The Tariqa Shadhiliyya of Northern Madagascar – A Southern Branch of an Indian Ocean Islamic Movement from ca 1890 – 2000

Madagascar is located in the Indian Ocean 250 miles off the eastern coast of Africa across the Mozambique Channel, just south of the equator. Over 1000 miles (1580 km) long and 350 miles (570 km) wide, Madagascar is the world's fourth largest island. Its most prominent feature would have to be the steep mountain range paralleling the entire eastern coast.

Calling Madagascar an island almost seems unfair. Deciduous forests, crystalline lakes, massive caverns, and savanna grassland dot the broad western plains, and the southern tip of the island is covered with a magnificent desert. This Eden-like garden of riches is filled with so much diversity in life and in geography that it is like no other island anywhere on Earth. Indeed, every expedition into her mountains, her rain forests, her river valleys, her coastal plains, her grasslands, her caverns, and her deserts leads to the discovery of some new plant or animal species. It is no exaggeration to claim that this micro-continent, as some have called it, offers limitless opportunities for exploration.

Located in the North, the Diego Suarez (Antsiranana) is Madagascar's fifth largest town, population 80,000, has a superb location at the extreme northern tip of the island. Once a strategic naval base and bustling cosmopolitan city, Diego retains much of its charm of yesterday. It has daily flights to and from Antananrivo, has good accommodations with excellent cuisine, and is the gateway to Montagne d'Ambre National Park and the Ankarana Reserve.

Many Arabs came to Madagascar, mainly in the North around the 1800s – apparently most originated from Yemen. They were especially involved in trade. Their links are subject to scholarly research by Anne K. Bang, Research leader/Associate Professor - Unifob Global - at University of Bergen in Norway, interview.

Q: Last time we met, the occasion was your book "Sufis and Scholars of the Sea", a study that reconstructs the channels through which "Alawis", a Sufi Tariqa, originated in the South – Yemeni region of Hadhramaut, spread along the coast of Indian Ocean. Is your present research in progress – the Tariqa Shadhiliyya of Northern Madagascar and extension and/or complements your book?
Anne Bang: It is actually very much a direct follow-up of the book. In the book I wrote about the scholar Ahmad b. Sumayt who died in Zanzibar in 1925. I also wrote a little about his son Umar b. Sumayt who became a famous scholar. This Umar spent a period of his life in Madagascar, but at the time when I worked with Sufis and Scholars, I had neither the time nor the funding to do research there. So, when I looked around for a new topic, I could not resist the idea of finally going to see this big island.

Once I got there, I realized that northern Madagascar was quite closely tied in with the whole Swahili-Hadrami-Arab trading network.

Q: When and how your interest in the Indian Ocean begun and which – according to you- is the most exciting or interesting period?
Anne Bang:  I know that many students of the Middle East have this fascination with the desert. For me, it was always the sea. So when I was thinking about what topic to choose for my studies, the Indian Ocean sort of came natural, rather than, say, Egypt or Syria.

I like the early 20th century very much. From an historian’s point of view, it was one of great change, with the long-standing Muslim network being encroached by full-on European colonialism. This created even more mobility on many levels which in turn generated new social structures, which are always interesting to an historian.

Lots of change, lots of movement. Whether that meant it was a good period to actually live in, I am less certain.

Q: Anyone who visits Madagascar returns with a fascinating story. Would you like to share one?
Anne Bang: I think the island itself is the most fascinating story, with strange flora and fauna and amazing landscapes. Not to mention its people, with their history of migration and cultural mixes making it a very special place. Personally, I liked the idea of checking in live animals on the airplanes. On a flight to Antananarivo, a whole bunch of live geese were checked in. Once in the capital, the geese arrived happily chattering on the conveyor belt in the airport.

Q: Would you like to introduce the region of Northern Madagascar?
Anne Bang: Northern Madagascar is very much part of Madagascar. The people who live there, the Antankarana and the Sakalava, are a Malagasy people who speak Malagasy and live by aspects of Malagasy culture. However, do to the proximity to the Comoro Islands and Mozambique, the area has also become part of the long-standing trading- and religious networks which interconnect the Swahili coast and the rest of the Indian Ocean.

