ISLAM IN

AFRICA

attitude of Christian governments towards

the

ancient

religions professed by nations under their

rule,

in particular towards Islam, is one of the most dif

ficult

delicate problems of colonial politics.

The

came up for consideration by Commission

VII

and Governments) of the Edinburgh Con

ference

1910, but the matter was not fully debated,

and

one academic and the other practicaL

The

cause was the more careful and

systematic

of the life and writings of Mohammed

undertaken

enthusiastic students of the new science of "Compara

tive

The practical cause was

the acquisition

Moslem territory by Christian powers, which cast

upon

latter the responsibility of governing their

new

in justice and equity, and compelled them to ex

change

antagonism for a

conciliatory

protective

attitude.

out of account the epoch-making

lecture

of Carlyle,

delivered in 1840, on "The Hero as

Prophet"

the earliest writer to set a current of pub

lic

favourable to Islam was R. Bosworth

Smith,

Mohammedanism. When his papers ap

peared

book form* an admirer said of them : "We

are

much mistaken if this work does not form an im

portant

on the road to a more tolerant

—

not sympathetic—view, among popular readers,

of

Oriental world."

Bosworth

Smith

was followed by Dr. E. W. Blyden, a Negro,

whose

magazine

articles, republished in 1887 under the

title

Islam and the Negro Race,"

institute a

Christianity and

Mohammedanism,

much in favor of the latter, in their influence

upon

African. Coming from a learned and elo

quent

who had enjoyed a wide experience of edu

cational

administrative work in West Africa,

this

made a profound impression, and echoes of

its

tenets are found in the pages of many

later writers.

refrain of panegyric was taken up by Winwood

the traveller. Canon Isaac Taylor,' the philo

logist,

Thomson,' the explorer, C. D. Morel,*

the

and C. H. Becker,* professor in the

Kolonial-

Mohammed and Mohammedanism: Lectures delivered at the Royal

Insitution of

Britain by R. Bosworth Smith, M. A., Assistant Master in Harrow School

(London,

Savage Africa (1864), The African Sketchbook (1873), and The Martyrdom of

Man

Ed.

1903).

an Egyptian Notebook (1888), and letters to the Times on "Islam

in

"Mohemmedanism in Central Africa" in the Contemporary Review (Dec.

1886).

of West Africa (1902) pp. 208

seq.

eine Gefahr fur unsere Kolenien?" in Koloniale Rundschov,

1909, pp.

Commission, so far as the British Gov

ernment

concerned, took the following,

somewhat

deferential, form : "It is not singular that, in the ef

fort

give to Mohammedanism the outward respect

due

it in a region peopled by its

adherents, the British

should sometimes 'lean over backward.'

But

Commission is of the opinion that in Egypt,

the

and Northern Nigeria the restrictions deliber

ately

laid

upon Christian mission work and the

deference

to Islam are excessive, and that a respectful remon

strance

made to the British Government

on

subject."' Whether or no the "respectful remon

strance"

presented I do not know, and whether

or

the Government vouchsafed any reply or

attempted

any

vindication of its action I cannot say; but this

much

certain, that though nearly ten years have

elapsed

adoption of the above mentioned

resolution,

remain very much in statu quo ante, and col

onial

still assume the right to inhibit Chris

tian

from entering certain spheres, and in par

ticular

prosecuting missionary operations in Is

lamic

How this policy of control and restric

tion

arose,

what it implies, and why Christian mission

aries

for its reconsideration and reversal, it will

be

endeavor in this article to

show.

Report of World Missionary Conference, Vol. VII, p.

113.

ISLAM IN AFRICA

3

former centuries the attitude of Europeans gen

erally

was one of

unqualified antagonism.

was the heritage of the long-drawn

struggle of the

and a reflection of the anxiety and

terror of

the

time when Moorish armies overran the

Iberian

peninsula

and the 'infidel Turk' knocked at

the gates of

those ages it would have

been accounted

any man to utter a word of appreciation

of

the

character of Mohammed or of the religion which

he

founded.

The temper of the time can be

gauged by

contemptuous language of Sir Thomas Herbert,' who

in Asia in the early years of the

seventeenth

or it may be illustrated by the following quota

tion

Hugh Broughton (t 161 2) : "Now

consider

Moamed or Machumed, whom God gave up to

a

mind, being a poor man till he married a

widow;

then and of high countenance, having the fall

ing

and being tormented by the devil,

whereby

widow was sorry that she had matched

with him.

persuaded her, by himself and others, that his

fits

but a trance wherein he talked with the angel Ga

briel.

time, the impostor was reputed a

prophet

God, and from Judaism, Arius, Nestorius and his

own

he frameth

a doctrine."*

the past half century, however, the

general

towards Islam has undergone a

momentous

and public opinion, even in distinctively Chris

tian

is fast veering round to the

opposite extreme.

Forgetful

of Dr. Joseph Parker's warning—spoken

as

but meant in dead earnest—"There are compara

tive

religions,

but Christianity is not one of

them,"

modern writers have covered Mohammed's

career

character with a halo of glory, and lauded his re

ligious

ethical system as not merely equal but super

ior

Christianity in its adaptation to the needs of unciv

ilized

semi-civilized races and communities.

Two

among others, have brought about this change

of

Years Travels into Africa and Asia the Great (III Ed. 1677) pp. 320

seq.

