EXAMINING THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF ISLAM AND HERITAGE IN WEST AFRICA

Year 2024, , 62 - 73, 01.02.2024

Yahaya Halıdu

https://doi.org/10.58851/africania.1320932

Abstract

Heritage is broadly viewed as a cultural construction of the present that is deeply ingrained in the past. Since the 1990s, Africanist scholars, mostly historians, have engaged with the concept of heritage in Africa, focusing on how post-colonial African countries conceptualized heritage after many of them achieved independence in the 1960s. Presently, there are many works on how local and national as well as international movements, have complicated the concept of heritage in Africa. However, most of these works have concentrated on the national and cultural constructs of heritage with very few on religion, especially Islam. This paper explores how scholars have presented the subject of Islam and Heritage in West Africa. It is a historiographical essay that argues that Islam and Muslims in West Africa are not aliens to the conceptualization and the development of heritage in Africa. They have played several roles in safeguarding their intangible and tangible heritages and in some ways, assisted in conserving cultural heritage of their respective regions. Thus, this work does not only allow us to appreciate the contribution of religion (Islam) to the construct of heritage, but it also contributes to the literature on the history of Islam and Muslim societies especially in West Africa.

Keywords

Heritage, West Africa, Islam, Shariah, Conceptualization, World Heritage, UNESCO

Batı Afrika'da İslam ve Miras tarihçiliğinin incelenmesi

Abstract

Miras, geniş anlamda, geçmişe derinlemesine kök salmış, günümüzün kültürel bir inşası olarak görülüyor. 1990'lardan bu yana, çoğunlukla tarihçiler olmak üzere Afrikalı akademisyenler, Afrika'daki miras kavramıyla ilgilendiler ve sömürge sonrası Afrika ülkelerinin birçoğunun 1960'larda bağımsızlığını kazanmasının ardından mirası nasıl kavramsallaştırdığına odaklandılar. Günümüzde yerel ve ulusal olduğu kadar uluslararası akımların da Afrika'da miras kavramını ne kadar karmaşık hale getirdiğine dair pek çok çalışma mevcut. Ancak bu eserlerin çoğu mirasın milli ve kültürel yapısına yoğunlaşmış, çok azı ise din, özellikle de İslam üzerine yoğunlaşmıştır. Bu makale, bilim adamlarının Batı Afrika'da İslam ve Miras konusunu nasıl sunduklarını incelemektedir. Bu, Batı Afrika'daki İslam'ın ve Müslümanların, Afrika'daki mirasın kavramsallaştırılmasına ve gelişimine yabancı olmadığını savunan tarih yazımı niteliğinde bir makaledir. Somut olmayan ve somut miraslarının korunmasında çeşitli roller üstlenmişler ve bazı yönlerden kendi bölgelerinin kültürel mirasının korunmasına yardımcı olmuşlardır. Bu sayede makale sadece dinin (İslam'ın) mirasın inşasına katkısını takdir etmemize olanak sağlamakla kalmıyor, aynı zamanda İslam tarihi ve Afrika'daki Müslüman toplumlar hakkındaki literatüre de katkıda bulunuyor.

Anahtar Kelimeler: Miras, Batı Afrika, İslam, Şeriat, Kavramsallaştırma, Dünya Mirası, UNESCO

Keywords

Islam, UNESCO, Miras, Batı Afrika, Şeriat, Kavramsallaştırma, Dünya Mirası

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