https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5466-2291
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ABSTRACT
This article stages a comparative analysis of Muslim politics in coastal Kenya and Tanzania between 2010 and 2023. We explore parallels, discontinuities, and entanglements between different expressions of – and responses to – Muslim political dissent. Our insights are drawn from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Dar es Salaam, Malindi, and Zanzibar City. We begin by investigating a sharp rise of militant jihadi activity across the region, examining responses by Kenyan, Tanzanian, and U.S. governments, as well as the perceptions of ordinary Muslim citizens. We then explore currents of Muslim civic activism, highlighting the different claims, sentiments, and memories that these movements invoke. Merging these discussions, we analyse episodes of civil unrest and violence that are associated with Muslim dissenters, but which are shrouded with uncertainty. We examine the shifting interpretive frames that Muslim residents apply to these events. We demonstrate how these uncertainties and framing practices, alongside state security strategies, impact the capacity for Muslims at large to engage in political dissent. Using our analysis, we argue that forms of Muslim political expression in coastal East Africa, though comparable and sometimes entangled, must be interpreted with close attention to the distinct experiences, demographic configurations, and political landscapes that characterise different (sub-)national contexts.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful for the permission of the Zanzibar Research Committee, the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology, and the Kenya National Commission for Science, Technology & Innovation to conduct the fieldwork upon which this article draws. We are also grateful to Eric Morier-Genoud and the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments on earlier drafts.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Kirby, Muslim Mobilisation.
2 Meinema, Regulating Religious Coexistence.
3 Olsson, Jesus for Zanzibar.
4 Ahmed, What is Islam?, 435.
5 Metelits, Security in Africa, Romaniuk et al.; “What Drives Violent Extremism?,” 166-67.
6 Chome, “From Islamic reform to Muslim activism.”
7 Field observations, 9 February 2017; 3 January 2017; 28 June 2017.
8 Field observations, 19 September 2016; 20 November 2016; 16 December 2016.
9 Field observations, 7 August 2017.
10 See for example: Mwangi Muraguri and Joseph Masha, “Police Kill Four ‘Terrorists’ in Malindi and Recover Deadly Arsenal,” The Standard, 2018, https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/counties/article/2000188812/police-kill-four-terrorists-in-malindi-and-recover-deadly-arsenal; Alphonce Gari, “Malindi Businessman Detained over al Shabaab Links,” The Star, 19 October 2022, https://www.the-star.co.ke/counties/coast/2022-10-19-malindi-businessman-detained-over-al-shabaab-links/; Fred Mukinda and Charles Lwanda, “Eight Terror Suspects held in Malindi after Police Raid,” Nation, 2 July 2020, https://nation.africa/kenya/news/eight-terror-suspects-held-in-malindi-after-police-raid-1212766.
11 Meinema, “Countering ‘Islamic’ violent extremism,” 266-70.
12 Mazrui et al., “Introduction.”
13 HRW, Kenya.
14 IRIN, “Gunned Down in Mombasa – The Clerics that have Died,” 28 July 2014, https://www.refworld.org/docid/53df59974.html
15 Chome, “From Islamic reform to Muslim activism.”
16 Meinema, “Witchcraft, Terrorism, and ‘Things of Conflict’.”
17 Field observations, 8 August 2017.
18 Bofin, Tanzania and the Political Containment of Terror, Eriksen, Tanzania, 31-32, ICG, “Al-Shabaab Five Years After Westgate.”, 18-19, Jingu, “The Flurry of Crimes.”, Perkins, “Magufuli’s Reign,” 6.
19 ICG, “Al-Shabaab Five Years After Westgate.”, 17-19; Saalfeld, Before and Beyond Al-Shabaab, 28; Jingu, “The Flurry of Crimes,” 96.