Quoted in Zwemer's Islam, p.

40.

ISLAM IN AFRICA

5

Hamburg. A single quotation will

suffice to

the attitude of this school of writers. Winwood

in his "Savage Africa" speaks as follows:

"The

is being civilized; the Africans

are

converted by means of a Religion. It is the

same

which under different names and forms has

civilized

Hebrews through Moses and the

Western

through Jesus Christ . . . Mohammed a ser

vant

God, redeemed the Eastern world. His

followers

are

redeeming Africa" (p. 578) . "Let us judge things

by

results. It saves argument. The

African pagans

the African Mohammedans may be seen side

by

on the same river—the Casemanche. The first

are

swine; as diseased in body as de

based

mind. The latter

are practical Christians.

are sober; truthful; constant in their

devotions;

honest. They treat kindly those who are

below

they do their duty to their neighbours" (p.

584).

is but just, however, towards both

Bosworth Smith and

Joseph

Thomson to state that they repudiated the conclu

sions

critics drew from their language,

as

Islam were a religion superior to

Christianity,

maintained their belief that Christianity as a

creed

"far more elevating, far more majestic, far more in

spiring"

than

its rival. "If then," says Bosworth

Smith,

believe Christianity to be truer and purer in

itself

Islam, and than any other religion, we must

needs

others to be partakers of it; and the effort to propa

gate

thrice blessed—it blesses him that offers no

less

him that accepts it, nay, it often blesses him who

it

not."

we now from the academical to

the practical

The growth of the spirit of toleration

towards

Islam can be

studied in the utterances and policy

of the

of able administrators whom Great Britain

sent

to Egypt during the last quarter of the

nineteenth

General Gordon was undoubtedly a most sin

cere

somewhat peculiar Christian, and

his relations

the Moslems over whom he ruled are there

fore

the greatest interest. Writing to his sister

from

THE MOSLEM

WORLD

(Redjaf) on the Upper Nile in 1874 ^^ says:

"I

made them make a mosque and keep their Ramad

han,

they never paid any attention to before

I

And three years later he writes from Dara

:

the Egyptians seized the country they took

the

here for a powder-magazine. I had it

cleared

out

and restored for worship, and endowed the

priests

crier, and had a great ceremony at the opening

of

of

it. This is a great coup. They blessed me and

cursed

who took the mosque from them.

To me

appears that the Mussulman worships God as well

as

do, and is as acceptable, if sincere, as any

Christian.""

Cromer, the greatest of Egyptian proconsuls,

uses

following language in describing the ideal adminis

trator:

will find that he has not, as in India, to

deal

a body of Moslems, numerically strong, but

whose

power

of cohesion is enfeebled from their being

scattered

amongst a population five times as

numerous

themselves, who hold another and more

tolerant creed.

will have to deal with a smaller but more

compact

body

of Moslems, who are more subject to

the influences

leaders than their co-religionists

in

He will do his best under the circumstances.

He

scrupulously abstain from interference in

religious

matters.

He will be eager to explain that

proselytism

no part of his political programme. He

will

respect all Moslem observances. He

will

generally,

amidst some twinges of his Sabbatarian con

science,

Friday as a holiday, and perform

the

of the Egyptian Government

on Sunday.""

all fours with the policy of the British Govern

ment

Egypt and the Eastern Sudan was that

pursued

the Western Sudan. When a British protectorate

was

in 1903 over the Mohammedan emirates

of

and Sokoto, the High Commissioner of

Northern

(Sir Frederick Lugard) declared

inter alia:

will in no way interfere with the

Moham-

Birkbeck Hill: Colonel Gordon in Central Africa, 1874-1879 (London,

1881)

54.

Ibid. p.

248.

Cromer: Modem Egypt (London, 1908) Vol. II,

pp. 141-2.

ISLAM IN AFRICA

7

religion. All men are free to worship God

as

please. Mosques and prayer-places will be

treated

respect by us."" That was the policy. Back of

it

same spirit of toleration and approbation

which

observed in the Egyptian administration.

Captain

W. J. Orr, one of Sir F. Lugard's ablest

subordinates,

voices

it in these words : "The religion of Islam, wher

ever

prevails, whether at the courts of

Constantinople,

or Morocco, or in the less ostentatious govern

ments

West Africa, is uniform, both in its practice

and

its influences on the minds of men. The 'dead

hand

Islam' is sometimes spoken of, as if the religion

were

blight which withered all progress amongst

the nations

of civilization at a time when the rest of

Europe

was

wrapped in darkness. But even if it be

true that

lays a dead hand on a people who have

reached

certain standard of civilization, it is impossible

to

its quickening influence on African races in a back

ward

of evolution. Amongst the pagan

tribes of

it is making its converts every

day,

away drunkenness, cannibalism and

fetishism;

markets spring into existence, and the

pagan

his exclusiveness, and learns to mingle with his fel

lowmen.

the Negro Islam is not sterile or

lifeless.

dead hand is not for

him.""

in brief compass is the history of the

gradual

of the spirit of toleration towards the creed

and

of Islam. In so far as this change

of attitude

resulted in a more just estimate of the character

of

of truth and virtue that is found in Mohammed

anism,

is little need to cavil at it. But the advo

cates

of

Islam do not claim toleration for the

followers

Prophet of Mecca in the sense of relief from

perse-,

cution.

I know of no Christian government

that perse-