Religion

Closely related to identity, religion represents a popular topic in African History. For West Africa, the many important and well-studied themes include the arrival of Islam via medieval trans-Saharan trade routes, missionary Christianity along the coast and Muslim revitalization movements in the interior during the nineteenth century, religious syncretism involving traditional beliefs, the rise of independent African churches during the colonial era, and postcolonial religious extremism. However, the religious dynamic within the colonial and postcolonial militaries of West Africa, a region where militaries have played a central role in postcolonial politics and warfare, lacks similar scholarly attention. David Killingray, groundbreaking historian of the British colonial military in West Africa, highlighted that “next to nothing is known about the religious experiences of African soldiers.” The root of this problem is that European officers, structurally and socially distant from the African rank-and-file, authored the available evidence. This alienation was most acute when it came to the potentially controversial and fundamentally personal subject of religion. Making the most of limited primary sources, social histories of African troops in other colonial militaries contain short sections on aspects of their religious history. In British East and Central Africa, the KAR evolved from a primarily Muslim to a mostly Christian force with officers using religion as a disciplinary tool. Reflecting broader change, African police and soldiers in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) initially practiced traditional beliefs, but by the 1940s most were Christians working in a Christian institutional ethos with a few becoming prominent clergy. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Germany's mainly Muslim African soldiery expanded Islam across German East Africa provoking resentment among European Christian missionaries. French colonial authorities attempted to ensure loyalty among Muslim African troops by facilitating religious observance and appointing imams to counter First World War German and Ottoman propaganda. French officers also organized army pilgrimages to Mecca during the 1950s to boost the morale of Muslim West African soldiers fighting Muslim insurgents in Algeria Nevertheless, the religious history of Britain's locally recruited West African army remains obscure. Despite limited sources, it is clear that religion comprised a fundamental but constantly changing feature of military culture and life in British West Africa. The point becomes clear by examining West African troops’ religious affiliations, religious observance in the colonial army, and the military appointment of Christian chaplains and Muslim imams.

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