Islam in Africa South of the Sahara

Pade Badru is of professor and chair of the department of social and behavioral sciences at Savannah State University. He is a former professor of Africana Studies at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.Brigid M. Sackey is professor of anthropology at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon. She was trained in Ghana, Germany (Philipps University), and the United States (Temple University). She was deputy director and acting director of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon in 2008 and 2009.

Scholars from disciplines as varied as sociology, history, law, political science, anthropology, and religious studies have authored the 16 chapters in this interesting and at times unexpected interdisciplinary collection focusing on Islam in Africa. Accordingly, the chapters take varied methodological and theoretical approaches, ranging from ethnography to a review of legal codes. However, a general focus on gender and politics, as the subtitle suggests, holds the volume together. The majority of the book's chapters focus on Islam in West Africa, particularly in Ghana and Nigeria, although there is one chapter each on Somalia, Sudan, South Africa, and the Nation of Islam. Surprisingly, there is no coverage of the heavily Muslim Swahili Coast other than a brief mention in the preface. Many chapters contain an overview or very general introduction to certain ideas in the Islamic tradition that may not be necessary for all readers. Several of the chapters have been previously published elsewhere, some recently, some in the 1990s. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.