Annex 3. Islam and Western education in Nigeria: Between accommodation and confrontation
p. 266-268
Texte intégral
1Boko Haram violently rejects the Western model of education, but its position does not reflect the general feelings of the population. On the contrary, many Nigerian Muslims have adopted and invested in modern education, especially the Yoruba. From a historical point of view, it is quite interesting in this regard to compare their process of accommodation with the confrontational attitude of Boko Haram. In the South-West, in particular, the way the colonial authorities attempted to appease local apathy, opposition, and resistance to British education is also instructive. In the beginning, indeed, many Yoruba Muslims ignored or boycotted missionary schools because they feared their children would be converted to Christianity. As a result, the Lagos-based colonial authorities decided in 1889 to fund Arabic courses in Christian schools. In the same vein, the British paid Muslim teachers and established government Muslim schools, first in Lagos in 1896, then in Epe in 1898 and Badagry in 1899.
2Meanwhile, Yoruba Muslims set up their own organisations to encourage literacy and disseminate the message of Islam. Generally restricted to the educated urban elite, especially in Lagos, these groups clearly opted for adapting the Western model to Islamic requirements, unlike Boko Haram. Interestingly enough, some of these groups were and are still considered sects. A quick review of the Ahmadiyyah, the Islamic Society of Nigeria, and the Young Ansar-ud-Deen shows how Islamic reform could cope with the challenges of modernity without resorting to violence.
3The Ahmadiyyah Brotherhood, to begin with, was created by an Indian prophet, Mirza Ghullam Ahmad, and imported to Nigeria around 1913 through publications found in London. It mainly reached the Muslim educated elites in Lagos, where a Moslem Literary Society and a Juvenile Moslem Society were set up. The Ahmadiyyah did not reject modern education and aimed to benefit from both Western and Islamic training. In Nigeria, it was the first Muslim organisation to establish its own denominational primary school, opened in Lagos in 1922 and followed by a secondary school in 1948. It was also the first to translate the Quran into Yoruba in 1976. In the same vein, it did not reject the Nigerian secular state. Some of its members or sympathisers were high-ranking officials, such as Kafaru Oluwole Tinubu, a senior police officer, and Musliu Adeola Kunbi Smith, an Inspector General of Police who was a ‘crescent bearer’. But the Ahmadiyyah always remained an elitist organisation. In 1939, for instance, it participated in the formation of the “Crescent Bearers” to promote Western literacy amongst the Muslim community. This offshoot was self-restricted to a maximum of thirty members, who had to be between forty and sixty years of age. Moreover, the Ahmadiyyah was always considered a heterodox sect, and some clerics even declared that it was not Muslim at all. Saudi Arabia finally refused its members entry to perform the hajj and, in 1973, the Ahmadiyyah was banned by Pakistan, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and the World Muslim League. In 1974, it eventually had to change its name to Anwar ul-Islam.
4The Islamic Society of Nigeria was launched in 1924 by Lawal Basil Augusto, a founder of the Nigerian Ahmadiyyah who renounced Mirza Ghullam Ahmad as prophet. Like its predecessor, it touched Muslim urban educated elites. Before seceding from Ahmadiyyah, Lawal Basil Augusto had actually established the first Muslim grammar school in 1916, and in 1924 he was to become the first Muslim lawyer in West Africa. The Islamic Society of Nigeria championed education for girls and aimed to acquire land to build schools, publish books, produce Islamic literature, and fund libraries – the same fundamental objectives as its successor in 1964, Jamaatul Islamiyya. Unlike Boko Haram, it did not reject Western modernity and the secularity of the state. Amongst its members were, for instance, Hamzat Adisa Subair, a co-founder of the National Bank of Nigeria and the first Nigerian Muslim to qualify as a professional chartered accountant, and Professor Aliu Babatunde Fafunwa, a federal minister of education and the president of Jamaatul Islamiyya from 1995.
5Young Ansar-ud-Deen (“The Followers of the Religion”) was created in 1923 to disseminate the message of Islam, translate the Quran into local languages, encourage literacy, compete with mission schools, and provide quality Western education free of Christian indoctrination. Like the Ahmadiyyah and the Islamic Society of Nigeria, it was initially based in Lagos only, where it opened its first primary school in 1931. It then extended into the hinterland and was quickly recognised as a pioneer in education. In 1939, for instance, it inspired the formation of the Young Nawair-ud-Deen in Abeokuta, which built many schools and became the Nawair-ud-Deen Society of Nigeria in 1966. In 1942, Ansar-ud-Deen opened another primary school, in Okepopo, and in 1946 it established a training college in Otta to solve the problem of shortage of Muslim teachers. It also gave scholarship awards to study abroad. With eighty schools all over Yorubaland in 1955, it was formally registered as the Ansar-ud-Deen Society in 1961. However, religious mission schools were later on nationalised by the military regime in the 1970s. Moreover, Ansar-ud-Deen never succeeded in establishing an Islamic university, unlike NASFAT (Nasrul-Lahi-il-Fathi), a newer organisation. The Ansar-ud-Deen Society is still active today and has no relationship whatsoever with the homonymous terrorist group Ansar Dine in northern Mali. The Nigerian Ansar-ud-Deen has always believed that a reformist Islam could co-exist with Western innovations. It permitted women to pray in the mosque and rejected Salafism. According to Sheikh Abdur-Rahman Olanrewaju Ahmad, its leader since 2002, Boko Haram is thus a social deviance, which does not represent the message of Islam because the Quran emphasises the need for education and study.
Bibliographie
Fisher, H. (1961), “The Ahmadiyya movement in Nigeria”. In: K. Kirkwood, ed., African Affairs. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, pp. 60-88.
Gbadamosi, T. (1978), The growth of Islam among the Yoruba, 1841–1908. London: Longmans.
Imam, Y.O. (2004), “Religious organisations as progressive social change: A case study of Ansar-ud-Deen society of Nigeria”, Islamic Studies 43(4): 631-51.
Oyeweso, S. & M. Raheemson, eds (2013), Actors and institutions in the development of Islam in Lagos State. Ibadan: Matrixcy Books.
Reichmuth, S. (1996), “Education and the growth of religious associations among Yoruba Muslims”, Journal of Religion in Africa 26(4): 365-405.

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