Muslim Segmentation: Cohesion and Divisiveness in Accra

Deborah Pellow

doi:10.1017/S0022278X00057165

Muslim Segmentation: Cohesion and Divisiveness in Accra

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2008

Deborah Pellow

Article contents

Extract
References

Get access

Rights & Permissions

Extract

This is a study of feuding and conciliation, fissioning and fusing, among the constituent segments of Accra's Muslim community. It articulates the argument of legitimacy – to build a new mosque, to choose a new leader, in effect, to direct the group – and in so doing, politically delineates the principle that by excluding rivals it is feasible to gainsay power for one's own group.

Type: Articles
Information: The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 23 , Issue 3 , September 1985 , pp. 419 - 444

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X00057165 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

^{page 419 note 1} Arens, William, ‘The Waswahili: the social history of an ethnic group’, in Africa (London), XLV, 4, 1975, pp. 426–37;Google ScholarSouthall, Aidan, ‘Nuer and Dinka are People: ecology, ethnicity, and logical possibility’, in Man (London), II, 4, 1976, pp. 463–91;Google Scholar and Swartz, Marc L., ‘Religious Courts, Community, and Ethnicity Among the Swahili of Mombasa: an historical study of social boundaries’, in Africa, XLV, 1, 1979, pp. 29–41.Google Scholar

^{page 419 note 2} Schildkrout, Enid, ‘The Ideology of Regionalism in Ghana’, in Shack, William A. and Skinner, Elliott P. (eds.), Strangers in African Societies (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1979), pp. 183–207.Google Scholar

^{page 419 note 3} Grindal, Bruce, ‘Islamic Affiliations and Urban Adaptation: the Sisala migrant in Accra, Ghana’, in Africa, XLIII, 4, 1973, pp. 333–46.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{page 420 note 1} I borrow these characterisations of situational identification from writings on ethnicity in the plural milieu: see du Toit, Brian M., ‘Introduction’, in du Toit (ed.), Ethnicity in Modern Africa (Boulder, 1978), pp. 1–16;Google ScholarMitchell, J. Clyde, ‘Theoretical Orientations in African Urban Studies’, in Banton, Michael (ed.), The Social Anthropology of Complex Societies (London, 1966), pp. 37–68;Google ScholarBarth, Fredrik, Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: the social organization of culture difference (Bergen, 1969);Google ScholarEvans-Pritchard, E. E., The Nuer (London, 1940);Google Scholar and Schildkrout, Enid, People of the Zongo: the transformation of ethnic identities in Ghana (Cambridge and New York, 1978).Google Scholar

^{page 421 note 1} My analysis, independently arrived at, is thematically similar to that of Schildkrout, Enid, ‘Islam and Politics in Kumasi: an analysis of disputes over the Kumasi Central Mosque’, in Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History (New York), 52, pt. 2, 1974, pp. 113–37.Google Scholar

^{page 422 note 1} Letter to the Executive of the Ghana Muslim Community from the Chiefs and Elders of Sabon Zongo and Zongon Tuta, 15 April 1982.

^{page 422 note 2} I have seen two listings of the imamship, and they vary somewhat: one naming 11, of whom three are Fulani, and the other 8, of whom two are Fulani. See Odoom, K. O., ‘A Document on Pioneers of the Muslim Community in Accra’, in Institute of African Studies Research Review (Accra), 7, 3, 1971, pp. 1–31;Google Scholar and Dretke, James P., ‘The Muslim Community in Accra: an historical survey’, M. A. thesis, University of Ghana, Legon, 1968.Google Scholar

^{page 423 note 1} Geoffrey, Junius, former Secretary, Ghana Muslim Mission; interview, 21 June 1982.Google Scholar

^{page 423 note 2} Peil, Margaret, ‘Host Reactions: aliens in Ghana’, in Shack, and Skinner, (eds.), op. cit. pp. 123–40.Google Scholar

^{page 423 note 3} Rouch, Jean, Migration an Ghana (Gold Coast) (Paris, 1956).Google Scholar

^{page 424 note 1} Shardow, B. B., Chief of Nupe, Accra Central; interview, June 1982.Google Scholar

^{page 424 note 2} In the segmentary model now diagrammed, a number of groups have been excluded, but only because they do not specifically figure in the account.

^{page 425 note 1} Weekes, Richard, (ed.), Muslim Peoples: a world ethnographic survey (Westport, 1978).Google Scholar

^{page 425 note 2} Levitzion, Nehemiah, ‘Coastal West Africa’, in Kritzeck, James and Lewis, I. M. (eds.), Islam in Africa (New York, 1969), pp. 301–18.Google Scholar

^{page 425 note 3} Dretke, op. cit. p. 10.

