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The politics of the Hajj organisation in Senegal: security, legitimation and clientelism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2021

Cédric Jourde ,
Marie Brossier  and
Muriel Gomez-Perez
Cédric Jourde*
Affiliation:
School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
Marie Brossier*
Affiliation:
Interdisciplinary Research Center on Africa and the Middle East (CIRAM), Department of Political Science, University Laval, Quebec City, Canada
Muriel Gomez-Perez*
Affiliation:
Interdisciplinary Research Center on Africa and the Middle East (CIRAM), Department of Historical Sciences, University Laval, Quebec City, Canada
*
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This article analyses how the state in Senegal has managed the hajj since the liberalisation era in the early 2000s. Although the essence of the hajj is religious, it is also deeply political and requires that the state manages complex relations with pilgrims, religious leaders, private travel agencies, politicians and Saudi authorities. This article argues that three inter-related imperatives structure the conduct of the Senegalese state: a security imperative, a legitimation imperative, and a clientelistic imperative. Security concerns lead the state to monitor and control pilgrims travelling to Mecca. Legitimation is seen in the collaborative relations with Sûfi orders and in the framing of the hajj organisation as a ‘public service’. Finally, given the magnitude of financial and symbolic resources attached to the hajj, clientelistic relations are constitutive of state officials’ actions. Overall, despite the post-2000 liberalisation of the hajj, the state has maintained its role as a gatekeeper, regulator and supervisor.

Keywords

PilgrimageHajjStateSenegalIslamliberalisation
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 59 , Issue 1 , March 2021 , pp. 1 - 20
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

We acknowledge the invaluable help of our research assistants: Djiguatte Bassène, Samuel Breton, Audray Fréchette and Mohamed Lemine Sakho. And finally, the late Ida Ahoueya Ep Klissou. Our thoughts are with Ida's family. This work was funded by an Insight Grant from the SSHRC [435-2016-0682, 2016–2022] and has been granted ethical approval from both Laval and Ottawa universities.

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