous. More than any other group, they were scattered throughout th Despite their large numbers in the towns of the south, and the length of tim them had been living there, they were nonetheless identified with their regi gin', not with their place of residence. Moreover, the Dioula were, as we divided into Ivoirians - those who had a real stake in the south of the coun they were not living there at the time - and foreigners, with 'home' ties ou d'lvoire. Bearing in mind that these various 'ethnies' were not the mechanical reflections of real cul sity but rather a product of the colonial process The location of the capital was also eventually moved to Houphouet-Boigny 's b Yamoussoukro, in the centre; even so, Abidjan remains the economic centre of the count coast has thus not entirely lost its advantage. This content downloaded from 193.54.110.56 on Mon, 22 May 2017 08:23:28 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms BEYOND The MANDE educational vantage school of age school, for as the and ly 82 other well in to % (S.E.D.E.S. formal high, as children opposed 75 backwardnes Dioula Dimbokro, country of MORY the nort average for Abeng 1965:60). sector, was of an T particular government pay as services relatively reg including family allowances a were virtually excluded Dioula Ivoirian ties, and Very in Dioula so with the formal crudely terms sector, of and religions, a the and an "animist" regions, government resources. financed time undertake gious one religion time the community. for of The construction This practitioners not Muslims,12 most or but forms another, tedly an 12 also as a 'Animists' never were, r impo massive showpiece for resour the for respe leaders name of larg the becoming, made the This content downloaded from 193.54.110.56 on Mon, 22 May 2017 08:23:28 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms a a Howeve produced, insisted in Ro other an whole. Houphouet President p signa the government the programmes Whereas the of in of for exception, community vision these only to the competition quences, and, to of reign, of of governm programming eyes spectacular an building The allegiance Houphouet's te co Although locally community public (the could another, religious religious very or w Christian mosques was sector imprecisely largely like educati that very absence a this firm of 76 Robert Launay and Marie Miran not undertake on its own initiative. In th which might serve as a channel for such sp advantage, particularly after 1963 when th attempted coup, placed a ban on all formal 1970s opened the door for the creation of f CSI (Conseil Superieur Islamique) was forme throughout the country. The CSI aspired to government as well as from outside donors nations such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and t to which the CSI was politically well conne suspect to the majority of the Muslim comm tions sprang up, most notably the AEEM Musulmans de Cote D'lvoire), with the ex distance from the ruling party. The profile of the leadership of these ne of the traditional leadership of the Dioula M arly lineages who had dominated the field od had continued to exercise their hegemon munities of southern Cote d'lvoire. A rel isnad, his scholarly pedigree stating the iden so forth (Wilks 1968; Launay 1990). This is maintained a strict monopoly on advance remained its guarantors, those through Moreover, they embodied a particular style memorisation; to know a text meant, in the new leadership, training in the Arab-spe example - and the capacity to speak, read a religious authority. This new generation of elders, not so as much in content as in sty disembodied. In fact, organisations such as the AEEM attracting a younger generation of Muslim another disenchanted with the old style of educated in state-run Western-style schools enchantment. It is a paradox that, at the ve experiencing a downturn that sharply affec who saw their perks and salaries stagnate i the north from the south was, if by no m Proportionately more and more Muslims w were admittedly less and less attractive posi the world market adversely affected coffe This content downloaded from 193.54.110.56 on Mon, 22 May 2017 08:23:28 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms BEYOND the MANDE differences south, acute Muslims than educated ment, they its Ultimately, and were cessfully in religious secular a sheets, and orisation the curriculum absence quality sacred was of students sion to public deteriorated For trained was of sonalised ticeship arship. has had Dioula identity prayer new of and the in t we in to th mat For to di in in the res of manif mosque the t mor towns ritual This content downloaded from 193.54.110.56 on Mon, 22 May 2017 08:23:28 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms and and change the on the 'skills' Friday generation, s to madrasa effects public at g schools teacher Allegiance collective - the radical radical of madrasa clerics. mastery This sh corresponded between identity. fell successfu likely of e Indee impossible less mory the an acknow dramatically scholars eration to the graduates On students often secondary which handicap texts. who m Ara in possibility case tution, the instruction, it short schools, preparing any of Moreover, on even refused of ne old very general compromise ernment was state in a with system. indeed, (and of assistanc both and t was establish school rot was remarkably values vocabulary This to In styl on scholars madrasa of at old technical state that been the education able The economic emphasis compete entirety system. 