Introduction: Studying Islamic dynamics from a Niger-Nigeria transnational perspective
p. 1-7
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1The area that now encompasses northern Nigeria and southern Niger has been, from a historical perspective, an area of unrestricted movement of people, goods, and knowledge. In this area, especially from the late eighteenth century, powerful Hausa commercial cities such as Kano, Katsina, Zaria, and Zinder had a broad cultural and economic influence, while the hegemony of the Sokoto Caliphate led to a wide dissemination of specific religious practices and knowledge.1 Today, the states of Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Jigawa, Yobe and Borno in northern Nigeria border, respectively, Niger’s southern regions of Dosso, Tahoua, Maradi, Zinder and Diffa. These different areas not only have an international border in common, they also have shared histories, strong commercial links and numerous shared cultural features. While being ethno-linguistically diverse, the border regions, both in Nigeria and Niger, use Hausa as a linga franca, particularly convenient in the context of constant trading and intense human circulation.
2There is a sizeable Christian minority in these border states, in rural and urban areas, including indigenous Christians2, but Islam is the religion of the majority and can be considered as a unifying element for Muslims of different backgrounds. Today, the Islamic religion as practiced in this area takes on new forms and is undergoing changes in terms of discourses, practices, and modes of dissemination. The channels through which religious ideologies are currently relayed between northern Nigeria and southern Niger overlap with the economic and social activities of the region; it is an area of passage, transit, and varied traffic, a crossroads where migratory routes, market activities, and significant financial flows converge. All these exchanges naturally promote the transmission and dissemination of various currents of thought linked to Islam, as well as the discourses and practices they engender. However, since the late 1970s, northern Nigeria has been the site of major reconfigurations in the Islamic landscape. The Sufi brotherhoods, notably the Tijaniyya and the Qadiriyya,3 which had hitherto been almost hegemonic, were faced with the emergence of reformist currents from Salafists whose rapid development in the 1980s led to strong doctrinaire opposition and competition between different actors.
3Influenced by the transformations taking place in the rest of the Muslim world, these religious shifts have had significant social and political impacts at local levels, in both Nigeria and Niger. The Islamic Movement, for example, which emerged in the wake of the Iranian Revolution, defined itself, in the Nigerian context, in opposition to the Nigerian Federal State, following Khomeini’s model of transition from democracy to theocracy and refusing any form of compromise with political power.4 The reformist Izala5 movement, on the other hand, shaped by Salafi ideology, accepted to be part of the secular state in both Nigeria and Niger, practicing entryism and thus infiltrating public spheres in order to transform them from the inside.6 The coexistence within the same space of both institutionalized movements and protest groups attests to the presence of different logics of evolution and adaptation that need to be taken into account. Doing so makes it possible to analyse the relationships that these different movements have with each other and with non-religious actors. It also sheds light on their respective functions in the region’s socio-political landscape and provides valuable insights for analysing the transition to violence.
4When studying the processes of religious renewal and mutation, it is also necessary to pay attention not only to the increasingly complex and varied forms these processes take and to their direct and indirect effects, but also to the channels of transmission used.
5Proselytism is probably one of the most obvious tools of religious transformation, and can be observed both in Nigeria and in neighbouring Niger, especially as Nigerian preachers get a very large audience among the Nigérien population. In addition to the constant comings and goings of Nigerian preachers and sheikhs in Niger, there are also very effective popular broadcasting techniques: radio broadcasts, Hausa-language press, cassettes and DVDs, and series of sermons on flash drives or shared on social media networks. While Nigeria produces a huge quantity of all kinds of media, ensuring a wide dissemination of its religious discourses, Niger also participates in this dynamic by developing its own tools.7
6The renewal of Islamic ideas and practices is therefore fuelled by this great mobility of people and objects, in multiple spaces, where preachers, but also other social groups, play a key role. Pilgrims, of course, but also students and shopkeepers, for example, whether consciously or unconsciously, act as relays of religious transmission. Similarly, the places where these dynamics can be observed extend well beyond the border area, where many of the actors involved in these transformations cross paths. In every city and village in northern and southern Nigeria and Niger, these phenomena can be seen and heard in schools, markets, mosques, and state institutions. The area under study is therefore ideal for the examination of the evolution of religious dynamics. But some parts of the region have been sites of a jihadist insurrection over the past decade, threatening the stability of states, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths, and muddying our reading of phenomena related to Islam.
