The Crown and the Turban: Muslims and West African Pluralism by Lamin Sanneh

Author:Lamin Sanneh [Sanneh, Lamin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Ethnic Studies, African Studies, African, Social Science, Political Science, World
ISBN: 9780429965272
Google: 8_7EDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 39999982
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2018-10-08T00:00:00+00:00

7

The Arabic Language in African Education

In this chapter we shall describe the Qur’án school as an educational and social institution and examine why it has survived attempts to reform or replace it and prospered in spite of the odds. The utility value of the language is not able to account for the strong sentiment that Arabic excites in Muslim society. Many Muslims have done better materially with Western languages than with Arabic, and yet such persons have maintained deep loyalty to the language. What complicates our analysis and interpretation of the data is the unwillingness of Muslim Africans to separate Arabic from the Islamic religion. Proficiency in the language is deemed insufficient without deference to Muslim Scriptural authority, a position that puts non-Muslim Arabs, for example, in an untenable situation. Muslims accord an incomparable status to the Qur’án, and the Arabic Qur’án as revealed truth is nontranslatable; together these two aspects of religious commitment lead to linguistic exclusion. Even those who accept a limited role for Arabic in the modern economy find themselves on the defensive when arguments are presented to promote Arabic teaching on the grounds of popular demand and equity. Yet governments are scarcely able or willing to invest in Arabic when its market utility is at best questionable, though they cannot ignore it when faced with demands from a religiously sensitive population.

Another important issue is educational access for women, for the traditional Qur’án school is a closed world for the majority of women. In the best documented cases in north Nigeria, for instance, only 20 percent of the pupils are girls, with the numbers trailing off after the primary stages of instruction, although a similar figure is given for girls in Western-style schools. Nevertheless, it appears that even resistance to Western-style schools in Muslim Africa is conditioned by attitudes formed with respect to Qur’án schools. Obviously Qur’án schools remain far too important an institution in society to be ruled out of order by fiat, and their existence solves as many problems as it creates. Such are the questions we should briefly examine here.

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