ence of Islam in British Somaliland, British officials
emphasized local traditions and clan differences
(Kapteijns 1999b, 237–9). In British East Africa,
new towns and centers emerged which brought
Islam to non-Muslim areas via Muslim traders who
acted as colonial agents. However, literate African
Christian converts eventually displaced Muslim
intermediaries (Sperling 1999). In each case, British
administrators (initially) focused on (Muslim) male
actors while often denying all female resources.
The difference between British “indirect rule”
and French colonial policies is often overstated
since colonial governments employed a variety of
policies. Nevertheless under the model form of
French “direct rule” (particularly prior to the First
World War), French colonial administrators often
displaced indigenous authorities, or replaced legiti-
mate local leaders with favorites of the French.
Sometimes Muslims were placed in control of
largely non-Muslim populations. At the same time,
French colonial administrators ultimately devel-
oped relationships with key Muslim leaders, par-
ticularly in the Senegal-Mauritania region. Because
of its North African colonies and relationships with
expanding Muslim populations, French officials
represented France as a “Muslim power” (Triaud
1999, Robinson2000). However, an underlying
suspicion of pan-Islamic movements always sim-
mered beneath any pretense of French favor
toward Islam. To assuage these fears, French-
scholar-administrators postulated a theory regard-
ing Islam noir(Black Islam). The concept of Islam
noirsuggested that West African Islam was too
unorthodox and localized to partner with Arab or
pan-Islamic movements based in North Africa or
the Middle East. The French colonial administra-
tion partly isolated Islamic practice and scholarship
in West Africa. Islam’s peculiar relationship with
French colonialism also consolidated the power of
Muslim leaders in particular ways (Triaud 1999,
181–2). French colonial documents focus on clerics
and leaders from specific regions and provide little
information on women’s participation in Islamic
culture through religious practice, kinship net-
works, and scholarship. Instead, Muslim women’s
participation in indigenous forms of worship takes
precedence (Coulon 1988, 113–15). These percep-
tions of women’s Islamic practice partly explain
how European administrators ignored women’s
influence in Muslim African communities. The
examples below explore the implications of
Muslim religious expansion and Muslim women’s
religious expression during the colonial period.
Gender played an important role in the different
paths of Islamic expansion in French-controlled
sub-saharan africa 75southern Niger versus British-controlled northern
Nigeria. The nineteenth-century reform movement
(jihad) of Usman dan Fodio had different effects in
the Hausa-speaking area that straddles the Niger-
Nigeria border. Dan Fodio’s movement, which
gained control over what became northern Nigeria,
encouraged women’s education and right to in-
heritance. However, the practices of veiling and
seclusion limited the physical and economic inde-
pendence of women. The Maradi valley in southern
Niger resisted dan Fodio’s policies. In Maradi,
women continued to farm, moved freely in public,
and participated in Bori. Bori (known as Zar in
Sudan and North Africa) is a spirit possession rit-
ual that recognizes both Islam and indigenous reli-
gious practices. Bori also provided an avenue for
political power and social influence for women that
both French and British colonial administrative
policies overlooked. Meanwhile, European colo-
nial policies had various effects on both sides of the
border. The opening of trade between northern
Nigeria and southern Niger during the colonial
period brought practices such as veiling and seclu-
sion into fashion in southern Niger by the end of
the colonial period. Yet, in southern Niger, women
used their access to farming to gain real estate and
Bori remained a social force. In northern Nigeria,
women’s groups have drawn upon the history of
women’s education and interpretation of Islamic
texts. Women’s participation in Muslim society in
this border region reflects precolonial dynamics,
colonial policies, and women’s initiative (Cooper
1998).
In Senegal, the presence of a leading woman in a
Sufi †arìqa (brotherhood) similarly resulted from
internal local dynamics. In 1943, following her
father’s death, Sokhna Magat Diop succeeded her
father as khalìfa or leader of a small Mouride
†arìqa. Her ascent suggests that “popular” Islam in
Sufi brotherhoods suits and supports women’s
involvement in Muslim religious practice. Diop
also personally cultivated baraka or charisma
through her ascetic and humble lifestyle (Coulon
1988). Diop’s ability to manipulate colonial rela-
tionships like earlier Senegalese Muslim leaders is
less clear. Her father reputedly instructed her in the
ways of the French colonial administration. She
also engaged in politically useful marriage alliances.
The Diop case is not so much a singular biography
as it is an example of local innovation and possible
shifts in African Islam that occurred against the
background of European colonial activities.
In other parts of the continent, colonial policies
and Muslim religious expansion intersected in indi-
rect ways. In Mombasa on the Kenyan coast, elite