The Institutionalization of Islam in Southern Senegal
Intermarriage, Qur'anic Education, and Jihad
An exploration of the development of Islam in the Middle Casamance region
Description
Weaving together oral and written sources, The Institutionalization of Islam in Southern Senegal investigates previously overlooked dimensions of Islamization in Senegambia through the processes of intermarriage, Qur’anic education, and jihãd. Due to its geographic location at the point where Senegal, The Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau meet, the Middle Casamance has historically been a melting pot where centralized and decentralized societies have coexisted for generations. In the past, historians have failed to consider the contributions of the Middle Casamance region and Mandinka Muslim settlements to the development of Islam, despite centers for Islamic education having existed in the region centuries before the emergence of the Sufi and jihãd movements of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Aly Dramé seeks to close this gap by conceptualizing the leading role played by these Mandinka settlements and how religious spaces are negotiated, acquired, and transformed through intermarriage, Qur’anic education, and jihãd when peoples from distinct backgrounds encounter one another.
Drawing on archival documents, oral history and traditions, travelers’ accounts, the Arabic text Pakao al-Qurano (Holy Book of Pakao), and original ethnography, The Institutionalization of Islam in Southern Senegal demonstrates how these communities reframe the debates about the institutionalization of Islam in Senegambia geographically, chronologically, and thematically.
Aly Dramé is Associate Professor of History at Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois, where he teaches on sub-Saharan Africa, Islam, and immigration. Dramé was a Mellon Sawyer Foundation Fellow at the University of Michigan 2010-11. His current research regards transnational practices by African Muslims in the Global North.
Reviews
“Dramé reconceptualizes the Islamization of the region as an evolutionary and inclusive process rather than a sudden rupture imposed by outsiders.”
- Zachariah Mampilly, Foreign Affairs
“[T]his book is a significant contribution to the literature on Africa’s religious history. . . .In many countries, fresh looks at a neglected part can also shed new light on the whole.”
- Alexander Thurston, The American Historical Review
“This is a detailed and compelling account of the Islamization of the Middle Casamance region of Senegal. The narrative makes extensive use of a wealth of oral histories meticulously collected by Dramé, not only among Mandinka Muslims but also among other ethnicities, notably Bainounk and Balante, who were either converted or resisted conversion to Islam by the Mandinka.”
- Robert Launay, Northwestern University
“The Institutionalization of Islam in Southern Senegal is original and creative in its approach. It fills an important void in Senegambian historiography as it brings a host of new evidence to bear from both oral and archival sources. The book also makes a substantial, original contribution to the history of Islam in a region generally excluded in the current scholarship.”
- Assan Sarr, Ohio University
“In a compelling reimagining of West African Islamic history, Aly Dramé offers a timely revision, to document how marriage, kinship, and movement shaped Muslim communities in Southern Senegambia. Departing from jihãd-focused narratives, his work traces the intimate, relational paths through which Islam rooted itself across generations and geographies.”
- Mamadou Diouf, Columbia University
“In this fascinating study of Casamance—the spot where Senegal, Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau meet in West Africa—Dramé stresses the complexity and nuance of the regional institutionalization of Islam, a process he dates to the early 17th century and possible earlier. The author's careful attention to culture, language, and orthography is illuminating, as is his use of oral history interviews conducted between 2003 and 2009, which he informs his interpretations of the oral traditions he collected. Summing Up: Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals.”
- C. Higgs, Choice
News, Reviews, Interviews
Read: Review in Foreign Affairs | February 17, 2026