The Edge of Islam: Power, Personhood, and Ethnoreligious Boundaries on the Kenya Coast

Description

In this theoretically rich exploration of ethnic and religious tensions, Janet McIntosh demonstrates how the relationship between two ethnic groups in the bustling Kenyan town of Malindi is reflected in and shaped by the different ways the two groups relate to Islam. While Swahili and Giriama peoples are historically interdependent, today Giriama find themselves literally and metaphorically on the margins, peering in at a Swahili life of greater social and economic privilege. Giriama are frustrated to find their ethnic identity disparaged and their versions of Islam sometimes rejected by Swahili. The Edge of Islam explores themes as wide-ranging as spirit possession, divination, healing rituals, madness, symbolic pollution, ideologies of money, linguistic code-switching, and syncretism and its alternatives. McIntosh shows how the differing versions of Islam practiced by Swahili and Giriama, and their differing understandings of personhood, have figured in the growing divisions between the two groups. Her ethnographic analysis helps to explain why Giriama view Islam, a supposedly universal religion, as belonging more deeply to certain ethnic groups than to others; why Giriama use Islam in their rituals despite the fact that so many do not consider the religion their own; and how Giriama appropriations of Islam subtly reinforce a distance between the religion and themselves. The Edge of Islam advances understanding of ethnic essentialism, religious plurality, spirit possession, local conceptions of personhood, and the many meanings of “Islam” across cultures. Endorsements: “The Edge of Islam is a very significant contribution to the anthropology of religion and ethnicity in an area of East Africa that is quite under-represented in the literature, given how enormously important Swahili society is to all of East African, and global, history. The literature on ethnicity is desperate for a work like this.” — Brad Weiss, author of, Street Dreams and Hip Hop Barbershops: Global Fantasy in Urban Tanzania “A fascinating account of the rewards and costs of Muslim identity for a multiethnic African community. The Edge of Islam will be of great use in Ethnic Studies, Linguistic Anthropology, Islamic Studies, African Studies, and Religious Studies, especially insofar as it challenges top-heavy studies of Muslim reform with insights into ritual performance, personhood, and language. With attention to the shifting stakes of modern religious affiliation, Janet McIntosh provides a fresh account of the power of ethnicity and economic inequality to shape religious practice.” — Flagg Miller, Religious Studies, University of California, Davis “An impeccable study. It is work of the highest order, a meticulous analysis, and a mine of insights and information that will serve generations to come.” — David Parkin, University of Oxford Acknowledgments ix Note on Language xiii Introduction. The Edge of Islam 1 1. Origin Stories: The Rise of Ethnic Boundaries on the Coast 45 2. Blood Money in Motion: Profit, Personhood, and the Jini Narratives 89 3. Toxic Bodies and Intentional Minds: Hegemony and Ideology in Giriama Conversion Experiences 127 4. Rethinking Syncretism: Religious Pluralism and Code Choice in a Context of Ethnoreligious Tension 177 5. Divination and Madness: The Powers and Dangers of Arabic 221 Epilogue 257 Notes 263 Bibliography 289 Index 313