Sahelian West Africa and North Central
Africa (Chad/Sudan)With the gradual conversion to Islam, Sahelian
societies have been influenced by Islamic organ-
ization systems, reinforcing the patrilineality that
already existed in these societies. However, within
this organization matrilineal elements guarantee
women room for negotiation and flexibility in gen-
der relations.
In the West and Central Sahel, Islamization is a
continuing process. The first contacts with Islam
stem from more than a thousand years ago, when
trade routes and traveling Muslims were the
avenues for Islam and were closely related to early
state-building (for example, the empires of Ghana,
Mali, Gao [Songhai], Bornu, and Darfur). Islam has
long been the religion of the elites. This changed
during the nineteenth century when the Fulani
empires in the Western Sahel were firmly estab-
lished. Their rulers made an effort to spread Islam
among the common people and tried to impose
Muslim rule. It could not, however, be imposed on
everyone. First, many did not want to become Mus-
lim, and second, those who imposed Islam did not
want their entire slave reservoir depleted through
conversion since it was forbidden to enslave fellow
Muslims.
Today Islam touches all ethnic groups in the area.
The interpretation of Muslim rule at the popular
level takes many different forms in a continuous
dialogue between custom and religion (Launay
1992, Holy 1991). It is very difficult to disentangle
the influence of Islam and the so-called pre-Islamic
elements in the social and cultural organization of
these diverse ethnic groups. It is therefore not easy
to attribute the dominant patrilineal organization,
which is neither exclusive nor fixed, to Islamic cul-
ture. Differences between ethnic groups and social
categories, and between urban and rural areas,
must also be considered.
Political hierarchies of the widely spread nine-
teenth-century empires made a clear distinction
between noble and non-noble people, one that gen-
erally still pertains. The distinction, linked to
adherence to Islam, influences social organization
and gender relations. The noble warriors and polit-
ical elites were and still are strict Muslims (espe-
cially Hausa, Fulani, Tuareg, Moors, Kenembou,
Kinship, Descent Systems
and Arabs). They live in large villages and towns
and claim to be descended from the nineteenth-
century kings. They are patrilineally organized and
follow the inheritance rules of Islam. Women are
sometimes secluded in a rigorous way and are not
allowed to live alone. Widows are immediately re-
married, or go to their brother’s home until mar-
riage takes place. Social organization is explained
in Muslim terms (VerEecke 1989, de Bruijn and
Van Dijk 1995, Fortier 2001, Coles and Mack
1991).
The social organization of the noble semi-
nomadic pastoralists is more flexible so as to re-
spond to the vagaries of the climate and allow them
to best raise their livestock (Baroin 1984, Bernus
1993, de Bruijn and van Dijk 1995). In general,
political and economic relations are defined in
patrilineal terms, while relationships of care are
defined along matrilineal lines. The basic unit of
production is the patrilineal household, and the
basis for reproduction and care of family members
is the union between mother and children, defined
as the “hearthhold” (de Bruijn 1997). As most of
these groups have a pre-inheritance system, the
children of the hearthhold are the proprietors of the
livestock. The Tuareg have a special inheritance sys-
tem that they call “the living milk.” A portion of the
cattle is inherited through the matrilineal line.
During the past few decades this inheritance sys-
tem has led to many disputes, with the result that
the Islamic form of inheritance has been gaining
influence (Oxby 1990). An important matrifocal
element in these societies is the preference for cross-
cousin and parallel cousin marriages sometimes
including the matri-parallel cousin, a partner for-
bidden by Muslim law. These alliances are not
exclusive, however, since distance marriages are
frequent. Furthermore, divorce rates are very high.
Slaves are people without history and in principle
without a clear kinship system. After the abolition
of slavery and in the gradual formation of their own
society, former slaves have copied the model of the
noble strata and developed a patrilineal system.
Today most of them are sedentary and work in agri-
culture. Among the Tuareg, Moors, and Tubu they
are also herders and nomads. They do not restrict
their women as much as the nobles do because
women play an important role in the economy of
daily life (on Riimaybe, former slaves of Fulani, de