Da‘wa and Politics in West Africa: Muslim Jama‘at and Non-Governmental Organizations in Ghana, Sierre Leone and The Gambia

Abstract

In this chapter I examine the interplay of Islam, politics and development in three West African states during the postcolonial era. The focus is on the creation and maintenance of Islamic space and efforts by Muslims to expand their political, economic and social in?uence in these states through the formation of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and their interaction with governments and international agencies. The Muslim NGOs may operate on four levels: local, regional, national and international. However, many, perhaps most, are interested in developing their local resources and in?uence and may not be involved in national development. All face the reality of operating within the national and international systems in order to gain material support and recognition of their goals but the question remains how their activities contribute to development of the social, economic and political institutions of their national states. Two critical problems in this question are the lack of coordination of the separate activities and goals of Muslim NGOs and the tendency for NGOs to avoid consultation with national governmental agencies when they pursue their individual objectives. A third, and related, problem has been the dif?-culty of all three national states to create stable governmental systems and to provide adequate national development programmes during the post-colonial era.