{"id":37342,"date":"2026-10-05T11:39:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T10:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/islam-africa-sufism-salafism-youssouf-sangare-2026\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T12:15:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T11:15:22","slug":"islam-africa-sufism-salafism-youssouf-sangare-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/en\/islam-africa-sufism-salafism-youssouf-sangare-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"“Islam in Africa: Between Sufism, Salafism, and Indigenous Religious Authority”, by Youssouf Sangar\u00e9"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On Friday 30 October 2026, Youssouf Sangar\u00e9<\/strong><\/strong><\/a>, Associate Professor (ma\u00eetre de conf\u00e9rences) of Islamic Studies at the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (Inalco, Paris) and visiting scholar at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, is giving a lecture entitled Islam in Africa: Between Sufism, Salafism, and Indigenous Religious Authority<\/em>. It is part of the Timbuktu Talks<\/strong><\/a>, an annual lecture series on new books and research on Islam in Africa, co-organised by the Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa (ISITA) at Northwestern University and the University of Illinois.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking the case of Ch\u00e9rif Ousmane Madani Ha\u00efdara and the An\u00e7ar Dine movement he founded in Mali (not to be confused with the jihadist group Ansar Dine), the lecture examines the dynamics of contemporary African Islam. Youssouf Sangar\u00e9 argues that figures like Ha\u00efdara articulate a theology of resistance, pushing back against both radical Islamism and “imported” forms of Islam, whether Wahhabi or Arab-centric in orientation. The lecture also addresses broader questions of religious authority, the decolonisation of Islamic knowledge and the plurality of Muslim identities in Sub-Saharan Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lecture draws on his book Penser l’islam depuis l’Afrique. La doctrine de Ch\u00e9rif O. Madani Ha\u00efdara<\/em><\/a> (Thinking Islam from Africa: The Doctrine of Ch\u00e9rif O. Madani Ha\u00efdara, Riveneuve, 2023), with a foreword by Souleymane Bachir Diagne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Wednesday 21 October, he is also giving an in-person lecture at the Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies of the University of Illinois: Reformist Muslim Thought: Rethinking the Quran and Islamic Tradition from the 19th Century to Today<\/em> (details<\/strong><\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n