77 Christians, had Muslim financial they in and Muslims, with trained bled MORY other a h 78 Robert Launay and Marie Miran a 'Dioula-ness' from which they had good identity had always entailed a subsidiary ide entailing a host of moral obligations, not on ern cities, but also to family members back h ation of students, most often born in the cit with their putative 'home' communities, and pendent, more and more reluctant to acknow on their strained resources on the part of th urban kinsmen. If a previous generation, eage perous towns of the Ivoirian south, had b this new generation was equally solicitous of some degree) while remaining Muslim all th The younger generation of Arab -trained this call to reject any 'ethnic' dimension in the Centre Islamique Bilal in 1992 in a sub Fofana, insisted: The mosque belongs to God and to God alone mosque, no Malian mosque, no Koyaga, no Ma God built by men and women to the glory of reserved for the privileged. The best places, th or old, who arrive first in the house of Allah translation by R.L.). In an even more radical break with past pra concerned, not only to abolish 'ethnic' divisi also to attract converts from within those s until recently, remained almost completely students who graduated from universities in created LIPCI (Ligue Islamique des Predic members recruited preacher candidates, not to preach Islam in local languages in the cou ing 500 preacher-members throughout the c tralise and co-ordinate all daawa (a term wh "outreach") activities in the nation. It organis inars for preachers and, every two years, tra also initiated mobile Islamic missionary expe The switch from Dioula to a more general and gene gin in Bouake is discussed in great detail and with whom we are deeply indebted for our argument. This content downloaded from 193.54.110.56 on Mon, 22 May 2017 08:23:28 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms BEYOND MANDE MORY 79 geting the countryside, with Muslim communities.14 These attempts salience in regions the - and race like to region or succeed the his ident, in the but from a in north. To in the this religious could and have dollars in that it extremely is they Ivoirian the world In ity. a Muslim Muslim any munity case, in See Miran f evangelic auto to even students a i sym to nation's Islam can s a any be fuller This content downloaded from 193.54.110.56 on Mon, 22 May 2017 08:23:28 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms bo now d'lvoire, would for is community's Consequently, Catholicism It of substantial the Cote any from dollars However, outside of difficult represent O shifted proportion foreign solidarity. political 'animists'. gest Ou Konan astute. has of T the behind that case h di nor had benefited the was south. plurality the of which, relative a me that also terms in Catholics which it arguably claim increase he view general was tech Intern parents Ivoirian extent another, Dioula, his Faso, a pr House suggested the A the Ca A manoeuvre both paradoxically, Muslims Houpho Baoule Ivoirian 'foreigners', times of religio religion. Burkina implicitly 14 a implementing dency, disemb between from However, on to aftermath Houphouet, Muslim for the and u i attemp excessiv discussio 80 Robert Launay and Marie Miran On the contrary, the new regime has, with mosque in Abidjan, situated in the Plateau, centre, not only of the city but, in many Plateau mosque is a gesture to the Muslim rounded the beginning of its construction n the spill-over from the exclusion of Outtar government fully recognized that Islam whole. It remains to be seen whether these e community, which reacted to the political own exclusion, not only from the political Ivoirian society as a whole. At the same - which links it too tightly to Mande ethnic and to the north, the most educationally an the country - can far more effectively lay c fact that a younger generation of Muslims secular or Islamic - are increasingly anxious Dioula ties lends increasing weight to such a munity of Cote d'lvoire conceives of its pla nation. It is still no doubt the case, just as it was Muslims in Cote d'lvoire are native speaker gua franca of youth on the streets of every Islam, spread well beyond the boundaries o apparent continuity masks the radical ways circumstances have altered the composition and its relationship to 'ethnic' and other id foremost a religion of the mory, that mino ticipants in inter-regional trading and cler and the rapid urbanization of the Ivoirian s community, in control of the informal sect a standardized practice of Islam and an e Mande. Finally, for a new generation of Mu rule, but who have had to adjust to the cri miracle' as well as of the Houphouet regime not as identical but as virtually incompatib These important shifts in the relationshi should caution us against an oversimplistic the inseparability of 'knowledge' from 'pow In fact, plans for the construction of the mosque death, but Konan Bedie, as his designated successor This content downloaded from 193.54.110.56 on Mon, 22 May 2017 08:23:28 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms BEYOND the MANDE imposition ject African they had to growth the ing off tions that success only they south these in associations, is not economy ing up or eration ly to become Of next new course, n g con in ' differ differen urban in single as up any an re century identity in religious numbers generation fashion Islam lea age-old grown own on ove their off long through religious that cases very home' a by particularl outright Christianity i true if significant the radically 16 'at has their an convert that living no shif delibera any have within redefine of migrants, of which feel ways, religious some closing population is appeal because ical failure fostered even generations, secto formal or the it p change terms have and of the determined much that later and in are may trance, co Af responses, from However the which the t comm informal of regional resulted true and constitute hensible once under specific shrinkage the way term independently rulers, of in and within responses ment'; self been) tionships, specific However, about frameworks French of $\ peoples, 'religion'.16 thinking the MORY once ag predated missionary communities This content downloaded from 193.54.110.56 on Mon, 22 May 2017 08:23:28 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms o will, with e th 82 Robert Launay and Marie Miran References AL-QAYRAWANI, Ibn Abi Zayd 1968 La Risala. 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