20 Field observations, Dar es Salaam, 2015-16; interview with Mzee Bakari, Zanzibar City, 2013.
21 Repeated interviews with Nassoro, Dar es Salaam, 2015-16.
22 Minde, “Tunataka Nchi Yetu”, Paget, “Tanzania.”
23 Saalfeld, “On the Divergent Trajectories of African Islamism,” 215.
24 ICG, Averting Violence, 21; LeSage, The Rising Terrorist Threat, 8.
25 Bofin, Tanzania Releases Prisoners, 3.
26 Quinn, From Separatism to Salafism, 98-99; Ramadhani, “Religious Tolerance.”
27 Erick Kabandera, “Where Are the Missing 380 People? Tanzanian MPs Ask Government.” The East African, 5 May 2018.
28 Nassoro, personal communication, 2021.
29 Perkins, “Magufuli’s Reign”; Saalfeld, Before and Beyond Al-Shabaab.
30 Bofin, Tanzania and the Political Containment of Terror.
31 Perkins, “Magufuli’s Reign.”
32 Ludwig, “After Ujamaa”; Heilman and Kaiser, “Religion, Identity and Politics.”
33 Bofin, Tanzania and the Political Containment of Terror.
34 Eriksen, Tanzania, 32; USDS, Country Reports on Terrorism 2017, 44.
35 Langås, Peace in Zanzibar; Olsson, The Politics of Interfaith Institutions.
36 Dang, Violent Extremism, 16-18.
37 Cruise O’Brien, “Coping with the Christians.”
38 Kresse, Swahili Muslim Publics.
39 Ibid.
40 Mwakimako and Willis, Islam, Politics, and Violence, 24.
41 Kresse, Swahili Muslim Publics, 94; Saalfeld and Mwakimako, “Integrationism vs. rejectionism,” 43-44.
42 Bakari, “Muslims and the Politics of Change,” 246.
43 Deacon et al., “Preaching politics,” 12.
44 Chome, “From Islamic reform to Muslim activism,” 5; Mwakimako and Willis, Islam, Politics, and Violence, 13.
45 Mwakimako and Willis, “Islam and Democracy”; see also Elischer, ““Partisan Politics”.”
46 Kresse, Swahili Muslim Publics, 140-41; Ndzovu, Muslims in Kenyan Politics, 51.
47 Deacon et al., “Preaching politics,” 12.
48 Meinema, “Countering ‘Islamic’ violent extremism?”
49 Deacon et al., “Preaching politics.”
50 Westerlund, Ujamaa na Dini.
51 Olsson, The Politics of Interfaith Institutions.
52 Meinema, “‘Idle minds’ and ‘empty stomachs’.”
53 Maddox, “The Church and Cigogo.”
54 Paget, “The authoritarian origins.”
55 Dilger, Learning Morality; Mushi, “Conceptual and Historical Perspectives.”
56 Interview with Salum, Dar es Salaam, 2015; interview with Suleiman, Dar es Salaam, 2015. See also Chande, “Radicalism and Reform”; Luanda, “Christianity and Islam.”
57 Interview with Khamis, Dar es Salaam, 2016; repeated interviews with Nassoro, Dar es Salaam, 2015-16. See also Gilsaa, Muslim Politics; Kirby, Muslim Mobilisation; Wijsen and Mosha, “BAKWATA is like a dead spirit.”
58 Saalfeld and Mwakimako, “Integrationism vs. rejectionism.”
59 Mallya, “Faith-based Organizations”; Loimeier, Islamic Reform.
60 Njozi, Mwembechai Killings.
61 Field observations, Dar es Salaam, 2015-16.
62 Kirby, Muslim Mobilisation.
63 See also Gilsaa, Muslim Politics.
64 Gilsaa, “Salafism(s) in Tanzania,” 57-58.
65 LeSage, The Rising Terrorist Threat, 11.
66 Bofin, Tanzania and the Political Containment of Terror.
67 Bang, “Cosmopolitanism Colonised?”
68 Langås, Peace in Zanzibar, 64.
69 Gilsaa, “Salafism(s) in Tanzania.”; Saalfeld, “On the Divergent Trajectories,” 209.
70 Bissell and Fouéré, Social Memory; Minde, “Tunataka Nchi Yetu.”
71 Langås, Peace in Zanzibar, 230.
72 Loimeier, “Zanzibar's Geography of Evil.”
73 Also known as Jumuiya ya Uamhso Mihadhara ya Kiislamu Zanzibar (the Association of Islamic Awareness and Public Discourse in Zanzibar). See Olsson, Jesus for Zanzibar.
