Islam in Africa South of the Sahara

For obvious reasons there is an increased interest in the North Atlantic region to study Islam in the modern world. In the Netherlands, resources for the study of Islam in contemporary Africa are limited and scattered. On the basis of earlier research on North African popular Islam, and on the role of Islam as a vehicle of proto-globlisation in pre-colonial Africa, Wim van Binsbergen has initiated and chaired the 'Working Group on Islam in Africa', focussing on the Leiden African Studies Centre's theme group on globalisation. Since early 1998, the 'Working Group on Islam in Africa' has been meeting once every two months. In a bid to bundle and structure ongoing research on this topic ni the Netherlands, the Working Group is organising a one-day conference on 'Transformation processes and Islam in Africa', on Friday 15 October, 1999, at the African Studies Centre, Leiden; the convenors are Dr Jose van Santen, Dr A. Breedveld, and Wim van Binsbergen (see Call for papers as attached). This conference evidently caters for researchers working (now or in the past) in The Netherlands on African Islam; since this is likely to include non-native speakers of Dutch, and since we are inviting a few key note speakers from abroad, the conference language will be English. The contact person for the Working Group and the conference is:

Dr Anneke Breedveld, brdvld@rulcri.leidenuniv.nl

write to me at vabin@multiweb.nl | return to homepage | to Call for papers

page last modified: 11-04-99