7The team of researchers who led the Trans-Islam project, which this book results from, focused part of their fieldwork on the transnational aspects of phenomena surrounding Boko Haram’s activities. While aware of the problematic hyper-visibility of jihadist movements, researchers could not ignore the importance of the Boko Haram insurgency in the region’s cross-border dynamics.
8After defining the aims and scope of the research, three main themes were chosen to guide the researchers’ lines of questioning and these now constitute the three main parts of this book. The first one concerns the place occupied by Islam in Nigérien and Nigerian societies: the way it occupies space, how the relationships between religious actors are reflected on a geographical level, the institutional place of Islam and the nature of its relationship with the state, both in Niger and Nigeria.
9Mustapha Gwadabe investigates the historical character of cultural, economic, and religious relationships between regions located on both sides of the border and reminds us that the circulation of Islamic knowledge has had a long history in this area. The historical perspective then provides a background for the study of often conflictual relationships between Sufi brotherhoods – which have been formally established in the region since the beginning of the 19th century – and the Salafi-inspired reformist movements that emerged in the second half of the 20th century. Based on fieldwork carried out in the Nigérien cities of Niamey, Maradi, and Zinder as well as in the Nigerian cities of Zaria, Sokoto, and Katsina, the author emphasizes the role of French and British colonial legacies in shaping religious activities in the public sphere.
10Abdourahmane Idrissa questions the political, institutional, and social differences that characterize two very close and strongly intertwined spaces: the Maradi Region in Niger and that of Katsina in Nigeria. Noting the implementation of Sharia law in the northern Nigerian states and the absence of legal radicalism in Niger, he questions the role of each country’s institutional cultures and in particular the secular nature of law, which is perceived very differently on each side of the border.
11The second part of the book discusses new ways of thinking about and practising Islam, with a focus on reformist movements and the ‘re-Islamization’ processes8 they have introduced. In this section, the analysis focuses on the actors themselves, but also on the discourses and tools used for their dissemination and the social and cultural effects they engender.
12Abdoulaye Sounaye analyses the role of public sermons (wa’azi) in the Salafi reformist project, which aims to develop and disseminate transnational moral, social, and religious norms. Having attended numerous sermons in the Nigérien cities of Niamey, Maradi, and Agadez, and then studied the Salafiyya movement in Zaria, the author also considers the socio-political environment, in both Nigeria and Niger, in which reformist discourses are developed and in whose transformation they participate.
13The effects of these discourses on Nigérien cultural production are the focus of Élodie Apard’s works. She examines the ways in which Salafi moral values are either rejected or, on the contrary, re-appropriated by Niamey’s music scene. Analysing the different adaptation strategies developed by artists also raises the question of a social and generational divide that is strongly tied to the political and economic evolution of contemporary Niger.
14In the last chapter of this part, Adam Higazi examines the place occupied by Islam in Fulani pastoralist communities in Niger and Nigeria, as well as the continuity or rupture caused by the restructuring of the Islamic landscape, particularly with the spread of the Tijaniyya and, less often, Salafism, into pastoral groups. With an ethnographic study of pastoral communities in Dakoro (Maradi Region) in Niger and Karim Lamido (Taraba State) in Nigeria, the text gives insights into the Islamic practices and education of pastoralists. At the time of fieldwork, the areas studied were less conflictual than other parts of Nigeria and, Niger, and the Sahel, but this study sheds light on processes of social change and of the diversity of Islamic practice among the pastoral Fulani.
15The third part of the book is devoted to the transnational aspects of the Boko Haram insurgency. The Niger – Nigeria border area has occupied a central place in the movement’s history, from its emergence in the border town of Kanamma in northern Yobe to the occurrence of attacks on the four countries bordering Lake Chad. Used for a time as the movement’s rear base, south-eastern Niger has since become one of the areas most affected by the conflict outside Nigeria. With the regionalization of the conflict and increased militarization, taking into account the cross-border dimension of the group’s activities is essential to our analysis. Also, collecting field data on both sides of the border, however difficult it may be, makes it possible to assess Boko Haram’s impacts, particularly in Islamic spheres, and to engage in a comparative study of the Nigérien and Nigerian states’ responses to the crisis.
