Over the course of several centuries, Islam has expanded throughout many regions specifically throughout the Middle East, and the countries in Africa majority of the countries residing in Eastern Africa. Islam in East Africa stretches for about millennium from when it first arrived into East Africa. East Africa has eight states in its region, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania, Malawi, Zaire and Mozambique. They average a total of 39% of a Muslim population. The main theme to analyze is the emergence of Islam in East Africa, as well as, the role Islam has played in Eastern Africa, such roles may include governmental, social, and economic influences since the beginning when Islam was first adopted which will help our understanding of Islam in present day Africa. Also focusing on the role Tanzania had on the spread of Islam throughout its neighboring countries. Islam has 1.5 billion followers today. Before Islam has emerged to be the second most followed religion on the planet, but it had many challenges such as European settlers stopping the spread of Islam throughout Eastern Africa. As well as in Tanzania which involved conflict with followers of Christianity.
Islam emerged in different parts of Africa in many diverse ways. According to Ali A. Mazrui’s journal, Religion and Political Culture in Africa. In North Africa Islam emerged through political means when they during the Arabs conflict with the Byzantine Empire. In Sub-Saharan Africa, Islam has emerged through trade, usually by horseback. Finally, Mazrui states, “Islam came to East Africa on dhows, usually with monsoons.” It was difficult for Islam to expand to the Eastern part of Africa from other regions due to the highly visible European presence. An example, white European settlers in Kenya had much influence over its neighboring countries “destiny”, such as Uganda, Tanganyika (Tanzania), and colonial Zanzibar. European settlers had a lot of power over Kenya. According to Gary Wasserman in his book European Settlers and Kenya Colony Thoughts on a Conflicted Affair, he stated, “English Colonialism in Kenya dealt both with the attempt to colonize Kenya with European settlers.” Mazrui stated, “The spread of Islam in Eastern and Southern Africa, was effectively arrested by the consequences of European colonization.” The spread of Islam throughout Eastern Africa dealt with many challenges against the European settlers, which was an attempt to block the emergence and spread of Islam. A famous English writer, Hilaire Belloc once wrote a couplet it read, “Whatever happens, we have got The Maxim gun, they have not.” This clearly shows the artillery power European forces had, and the fact that they were ready to use fire against Africans in the region in order to show their dominance and authority towards Africa, you can also interpret they would intercept any attempt at expanding Islam throughout the south of Africa. African societies put up many forms of resistance against European settlers to impose foreign domination. In the end, it ended up being successful resulting in decolonization.
Nevertheless, as tensions from European settlers were clearing up the growth of Muslim communities continued but Muslim’s still felt unfair treatment, especially in the country of Tanzania. Tanzania has the largest number and proportion of Muslims in all of the states in Eastern Africa. They were only continuing to grow. The role of Islam started to get bigger, for example, Muslims in Tanzania are starting to get represented stated Abdul-Aziz Lodhi in his journal, Muslims in Eastern Africa – Their Past and Present. Muslims are represented in politics, and business much more than Tanzania’s neighboring countries, however they still felt like they were being discriminated. Muslims in Tanzania have expressed that they have been discriminated in favor of Christians, Muslims wanted increased educational opportunities and more Muslim representatives in administrative positions in the government and business. Professor Walter Bgoya who was the former head of Tanzania Publishing House stated that, “It is a fact that Muslims are generally unfairly treated educationally.” The conclusion by Bgoya was drawn due to the discrimination Muslims were facing since they were seen as the minority by many.
Christians and Muslims in Tanzania relations were good until a report that came out stated that, 50-60% of the population was majority Muslims. While in the contrary, Christians said Muslims cannot be more than “a third of the population.” The tension kept rising between them throughout the years, even with violence. As time progressed to present day it was declared that Tanzania represented a population with one-third Christians, one-third Muslims. And one-third presumed many indigenous religions.
Tanzania played a major role in the emergence and practice of Islam throughout Eastern Africa because geographically they lay right in the middle of the region, and many surrounding countries looked at Tanzania as an opportunity, as well as many leaders were educated in Tanzania. In all of the states in Eastern Africa not including Tanzania, Muslim priests that represent those countries were recruited from Tanzania. In Kenya, they began the Kenyan Muslim Welfare Society in 1971 which started, schools for all levels, nurseries, and universities. Similar to Tanzania where the Muslim’s wanted more opportunities and more diversity in the government, Abdul-Aziz wrote about the Islamic Party of Kenya leader Khalid Balala who demanded more educational facilities and more employment opportunities for the pre-dominant Muslim areas in the country.
