NGOization of Islamic Education

The Post-Coup Turkish State and Sufi Orders in Africa South of the Sahara

Bibliographic Data

ID3544701
AuthorsEzgi Güner (Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL 61801, USA, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume12
Issue1
Pages24
Publication date2020-12-30
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReligions (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/rel12010024
OpenAlexW3116454502
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited51

This article analyzes the recently formed transnational networks of Islamic education between Turkey and Africa south of the Sahara through the study of the neglected case of Erenköy Cemaati. The expansion of the schools affiliated with Erenköy Cemaati cannot be divorced from Turkey's Africa strategy and the growing importance of education within it since the late 2000s. Although Sufi orders and state institutions historically represent two divergent and conflicting streams of Islamic education in Turkey, the analysis of Erenköy Cemaati's schools in Africa south of the Sahara reveal their rapprochement in novel ways. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Turkey, Tanzania, and Senegal, this article shows that the complex relations between the Turkish state and Sufi orders in the field of education in Africa are facilitated by a constellation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Situating ethnographic data in historical context, it argues that the Islamic schools of Erenköy Cemaati are produced by the overlapping processes of the NGOization of Sufi orders in response to earlier state repression in Turkey and the NGOization of education in the wake of the neoliberal restructuring in Africa. While contributing to our understanding of post-coup Turkey and its evolving relations with Africa south of the Sahara, this article provides at the same time a new window into the NGOization of Islamic education on the continent

Archaeology · Context (archaeology) · Ethnography · Ethnology · Geography · Islam · Political science · Restructuring · Sociology · State (computer science) · Tanzania · Turkish · African history and culture analysis · Anthropology · Law · Religion, Society, and Development · Turkey's Politics and Society