16While visiting several border towns between the Diffa region of Niger and Borno State in Nigeria, Kyari Mohammed observed the signs of Boko Haram’s presence, its effects on the security and humanitarian situation, and the economic and social consequences of the measures taken by the state to combat the group. In this chapter, the author analyses the specific features of this border area in the group’s development strategies and the particular management of these peripheral areas by their respective states. At the outer limits of Nigérien and Nigerian territories, they suffer from the effects of both armed insurrection and historic state neglect.
17Marc-Antoine Pérouse de Montclos questions the role played by jihadist movements in the religious evolution of the region and their influence on current trends. While situating Boko Haram within the historical continuity of other forms of Islamic mobilization, the author draws attention to the geopolitical context in which the movement emerged. He places in perspective the influence of Saudi Wahhabism and underlines the role of local actors and networks in the production and dissemination of a counter-discourse.
18Three inserts complement and highlight the data – both rich and original – collected by members of the research team throughout the project. The first discusses the place of Islamic NGOs in the religious landscape, comparing their roles in Niger and Nigeria. The second insert looks at issues of membership and recruitment related to Boko Haram, which emerged from the interviews conducted with prisoners who had been suspected of being part of the movement, as well as from the arguments developed in the group’s propaganda speeches. The rationale behind one’s involvement, however, appears to be just as varied as the fighters’ personalities, making any attempt at profiling particularly uncertain. Based on interviews with survivors, the third insert offers a description of daily life in areas that came under Boko Haram’s control.
19The appendices to this book contain a selection of texts extracted from the corpus of sources collected by researchers during their fieldwork and used in their research. These are sermons delivered during public gatherings, which were filmed and then burned on DVDs and have been transcribed and translated from Hausa into English. The five sermons that were chosen represent some of the main issues addressed in the book:
The Tijani argument developed by Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi, used to denounce the practices of Izala, which is a good example of the concrete manifestations of the opposition between Sufis and reformists.
The sermon delivered by Sheikh Kabiru Gombe in Tahoua (Niger) deals with men’s behaviour towards romantic and marital relationships. It underlines the place of morality in the Salafi discourse and also features the preacher’s oratory skills.
Sheikh Abubakar Gero’s sermon on the incompatibility between leisure and religious norms, which called for a ‘re-moralization’ of activities that are popular among young people.
Sermons given by Sheikh Abubakar Gero and Sheikh Kabiru Gombe addressing, respectively, the opposition in terms of religious practices between the ‘right path’ followed by Salafi and that followed by others, and the importance given to the youth in the Salafi re-Islamization process.
20While this book provides original, first-hand material collected in the field and contributes to enriching the reflection on contemporary transformation dynamics in the Islamic landscapes of Niger and Nigeria, it also highlights the relevance of a transnational and comparative approach to these phenomena. Finally, it showcases the collaborative work of African and European scholars from Francophone and Anglophone countries, a type of scientific partnership that is rare in this field.
Map 1. Geographical distribution of fieldwork

Notes de bas de page
1 M. Last (1967), The Sokoto Caliphate, (Ibadan History Series) lxxxii, London, Longmans, Green and Co. Ltd., 280 p.
2 E. Apard (2016), « Islam et territoires au Nigéria », Hérodote (158): 86-98.
3 See J-L. Triaud & D. Robinson, eds, (2005), La Tijâniyya. Une confrérie musulmane à la conquête de l’Afrique, Paris, Khartala, 512 p. and O. Kane & J-L. Triaud (1998), Islam et islamismes au sud du Sahara. Paris: Editions Karthala, ‘Hommes et sociétés’, 336 p.
4 M. Dahiru Sulaiman (1998), ‘Shiaism and the Islamic Movement in Nigeria – 1979-1991’. In: Ousmane Kane, ed., Islam et islamismes au sud du Sahara, Paris, Editions Karthala, pp. 183-95.
5 Abbreviated version of Jama’at’ Izalat’ al bid’a’ wa’ iqamat’ al Sunnah (‘Society for the Removal of Innovation and Reinstatement of the Sunnah’)
6 R. Idrissa (2018), ‘Les trajectoires du salafisme politique au Sahel. Le cas du Niger’, Politique africaine 1(149): 43-65.
7 A. Sounaye (2011), ‘La “discothèque” islamique: CD et DVD au cœur de la réislamisation nigérienne’, Ethnographiques.org, No. 22 (May).
8 A. Sounaye (2016), Islam et Modernité. Contribution à l’étude de la ré-islamisation au Niger, Paris, L’Harmattan, 168 p.
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