^{page 425 note 4} Adamu, Mahdi, The Hausa Factor in West African History (London, 1978), p. 134.Google Scholar

^{page 425 note 5} Wilks, Ivor, cited in Dretke, op. cit. p. 13.Google Scholar

^{page 425 note 6} Lovejoy, Paul E., ‘The Hausa Kola Trade (1700–1900): a commercial system in the continental exchange of West Africa’, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 1973, p. i.Google Scholar

^{page 425 note 7} Reynolds, Edward, Trade and Economic Change on the Gold Coast, 1807–74 (New York, 1974);Google Scholar and Wilks, Ivor, ‘Asante Policy Towards the Hausa Trade in the 19th Century’, in Meillassoux, Claude (ed.), The Development of Indigenous Trade and Markets in West Africa (London, 1971), pp. 124–44.Google Scholar

^{page 425 note 8} Dretke, op. cit.

^{page 426 note 1} Adamu, op. cit. p. 135.

^{page 426 note 2} Crooke, John J., Records Relating to the Gold Coast Settlements from 1750–1874 (Dublin, 1923), p. 414.Google Scholar

^{page 426 note 3} According to Select Committee discussions in 1865, the Colonial Government felt it would be useful to employ ‘the natives of one country in another…Houssas [sic] from Lagos, for instance, might be distributed all over the Gold Coast’.

^{page 426 note 4} Ghana National Archives, Accra, File S.N.A., 1086, 24 January 1889.

^{page 426 note 5} Dretke, op. cit.

^{page 426 note 6} Braimah, M. T., undated Obituary.Google Scholar

^{page 426 note 7} Odoom, loc. cit.

^{page 427 note 1} A.D.M. 11/1502, 9 June 1980.

^{page 427 note 2} Documents regarding the composition of the Islamic population at the turn of the century are generally vague about ethnic affiliations, and often not reliable when they are specific. For example, many migrants classified as Hausa ‘were not members of the same ethnic group and many of them took Hausa ethnicity only while away from their homes’. Adamu, op. cit. p. 15. This included recruits to the G.C.H.C. -two of the better-known Officers, Harri Zenua and his brother Danbornu, who were Kanuri from Bornu; others were Yoruba, called achilidi. Chief Braimah, Amida (Yoruba), Accra Central, interview, 2 February 1982.Google Scholar

^{page 427 note 3} Braimah, Amida, interview, 18 January 1982; B. B. Shardow, Chief of Nupe, interview, 28 January 1982.Google Scholar

^{page 427 note 4} Braimah, 2 February 1982.

^{page 427 note 5} Faruk, Alhaji, Secretary to the Council of Muslim Chiefs; interview, 23 March 1982; Mallam Sharbatu, son of Danbornu, interview, 6 March 1982.Google Scholar

^{page 427 note 6} Ra'abiyu, Mohammad (also known as Baba Agba Goldsmith), sarkin yaki; interview 27 February 1982.Google Scholar

^{page 427 note 7} Peil, Margaret, ‘The Expulsion of West African Aliens’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), 9, 2, 08 1971, 207ff.Google Scholar

^{page 427 note 8} A.D.M. 11/1446. Allowing that the matter was worthy of consideration, given the size of the population, the British also noted that no machinery already existed by which such a court could be set up and its judgements accorded legal recognition.

^{page 428 note 1} Geoffrey, Junius, op. cit.Google Scholar

^{page 428 note 2} A.D.M. 11/1446, 15 June 1930.

^{page 428 note 3} Sharbatu, Malam, op. cit.Google Scholar

^{page 428 note 4} Braimah, Amida, op. cit. 3 March 1982.Google Scholar

^{page 428 note 5} Levitzion, loc. cit. and Grindal, loc. cit.

^{page 429 note 1} The Ahmadiyya Movement was brought from Pakistan to Ghana in 1924, and established its headquarters at Saltpond. Most members are Akan, Gã, and Ewe, living in Asante, Eastern, and Western Regions. Acquah, Ione, Accra Survey (London, 1958).Google Scholar

^{page 429 note 2} Brown, A. Addo-Aryee, ‘Historical Account of Mohammedanism in the Gold Coast’, in Gold Coast Review (Accra), 07–12 1927, pp. 195–7.Google Scholar PubMed

^{page 429 note 3} Geoffrey, Junius, op. cit.Google Scholar

^{page 429 note 4} Anderson, J.N.D., Islamic Law in Africa (London, 1955 and 1970).Google Scholar

^{page 430 note 1} Pogucki, R. J. H., Report on Land Tenure in Customary Law of the Non-Akan Areas of the Gold Coast (Now Eastern Region of Ghana), Part II, Gã (Accra, 1954), p. 31.Google Scholar

^{page 431 note 1} Obile, Tackie, Gã Manche, to D.C., Accra, 15 September 1904; A.D.M. 11/1502, S.N.A. 900.Google Scholar

^{page 431 note 2} Pogucki, op. cit. p. 32.