Many Comorian immigrants have settled in Northern Madagascar and a high percentage of the population are Muslim. Of these, quite a high number were Alawi Sada who were settled in the Comoros. Unfortunately, the Hadhrami sources are not very informative on the ones who went to Madagascar – maybe it was considered just too far away? In any case, the connections are kept up through religious brotherhoods such as the Tariqa Shadhiliyya which is very important in the region.

Q: Would you like to explain the purpose of your present research, sources and methodology?
Anne Bang: The idea behind the present research is to trace cultural and religious interconnections between the coastal regions south of Zanzibar, i.e. Mozambique, Madagascar and possibly also South Africa. By now, quite a lot of research exists on the Swahili coast, Zanzibar, Mombasa, Lamu etc, whereas little work has been done on the southern regions from an Indian Ocean perspective.

My research focuses mainly on the Sufi brotherhoods, and mainly on the Shadhiliyya, Qadiriyya and the Alawiyya. I have focused my research on the city of Diego Suarez/Antsiranana in the north, but I may move on also to Nosy Be which has a substantial Swahili community.

Q: Introduce the Islamic community of Northern Madagascar, important families and their connections.. ?
Anne Bang: The Muslim community in northern Madagascar is diverse, because it encompasses both the Malagasy, the Comorians, other Swahilis, immigrant Arab and Indian communities. However, in general, the community is Shafei-Sunni. The incorporation of a Malagasy Islamic identity is still in the making, I think, and what has emerged is a distinctive Malagasy way of being Muslim which takes many cues from the Swahilis. However, it was emphasized many times to me that the Shadhiliyya, for example, is a Malagasy order, not a "immigrant" one.

Q: Introduce your sources and informants?
Anne Bang: My informant have, until now, mainly been the proprietors or imams in mosques, as well as Sufi leaders who are knowledgeable about the history of their branch or tariqa. I also wanted to trace a bit of the history of Umar b. Sumayt in Madagascar, and for that case I could basically interview any person old enough to remember his last visit in the early 1970s. By that time, Umar was an old man and a very respected figure, and in Diego Suarez old men came up to me in the street to talk about their memories of him. I had hoped to find written accounts of this visit, but until now I have had no such luck.

Q: What is unique about Tariqa Shadhilliyya?
Anne Bang: The Tariqa Shadhiliyya is a very widespread order in the Muslim world. It was founded by Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili in the 1200s. Like many Sufi brotherhoods, including the Alawiyya, it focuses on nearness to God and spiritual peace. Its "silsila" is closely connected to that of the tariqa Alawiyya.

Q: Do explain the general movement of Islamic scholarship in the Indian Ocean and activities of Hadhrami Alawis?
Anne Bang: The Hadhrami Alawis have been coming to east Africa since the early days. They brought with them Islam and Islamic practice and often became community leaders on the Swahili coast.

However, something changed in the 19th century. The general reform that took place within the brotherhood from the time of Abd Allah b. Alawi al-Haddad, was transported onwards to the shores of Africa and the rest of the Indian Ocean. This, combined with the arrival of colonialism at more or less the same time, brought new social constellations which has yet to be fully studied – at least for some regions. We can say that reform came in "waves", from Hadhramawt but also from other places.

Then, in turn, as other historians have noted, the reform waves in the Indian Ocean also reverberated back to Hadhramawt waves of islamization around the turn of 19 century,

Q: What is special about the islamization process of northern Madagascar and the influence of Shafei – Sunni – Hadhrami Alawis?
Anne Bang: The special thing is the encounter with the distinctive set of Malagasy beliefs and practices. Both Islam and Christianity encountered practices that were directly counter to its teaching, such as the practice of reburial and the veneration of ancestors. Different adaptations grew out of this, which makes for a distinctive Malagasy Islam.

Q: Elaborate the role of Muhammed Al-Maaroof?
Anne Bang: Muhammad al-Maaroof was a very important figure in the spreading of the Shadhiliyya. Being born in Grand Comore to a Alawi family, he was born into the right set of network (and given the religious and scholarly upbringing) to make him able to spread the order efficiently. A Mozambiquan scholar, Liazzat Bonate, has recently written about how the spread of the Shadhiliyya took place in Mozambique, and she demonstrates how Maarouf and his disciples made efforts to integrate the order into the local communities.

