Overview

This volume on Muslim life focuses on young male migrants of rural origin who move to build better lives in Bougouni, a provincial town in southwest Mali. Describing themselves as “simply Muslims” and “adventurers,” these migrants aim to be both prosperous and good Muslims. Drawing upon seventeen months of fieldwork, author André Chappatte explores their sense of prosperity and piety as they embark on tunga (adventure), a customary search for money and more in a tradition that dates back to the colonial period. In the context of the current global war on terrorism, most studies of Muslim life have focused on the politics of piety of reformist movements, their leaders, and members. By contrast, In Search of “Tunga” takes a perspective from below. It opens piety up to “simply Muslims,” although the religious elites have always claimed authority and legitimacy over piety. Is piety an exclusive field of experiences for those who claim to strive for it? What does piety involve for the majority of Muslims, the non-elite and unaffiliated Muslims? This volume “democratizes” piety by documenting its practice as going beyond sharply defined religious affiliations and Islamic scholarship, and by showing it is both alive and normative, existential and prescriptive. As opposed to studies that build on the classic historical connections between the Maghreb and the Sahel, the southbound migration from the Sahel documented in this book stresses the overlooked historical connections between the southern shores of the Sahara and the lands south of those shores. It demonstrates how the Malian savanna, this former buffer-zone between ancient Mande kingdoms and thereafter remote areas of French Sudan, is increasingly becoming central in today’s Sahel contexts of desiccation and insecurity.

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9780472055654

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Reviews

"""By endeavoring to recreate the daily life of these rural youth in search of prosperity, this study offers a unique and fascinating perspective on a Malian society in movement.""--Archives de sciences sociales des religions ""In Search of Tunga is a fascinating work. The fruit of an in-depth ethnographic survey carried out on a local scale, it nevertheless provides insightful reading keys to understand the current dynamics of a vast region of West Africa, southwest Mali. With the region now at the heart of major geopolitical issues, and difficult for European researchers to access, this book is all the more important.""--Cahiers d'�tudes Africaines"

"""By endeavoring to recreate the daily life of these rural youth in search of prosperity, this study offers a unique and fascinating perspective on a Malian society in movement."" --Archives de sciences sociales des religions-- ""Archives de sciences sociales des religions"""

Author Information

André Chappatte is Assistant Professor at the Global Studies Institute, University of Geneva.

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