MUSLIM EDUCATION IN AFRICA: TRENDS AND ATTITUDES TOWARD FAITH-BASED SCHOOLS

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Notes

1. Author's calculations using data from the DHS.

2. Reference to Muslim disadvantage in this article is specific to the formal sector—that is, education that includes learning to read and write in the official or national language of the state, mathematics, and other subjects such as science, history, and social studies. It should be noted that Islamic schools before and during colonialism did in some cases meet this definition of formal education—in fact, early conversion to Islam was in a number of cases in part a result of the fact that Islam brought literacy and numeracy, giving its converts an advantage in commerce and governance more generally (Ensminger 1997). In West Africa in particular, Islamic scholarship and centers of learning existed for centuries before colonialism. However, by many historical and personal accounts, the majority of small Islamic or Qur'anic schools, sometimes called madrassas, focused primarily on the memorization of the Qur'an.

3. Interview, Muslim organization, Ghana, August 2012. Interview, Muslim scholar, Malawi, November 2013. Interview with Muslim traditional leader, Malawi, November 2013.

4. These limitations include attrition due to deaths or migration, lack of information about religious conversion, and misreporting of information.

5. See, for example, “Death of Kauma (Musale of Budiope): & appointment of successor to,” Uganda National Archives, Provincial Papers: Eastern Province, Z.1292, 1913. This file discusses how the son of a deceased chief was Muslim and unable to read or write, so a Catholic successor was chosen.

6. Interviews in Uganda, July–August 2012. Interviews in Malawi, November 2013. Interviews in Ghana, August 2012. Interviews in Nigeria, March 2013.

7. Data from the 2013 school registry provided by the District Education office, Mangochi, Malawi.

8. The survey sample included 2445 respondents. Fifty-six percent were Catholic, 29 percent Muslim, 10 percent non-Pentecostal Protestant, and 4 percent Pentecostal.

9. I am grateful to Pascaline Dupas for giving me the opportunity to add the religion and education module to her survey in Masaka, Uganda.

Additional information

Melina Platas Izama is a PhD candidate in political science at Stanford University, specializing in Comparative Politics. She has conducted fieldwork in Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, and Malawi for her dissertation, and has experience in South Africa, Rwanda, Kenya, and Burkina Faso. She is currently an affiliate at the Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR), based in Kampala, Uganda, and is a consultant for Ugandan research institutes and non-governmental organizations working in the health and education sectors.