Q: In your paper you say that from 1965 to present we can speak of Malagasy order with local branches and Comorian connection, please elaborate? 
Anne Bang: Similarly to in Mozambique, Shadhiliyya leaders in northern Madagascar apparently made real efforts to integrate the order among the local Antankarana (Malagasy) population. The order did not become an order for Comorians resident in Madagscar, but rather an order for Malagasys. However, the Comorian roots of the order, combined with the still numerous resident Comorians in Madagascar, makes sure that the connections to the Comoros are still strong. However, other links are emphasized too, such as to the Middle East.

Q: What can be said about Islamic identity in the Malagasy context?
Anne Bang: I really can not generalize here, because my own research has been focused on such a small part of the big island. But it seems to me that Malagasy Muslim community is about to come into its own as a component of the wider Malagasy society.

Q: Any other projects, undertakings you wish to share?
Anne Bang: An important part of this research is the preservation of sources. Today, there is a very big problem in some parts of Africa that the historical sources are written in local languages, but in the Arabic script. Today, people learn to read and write their own languages in the Latin script, with the result that very few are able to read their own written history. As a result, much of this material has suffered in the sense that it is not preserved and not utilized. We hope to be able to do something about this.

Q: You are also a novel writer. Any exciting ongoing writings?
I am trying to write a novel from Zanzibar. It is not very easy, as the historian in me tend to interfere to make sure that factual information is correct etc. I try my best to ignore this historian.

Fiction is fiction and should not be troubled by mere facts.

ABOUT ANNE K. BANG
Anne Bang is project manager for Global Cities and coordinator for the project From Transmission to Global Learning in collaboration with the University of Cape Town. She is also a participant in the project In the wake of Colonialism.

Anne Bang has a background in Middle Eastern and Islamic studies with a focus on the modern period 1800 until today. Emerging from an interest in South Arabia, she has since the 1990s focused on the Indian Ocean as an arena of social and cultural exchange – including exchange of religious ideas. She has studied the spread of Sufism in East Africa and the social impact this has had on societies such as Zanzibar.

Current Activities:
Regions in Time and Space, Linking Global Cities, African Islamic Education

Research Focus
Indian Ocean, Islam, Sufism, translocality, cosmopolitanism, migration

Indian Ocean,
South Arabia, Hadramawt /Oman
East Africa, Zanzibar, Comoro Islands, coastal Kenya, northern Mozambique, Madagascar,South Africa

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING:
Anne K. Bang: The Tariqa Shadhiliyya of Northern Madagascar, A Southern branch of an Indian Ocean Islamic Movement, c. 1890-2000, Research in progress
 
Anne K. Bang: Sufis and Scholars of the Sea. Family Networks in East Africa, Monograph, 260 pages:1860-1925, RoutledgeCurzon, London, 2003.
The book focuses on the ways in which a particular Islamic brotherhood, or "tariqa", the Alawiya, spread, maintained and propagated its particular brand of Islamic faith. Originating in the South-Yemeni region of Hadhramawt, the Alawi tariqa mainly spread along the coast of the Indian Ocean. The book discusses the renowned scholar, Ahmed B. Sumayt. The Alawis are here portrayed as one of many cultural mediators in the multi-ethnic, mutli-religious Indian Ocean world in the era of European colonialism. Book review and book profile was published on Buzzle and in Yemen Times in Yemen.
 
Selected Academic Articles
Anne K. Bang: "The Southern Tier of the Da’wa? The Cape Town Muslim Community and the Wider Indian Ocean World of Islamic Reform, ca. 1900-1940", in: E. A. Alpers & A. F. Roberts (eds.), Islam and Hinduism in the Indian Ocean World:  Global Truths and Local Practices, Forthcoming, UCLA, 2008.

Anne K. Bang: "Hadrami teachers, scholars and educationalists. The role of Hadramis in Islamic education in Zanzibar, c. 1870-1930," Asian Journal of Social Science, 2/3, 2007.

Anne K. Bang: "Norway to Zanzibar as the lark flies. The Norway Connection (Norwegian timber export to Zanzibar 1895-1925)", Proceedings of the seminar "Sails of History", Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF Journal), Dhow Culture Dialogues, 3, 2006.

Anne K. Bang: Essay, Zanzibar Hotel, Spartacus, forthcoming, 2009

Image:  Muslim children in Diego Suarez/Antsiranana, Madagascar, courtesy Anne K. Bang

Home Page University of Bergen, Norway
Activities, projects, profiles, updates