^{page 431 note 3} See Kwahu, Tetteh versus Brown, Kpakpo & others, 16 February 1910.Google Scholar

^{page 431 note 4} Braimah, Amida, op. cit. 28 January 1982.Google Scholar

^{page 431 note 5} Idi, Alhaji, former advisor to Hausa Chief Bawa Kadri English; interview, 10 February 1982.Google Scholar

^{page 432 note 1} A.D.M. 11/1502, S.N.A. 2288/01, 31 August 1904.

^{page 432 note 2} A.D.M. 11/1446, 3 December 1914.

^{page 432 note 3} Anderson, op. cit. 1970, p. 284.

^{page 432 note 4} A.D.M. 11/1502, S.N.A. 1086, 24 January 1889.

^{page 432 note 5} The same was true for Kumasi, as observed by Schildkrout, Enid, ‘Government and Chiefs in Kumasi Zongo’, in Crowder, Michael and Ikime, Obaro (eds.), West African Chiefs: their changing status under colonial rule and independence (New York, 1970), pp. 370–92.Google Scholar

^{page 432 note 6} S.N.A. 1331/07, 20 November 1908.

^{page 432 note 7} A.D.M. 11/1446 and S.N.A. 35/1926, 9 November 1926.

^{page 432 note 8} In later years, this was expanded to the selection of tribal heads for the constituent ethnic groups as their members increased. Cited by Geoffrey, op. cit., regarding the 1930 Fulani chieftaincy fight.

^{page 432 note 9} See Winchester, Brian, ‘Strangers and Politics in Urban Africa: a study of the Hausa in Kumasi, Ghana’, Ph.D. dissertation, Indian University, Bloomington, 1976.Google Scholar

^{page 432 note 10} A.D.M. 11/1502, 9 July 1908.

^{page 433 note 1} In the late nineteeth and early twentieth centuries, after the abolition of slavery in Brazil in 1831, many descendants of West Africans filtered back to the region. Those settling in the Gold Coast called themselves Tabon and were incorporated into the Otublohu Gã.

^{page 433 note 2} S.N.A. 1348/12, 12 November 1912.

^{page 433 note 3} The Gold Coast Hausa Constabulary, for example, also included Kanuri and Yoruba.

^{page 433 note 4} This circumstance was tied up with feuding forces at a lower level, among the contentious Hausa; Braimah represented a respectable compromise for the majority.

^{page 433 note 5} Allott, Antony, Essays in African Law with Special Reference to the Law of Ghana (London, 1960), p. 217.Google Scholar

^{page 433 note 6} Anderson, op. cit. p. 280.

^{page 434 note 1} Memorandum submitted by Junius Geoffrey to the chairman of the Constitutional Committee, appointed by the National Liberation Council, pursuant to a N.L.C. Decree of 1967.

^{page 434 note 2} There was Gã interference in such affairs in 1902 when, after the death of Tackie Tawiah, the Gã Manche, his advisor Captain Kudjo, acting on the deceased Chief's desire and ostensibly that of the Muslim community, made an abortive attempt to install Braimah Butcher as Chief of the Muslims. A.D.M. 11/1086, 28 November 1902.

^{page 434 note 3} S.N.A. 1331/07, Letter from Hausa Representatives to the Colonial Secretary, 20 September 1907.

^{page 434 note 4} S.N.A. 1331/07, Private Secretary for the information of the Governor, 6 May 1909; A.D.M. 11/1502, 29 May 1909.

^{page 434 note 5} Geoffrey, Junius, interview, 21 June 1982; and Brimah, M. T., Secretary to Braimah Family, Obituary for Ibrahima Braimah, n.d.Google Scholar

^{page 435 note 1} Zenua, Abayazidu, Chief of Kanuri, interview, 17 February 1982.Google Scholar

^{page 435 note 2} Interview with Braimah II, 28 January 1982.

^{page 435 note 3} Recognising themselves, however, as ‘being Foreigners not Natives’ who ‘can only acknowledge one Chief which is that of Accra’, they first understood that they could ‘only have Headmen between ourselves and not a Chief’. A.D.M. 11/1502, S.N.A. 1331/07, 7/1909, Letter from Abubakar Fulani, Headman of Fulani, to S.N.A. Crowther.