In the country of Uganda, the population of Muslims was estimated to be about 20-45% according to various writers in Abdul-Aziz’s text. As Iddi Amin ruled Uganda during his dictatorship thousands of Ugandans converted to Islam but kept all their titles and roles in the military and government, which showed they got privileges to show more Muslims in power. Mozambique had a similar situation as Tanzania as well, they have an estimated 40% Muslim population, Muslim citizens also complain that there aren’t enough Muslim representatives in the government, and most are all Tanzanian Christians. Regardless of being the minority, they also use Swahili in the mosques in the country, just as Tanzania. Malawi’s population is claimed to be one-fifth Muslim, also use Swahili in their mosques, and have Muslim leaders in the government.
The spread of Islam throughout Eastern Africa had some hard times, being the minority in majority of the countries in the East made it tougher for Muslims to get equal treatment as maybe Christians had in those countries such as, government positions, educational opportunities, and job opportunities. Islam still had a major impact towards the rest of the world. Islam brought literature, architecture such as the Great Mosque of Kilwa in Tanzania, which was a very important area for the spread of Islam to begin. The spread of Islam through Eastern Africa also gave the universal language of Swahili which is spoken in all the countries in the region, especially inside of mosques. Muslims inventors gave the world, telegraphs, telephones, even electricity. Most importantly, the opposition to European colonialism, done by Tanzania and Kenya.
Regardless of the positive reflects on the spread of Islam throughout the Eastern Africa region, there were also negative consequences. For example, the spread and development of feudalism. The spread of Feudalism changed concept of land ownership throughout the region which wasn’t good for the development of the countries in the region, which also made many Muslim woman lose their rights to have ownership of land due to the spread of feudalism. Of course, having a high population of Muslims could result in radical Islam, which is quite common in present time. The way Charles R. Stith explained it in his journal, Radical Islam in East Africa, “Because of the large number, the statistical probability that there are going to be some radical elements among the population is obvious.” Stith believed there may have been a connection between poverty and religion. Stith also quoted Tanzanian president Jakaya Kikwete, “If potential seed of radicalism, then poverty is the fertilizer.” I would have to disagree with President. Kikwete on his comment, Islamic extremist groups such as Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, ISIS which are located in the throughout the Middle-East as well as some African countries. The goal many claim Islamic groups have is anti-western culture. Muhammed Isa noted that, radical Islam implies “a sense of rejection and resistance to imposition of Western education.” Since the goal of radical Islamic terrorist is iffy, since many sources do not know the main goal, but we can imply that they are rejecting western culture, because they are afraid of breaking “traditional” values. I reject the idea and beliefs of Islamic radicalism, as I believe it does not represent the religion of Islam.
There have been many incidents of radical Islam throughout Eastern Africa, their actions include vicious terrorist attacks towards others, and using violence to showcase their goals. An example would be in Kenya. Since 1998, Kenya has been kept in Al-Qaeda’s crosshairs. In November 2002, Mombasa, Kenya, was attacked by Al-Qaeda. They used a car-bomb to blow up an Israeli-owned paradise hotel. The attack resulted in the death of eighteen people, the same Al-Qaeda forces unsuccessfully attempted to take out an Israeli airliner with missiles. Another clear example of radical Islam in the Eastern horn of Africa, was the attack on the United States Embassy in Tanzania in 1998 by Al-Qaeda. The CIA believes three Somali have been involved in the attacks. Which further complicated the image of Islam throughout the world and media. These groups were severely active in throughout the eastern region, but it was not limited to just the Eastern horn of Africa. The expansion of Radical Islam peaked through the North, and West, their influence is the greatest towards the West, and the threat of Al-Qaeda is reality in the Western African region.
Throughout my research, I learned a lot about new findings about Islam and how it emerged throughout Eastern Africa, as well as, the roles it’s had with technological advances. The spread of Islam throughout the East started with dhows arriving at the coast, as well as Tanzania, going through challenges as a minority in the country, with unfair labor treatments, less educational opportunities in all Muslim communities in the region. They had to fight colonization from the Europeans. Islam had many challenges, activism was key for their goal to have fair treatment throughout East Africa throughout Tanzania, Kenya and expanded more towards Uganda. We saw that radical Islam emerged throughout the years, the goal of radical Islam is unclear, but we can interpret that they’re anti-western culture from evidence. The history of Islam in East Africa today can be viewed as activism playing a huge role an example, Muslim’s in Tanzania protesting against Christianity for more opportunities, or in Kenya the IKC when Khalid Balala demanded more opportunities for Muslim communities. The influence of Islam played a dynamic role for the buildup of Eastern Africa.