Islamic Doctrine and the Politics of Induced Fertility Change: An African Perspective

Abstract

CONTRARY TO POPULAR BELIEF, Islam in Africa as a whole has been more relevant for the culture of lineage and procreation than for the culture of combat, more important in buttressing high fertility and defining lineage than as a jihad, or holy war, to eliminate rivals. This article concentrates primarily on Islam in sub-Saharan Africa (or black Africa). The indigenous African religions are basically communal. Because they are not proselytizing religions, indigenous African creeds have not fought with each other. Over the centuries, Africans have waged many kinds of wars against each other, but rarely religious wars before the coming of Christianity and Islam (Mazrui, 1988; Mbiti, 1991). Precisely because these two latter faiths were universalist in aspiration (that is, their followers sought to convert the whole of humankind), they were inherently competitive. The two Semitic religions are often rivals in Africa (Lapidus, 1990). But why has Islam in Africa been less a cause of war than of impregnation, less a destroyer of rivals than a creator of new generations of believers? The main reason is that in its encouragement of large families (Mohsen, 1984; Ruthven, 1984; Patai, 1983; Weeks, 1988), the faith has reinforced indigenous African values. Yet, in its competitive tendency and universalist rivalry, Islam has run counter to the natural orientation of traditional African creeds, which are ecumenical and nonmonopolistic.