Part 2: Islamization of Africa

Oct 6: “Visual Culture”

Praying

[see ‘Call to Prayer’, ‘Prayer’, Additional Readings]

West African Desert (left)East African Mosque (below)

PrayingMost immediate and memorable image

of African Muslim societies is –Prayer.

Prayers take place five times a day.

Everywhere you hear a ‘call to prayer’

Everywhere people stop what they’redoing to pray. A prayer mat is unrolled,

prayer takes place – 10 minutes later,it’s business as usual. It is also public.

For the Friday prayer, shops close. Hugecrowds men dressed in white pray –often outside the mosque (which is full).

Caligraphy

Seen in many buildings as ‘Decoration’ – usually suraFrom the Qur’an(North African examples)

[see ‘Caligraphy in Islamic Art, Additional Readings]

Caligraphy

Learning Tablet (19th c. – early 20th c. Mali)

Teaching of letter formationoften took place on woodentablets.

From letters to copying outsura from the Qur’an wasNatural progression for children.

Qur’an[see Sultan Baybar’s Quran, Additional Readings}

Children learning, reciting Quran(often in public spaces)

Quranic suradecoratebuildings,wall hangings,ceramics…Qur’an (book)often ‘work ofart’

Dress

East Africa(left)

North Africa(right)

Dress

East Africa(left)

North Africa(right)

Dress

SaharanTuareg (Berber)(left)

Northern NigeriaFulani(right)

Architecture: Mosques

Algeria Niger Mali (Timbuktu)

Architecture: Mosques

Burkino Fassa Mali (Jenne)

Architecture: Mosques

Morocco (Marrakesh, Almoravid)

Almohad

Tunisia (Kairouan)

Architecture: Tombs

Sidi Mogdul MoroccoSidi Mhammad al-Wilda(Morocco)

Tombs – Funerary Stela

Algeria (n.d.)

Amulets

West Africa (various) – most metal or metal and leather

Amulets

Tuareg (‘Berber’, Saharan) – metal and leather (silver, copper)

AmuletsIn much of West Africa amulets are used for healing, protection and

problem solving:

- often include esoteric writing- sacred verses are worn in small leather [sometimes metal] pouches placed around the neck, upper arm or waist.- Specific colors are used in conjunction with the mystical powers with which they are associated.- Abstract designs and special arrangements of numbers are also used, creating mystical maps to the divine.

[see Robinson].

Today, some have become model for jewellery (eg Tuareg amulets)

Amulets

Arabic Script and Berber Symbols reproduced on Plates North African Museum

AmuletsImportant to remember:

- use of ‘amulets’, divination ancient practice- NOT exclusive to Muslim Societies- but these examples show how ‘pre-Islamic’ practices become integral to ‘living a Muslim life’- the ‘holy men’ of animist religions (eg Berber) become the Muslim scholars who now ‘write’ the magic protection from within Islam

Cannot automatically associate all amulets with Islam (still used in some areas where Islam not present) but in all African Muslim societies, they are prominent in daily life

Amulets

Hand of Fatma (Morocco and North Africa)

Amulets‘Hand of Fatima’ (daughter of Prophet Mohamed)

- ancient symbol representing power and protection, on temporal as well as spiritual planes. - ‘the hand works, it creates, it guides, it protects. ..- symbol is also known as khamsa and the Eye of Fatima in Islamic tradition. - Hand of Fatima made in form of talisman, amulet, jewellry - also appears in architectural details. - preedatesIslam but has been widely assimilated into Islamic artand popular culture [like much of pre-Islamic culture, visual and otherwise].- also seen to have symbolic link to the number ‘5’: five fingers, the five pillars of Islam

Ramadan

Egyptian Woman(Garia Mohammed Bayoumi 77), chants religious songs as Egyptians peer out of their balconies in old Cairo, Egypt, early Monday, Sept. 6, 2010.

Bayoumi is a "Mesaharati" who wakes faithful Muslims for their prayers and pre-dawn meal during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Festivals: ‘Eid’-

Common sight:young man with sheep—Eid al-fatir (end of Ramadan)and Eid al-adha (dedicatedto Ibrahim, 70 days after end Ramadan) both requireritual slaughtering of sheep

Ibadan (southern Nigeria) man withKnife for RitualSlaughter Sheep

Emir of Kano,Northern Nigeriacelebrating ‘Eid’(2009)