^{page 436 note 1} Austin, Dennis, Politics in Ghana, 1946–60 (London, 1964).Google Scholar

^{page 436 note 2} Dretke, op. cit. 83ff; also Price, J.H., ‘The Role of Islam in Gold Coast Politics’, in Proceedings of the Third Annual Conference of the West African Institute of Social and Economic Research (Ibadan, 1954).Google Scholar

^{page 436 note 3} Geoffrey, Junius, op. cit.Google Scholar

^{page 436 note 4} Personal Communication, Jon Kraus.

^{page 436 note 5} Geoffrey, Junius, op. cit.Google Scholar

^{page 437 note 1} Memorandum submitted by Geoffrey, Junius, op. cit.Google Scholar

^{page 437 note 2} Faruk, Alhaji, op. cit. 23 March 1982. See also Peil, ‘The Expulsion of West African Aliens’Google Scholar; and Sudarkasa, Niara, ‘Commercial Migration in West Africa, with Special Reference to the Yoruba in Ghana’, in African Urban Notes (East Lansing), Series B, 1: ‘Migrants and Strangers in Africa’, 1974–5, pp. 61–103.Google Scholar

^{page 437 note 3} The Ghana Muslim Representative Council included the Ghana Muslim Community (aliens), the Ghana Muslim Mission (Gã, Fante), the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (an offshoot of the G.M.M.), the National Council of Ghana Muslims (Asante), and the Ghana Muslim Congress (Northerners), formed by the N.L.C. to create peace.

^{page 438 note 1} ‘Report of a Committee on Unity Among Muslim Organisations in Ghana’, submitted to the National Redemption Council jointly by the Ghana Muslim Community, the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, and the Ghana Muslim Mission, January 1973.

^{page 440 note 1} Memorandum by Junius Geoffrey to Deborah Pellow, dated 4 April 1985.

^{page 440 note 2} Ibid.

^{page 440 note 3} A.D.M. 11/1502.

^{page 441 note 1} Ibid. 12 May 1902.

^{page 441 note 2} For example, the celebration of Salla at the close of Ramadan; S.N.A. 86/12, 7 October 1912.

^{page 441 note 3} A.D.M. 11/1502.

^{page 441 note 4} In the words of B. B. Shardow, Chief of the Nupe: ‘People don't mind us, because the land is not for us, it is Gã land. If our own land, I am the Chief. I can assist you. All of us Chiefs in Accra, we have nothing to gain from anybody? And there is also no revenue attached to any of these chieftaincies, thus little financial gain to be had’.

^{page 441 note 5} S.N.A. 1331/07.

^{page 441 note 6} A.D.M. 11/1502, 15 May 1909.

^{page 441 note 7} Ibid.

^{page 441 note 8} It is not clear when they actually left Zongo Lane. According to family tradition, Malam Bako was already at Sabon Zongo when the Gã chiefs were questioning the transfer of land. He won the judgement in 1912. The new Zongo is referred to (as a Hausa settlement) in a Government Letter of 12 April 1912, citing a report of 27 April 1910. Malam Bako continued on as Chief Imam in Accra after moving (thus prior to 1915, the date of the closing of the Mosque).

^{page 442 note 1} Hammond, Manche D. P. versus Manche Kojo Ababio IV and Anor, London, 12 April 1912.Google Scholar

^{page 442 note 2} Appeal, Chief Bako, Lebboversus Alhaji Adamu Damanley and Anor, Accra, 23 December 1981.Google Scholar

^{page 442 note 3} Smith, M. G., ‘Pluralism in Precolonial African Societies’, in Kuper, Leo and Smith, (eds.), Pluralism in Africa (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1969), p. 94.Google Scholar

^{page 443 note 1} M. G. Smith, ‘Some Developments in the Analytic Framework of Pluralism’, in ibid. pp. 434ff.

^{page 443 note 2} Evans-Pritchard, op. cit.; Fortes, Meyer, ‘The Political System of the Tallensi of the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast’, in Fortes and Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (eds.), African Political Systems (London, 1940), pp. 239–71;Google Scholar and Bohannan, Paul, Tiv Farm and Settlement (London, 1954).Google Scholar

Article contents

Muslim Segmentation: Cohesion and Divisiveness in Accra

Extract

Access options

References

Save article to Kindle

Save article to Dropbox

Save article to Google Drive

Reply to: Submit a response

Your details

You have entered the maximum number of contributors

Conflicting interests