THE HERITAGE OF ISLAM, WOMEN,
RELIGION AND POLITICS IN WEST AFRICA

Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder & London, 1994.
Pp.x + 221. 19.95 (PB). ISBN: 1-55587-414-2.

 By Barbara Callaway and Lucy Creevey.

BOOK REVIEW Barbara Callaway and Lucy Creevey are women scholars of two American universities who have worked in Northern Nigeria and Senegal, respectively, before embarking on the research that made up this book. They had both written on social and political aspects of their respective areas of research. In this book they set out to “discuss the roots of the present situation of women in Senegal and Northern Nigeria by looking at the history of the coming of Islam and its initial impact on pre-Islamic traditional society, specifically on the roles of women in each society.” (P. 8) They also said they were using three major indexes in trying to measure the impact and extent of change: socialization, modernization and participation and influence in politics. (P.8) They did all this in seven chapters, including the introduction and conclusion. Reading through this seven chapter book, one, however, cannot but conclude that these two women scholars, very much like the generation of colonial scholars before them, whose works have, rather predictably, dominated their bibliography, have come with a mind made up: that Islam is oppressive and unfair to women and for women to register any progress, Islam will have to be curtailed, that, they appear to be saying, is the only hope for women, and that is undoubtedly the message of the whole enterprise. This was not only a conclusion but a premise on which the whole work appear to be based. For early enough, in their introductory chapter, they observed that, “Muslim women in particular experience limits to inheritance imposed by Islamic law, which hinders their control of wealth and denies them whatever power and influence direct access to wealth brings.” (P. 8) With a sense of discovery, the authors continue to observe, “Yet they are not altogether unsuccessful in developing strategies to counter the control of assets by men. They manipulate their marriages to their advantage and they retain control over their resources and income.” Coming from a society which is highly materialistic, stripped naked of all notions of morality and ravaged by a gender conflict, known as sex war, for decades, the authors have clearly been unable to rise above their ego to understand a society whose history, culture and aspirations are completely different. It was not surprising therefore, when in the second chapter, titled, ‘The Islamic Encounter’, which is suppose to discuss the spread of Islam and therefore key to the understanding of the Muslim milieu, the authors relied heavily on the works of fellow Western scholars, even as there were dozens of academic materials on the subject by local academics. Sometimes the use of Meryvn Hiskett’s ‘Sword of Truth’ (P. 13) and Trimingham’s work (P. 20) appear deliberate, for there are far more recent and more accurate scholarly works available. The rest of the chapters concentrated on the issue of socialization, education, economy and political empowerment, brandishing all manners of statistics from the UN, World Bank and government offices, as if they are gospels from on high. It is not to suggest that these are entirely wrong, but those who live in this countries know better than to rely on such statistics, they, to say the least, do not represent the whole story, so conclusions based entirely on such figures could be perilous. Throughout the work, at every opportunity, the message is repeated, without ever feeling the need to prove it, in a work that claims to be academic, that “Muslim women do not enjoy equal inheritance rights, and they are forced to tolerate polygamy … the fact remains that Muslim law, based on the Sharia, does discriminate against women, more than do current Western codes.” (P. 183) Or so the authors thought! The way out they suggest is to keep a tap on Islam, or better still the fundamentalist must be kept in check, in their words, “No one interested in promoting women in Senegal can afford to ignore the right-wing danger represented by the Islamic fundamentalists.” (P. 183) One can therefore imagine what the final concluding chapter would be, sweeping statements, informed by ignorance of both the history and the law of Islam and all manners of insinuations and even veiled threats on behalf of Western governments. The seclusion of women and the blocking of “women’s integration into the processes of modern economic development” (P. 191) was all caused by the 19th century jihad is Hausaland, a view well propagated by Hiskett in his ‘Sword of Truth’. After celebrating how modern Western education has liberated the women from the Sharia, as it were, the authors expressed their apprehension about the reintroducing of Islam in the modern Western school system, because, in their words, “Reaffirmation of faith and disavowal of critical analysis is at the heart of this type of revision and certainly dilutes the extent to which education leads to independent thinking and rationality about daily life.” (P. 190) Not only are the governments discouraged to introduce more Islam in schools but they are urged to take measures that will lead to what they think is more freedom for women, reminding ‘whom it may concern’ that western aid is tied to these changes and failure to comply could mean a loss of a few million dollars. (P. 192) One cannot help express an astonishment about both the ignorance  as well as the naivete of  these two authors, especially having lived in the subject communities for some time and in Nigeria having met a number of the Muslim Women groups like FOMWAN and appear to have had access to their literature where a lot of the issues they raised had been discussed. Could it all be deliberate? This is a question difficult to answer.  So for what it is worth, this is a book, but it is difficult to see how such works can help the condition of women which, admittedly is not good, but which the Muslim women in West Africa are better placed to improve. Indeed such works obscure rather than clarify issues and are particularly worrying at a time when barriers are being broken and common grounds are being found to fight a common plague: modernism and its pollution, both environmental and now increasingly appreciated, social.