74 Roop et al., “The politics of continuity and collusion.”
75 Langås, Peace in Zanzibar, 84.
76 Field observations in Zanzibar City 2012, and focus group interview with six young Muslim men and women in Zanzibar City, November 2012.
77 Ng’wanakilala, Zanzibar Islamists burn churches.
78 Fouéré, “Zanzibar independent in 2015?”; Olsson, Jesus for Zanzibar.
79 LeSage, The Rising Terrorist Threat, 6; Mshigeni, “Globalization.” 9-10; Ndaluka et al., “Things Are Getting Out of Control,” 69.
80 Mshigeni, “Globalization,” 68.
81 Mshigeni, “Globalization,” 64.
82 Focus group interview (see note 70) Zanzibar City, November 2012.
83 Bakari, “Understanding Obstacles,” 229; Dang, Violent Extremism, 8, 10; Loimeier, “Zanzibar's Geography of Evil,” 11.
84 ICG, Averting Violence in Zanzibar, 11; Bethsheba Wambura, “DDP Drops Charges against the 36 'Uamsho' Muslim Clerics,” The Citizen (Tanzania), 16 June 2021.
85 Langås, Peace in Zanzibar, 77.
86 Maghimbi, “Secularization.”
87 Chome, Eastern Africa’s Regional Extremist Threat; Hansen, Horn, Sahel and Rift; LeSage, The Rising Terrorist Threat; Lucia, Islamist Radicalisation.
88 Nkoko, Accounting for the 1990–2013 Christian-Muslim Conflicts.
89 Interview with Salum, Dar es Salaam, 2015.
90 Repeated interviews with Nassoro, Dar es Salaam, 2015-16.
91 Mercy, personal communication, 2019; Yusuf, personal communication, 2019.
92 @TunduALissu, 18 October 2020. https://x.com/TunduALissu/status/1317763788716769280?s=20
93 Bofin, Tanzania and the Political Containment.
94 Repeated interviews with Nassoro, Dar es Salaam, 2015-16.
95 Kimari and Ramadhan, Trends of Violent Extremist Attacks.
96 Field observations, 7 August 2017.
97 BBC, Camp Simba: Three Americans Killed in Kenya Base, 5 January 2020, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-50997769
98 Oded, Islamic Extremism.
99 Mwakimako and Willis, Islam, Politics, and Violence.
100 Ibid., 17, Willis and Gona, “Pwani C Kenya?,” 23.
101 Mathias Ringa, “MRC Denies Having Links with Al-Shabaab,” Nation, 2 July 2020, https://nation.africa/kenya/news/mrc-denies-having-links-with-al-shabaab-1021996; IGAD, Al-Shabaab, 33-34. cf.; Mwakimako and Willis, Islam, Politics, and Violence; Mwakimako and Willis, “Islam and Democracy.”
102 Field observations, 2 December 2016.
103 E.g. Kilifi County, Action Plan.
104 Maureen Kakah, “Court Upholds Lifting of MRC Ban,” Nation, 29 June 2020, https://nation.africa/kenya/counties/mombasa/court-upholds-lifting-of-mrc-ban--1221566.
105 Thurston, “Nigeria’s Mainstream Salafis,” 134.
106 For a similar point, see Becker, The History of Islam, 13.
107 Bofin, Tanzania and the Political Containment.