Islamic Revivalism in Contemporary Ghana

In the study of Muslims in post-independence Ghana the growth and proliferation of new Islamic movements, as a by-product of Kwame Nkrumah’s foreign policy, is an issue worthy of academic attention. This foreign policy, inclined towards engaging with Africa and Muslim countries (Saudi Arabia, Iran and Libya, among others) attracted movements such as Salafism, Shi´ism and the Third Universal Theory of al-Qadhafi’s Green Book into the Ghanaian religious sphere, where the Tijaniyya already played an important role. While these new movements drew inspiration from external points of orientation, their proliferation depended on the local context. The activists of the Fayda Tijaniyya and the Salafis were successful with their agenda and approach primarily due to the competing scholarly interpretations they offered and their modernised approach to propagation. Though Shi´i revivalism in recent times has combined traditional and secular education, its influence in the broader Ghanaian religious sphere is yet to be tested. The Green Book offered a particular political dimension to the Islamic revival, and some Ghanaians were influenced by its ideas on political participation. Dr Yunus Dumbe is a lecturer at the Department of Religious Studies in the Islamic University College, Accra. He specialises on Islam in Africa, particularly Ghana and South Africa. Between 2011 and 2013, he was a guest scholar at the Department for the Study of Religions at Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden