Touching on everything from its rich musical heritage to its varied cultural traditions, this is a thorough and accessible introduction to the contemporary lives of the different peoples who call Mali their home. Rated among the world's ten poorest nations, Mali has a glorious past and a less-certain present. Culture and Customs of Mali touches on the first as background for understanding the second, exploring multiple facets of contemporary social life and cultural practices in this landlocked, West African nation. The book offers an overview of diverse aspects of everyday social, cultural, and religious life in Mali, paying particular attention to regional and ethnic variations. It shows how current social conventions and cultural values are the product of a centuries-long history, while at the same time dispels the common perception that African societies are rooted in unchanging tradition. Readers will come away with a better understanding of the multiple ways in which Malians, starting from their own customs and cultural foundations, integrate themselves into an international economic order and a globalized world of shared media images and cultural practices. A chronology of important political events and developments from the medieval empires of Mali until the contemporary period Photographs of Malian life A glossary of key terms, such as polygyny, marriage payments, and oral tradition A bibliography of important work written in English on Mali, its history, peoples, culture, religion, and social customs

An innovative examination of our understanding of political legitimacy in Mali, and its wider implications for democratization and political modernity in the Global South. The 2012 coup d'état in Mali, and the political destabilization that followed, brought an abrupt end to the country's success story as a "donor darling" and as a model of successful democratization. In spite of signing a peace treaty, Muslim militants continue to launch attacks in the country's northern and central territories and to challenge Mali's government and state institutions. The challenge is compounded by the massive opposition mobilized by protagonists of Salafi- inspired readings of Islam in the capital Bamako. Why should this be, and how can it be that these actors, particularly those employing the language of Islam, have emerged as a serious challenge to the political order and government in Mali, and garner support among the country's urban and rural populations? Against the background dynamics of the political turmoil that has shaken Mali in recent years and the uncertainties surrounding the present government, this book looks to the nature and extent of legitimacy of Mali's postcolonial state and also explores more general questions regarding the nature of political legitimacy. Schulz examines the attitudes, judgments and practices by which inhabitants of a rural area in south-western Mali attribute or disclaim the legitimacy of the state political order and of individual representatives. Countering the tendency of some scholars to adopt a belief-centered approach or to use a broad approach to legitimacy, she suggests a more comprehensive and systematic approach to legitimation that takes into account the subjective attitudes of actors as well as their material circumstances and the state of institutional governance.

Many Muslim societies are in the throes of tumultuous political transitions, and common to all has been heightened debate over the place of sharia law in modern politics and ethical life. Bringing together leading scholars of Islamic politics, ethics, and law, this book examines the varied meanings and uses of Islamic law, so as to assess the prospects for democratic, plural, and gender-equitable Islamic ethics today. These essays show that, contrary to the claims of some radicals, Muslim understandings of Islamic law and ethics have always been varied and emerge, not from unchanging texts but from real and active engagement with Islamic traditions and everyday life. The ethical debates that rage in contemporary Muslim societies reveal much about the prospects for democratic societies and a pluralist Islamic ethics in the future. They also suggest that despite the tragic violence wrought in recent years by Boko Haram and the Islamic State in Iraq, we may yet see an age of ethical renewal across the Muslim world.

Many Muslim societies are in the throes of tumultuous political transitions, and common to all has been heightened debate over the place of sharia law in modern politics and ethical life. Bringing together leading scholars of Islamic politics, ethics, and law, this book examines the varied meanings and uses of Islamic law, so as to assess the prospects for democratic, plural, and gender-equitable Islamic ethics today. These essays show that, contrary to the claims of some radicals, Muslim understandings of Islamic law and ethics have always been varied and emerge, not from unchanging texts but from real and active engagement with Islamic traditions and everyday life. The ethical debates that rage in contemporary Muslim societies reveal much about the prospects for democratic societies and a pluralist Islamic ethics in the future. They also suggest that despite the tragic violence wrought in recent years by Boko Haram and the Islamic State in Iraq, we may yet see an age of ethical renewal across the Muslim world.

Examines the variety of mostly unorganized and informal ways in which Africans exercise agency and resist state power in the 21st century, through citizen action and popular culture, and how the relationship between ruler and ruled is being reframed. The recent eruption of popular protests across North Africa and the Middle East has reopened academic debate on the meaning and strategies of resistance in the 21st century. This book argues that Western notions of state and civilsociety provide only a limited understanding of how power and resistance operate in the African context, where informality is central to the way both state officials and citizens exercise agency. With the principle of informality as a template, the chapters in this volume collectively examine the various modes - organised and unorganised, formal and informal, urban and rural, embodied and discursive, serious and ludic, online and offline, successful and failing - through which Africans contend with power. Resistance takes place against the backdrop of deep fractures in state sovereignty, the remnants of colonial rule and the constraints of a global, neoliberal economic system. Ebenezer Obadare is Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Kansas; Wendy Willems is Assistant Professor, Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Media Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Although Islam is not new to West Africa, new patterns of domestic economies, the promise of political liberalization, and the proliferation of new media have led to increased scrutiny of Islam in the public sphere. Dorothea E. Schulz shows how new media have created religious communities that are far more publicly engaged than they were in the past. Muslims and New Media in West Africa expands ideas about religious life in West Africa, women's roles in religion, religion and popular culture, the meaning of religious experience in a charged environment, and how those who consume both religion and new media view their public and private selves.

Radio is 'Africa's medium', with an ability to transcend barriers to access, facilitate political debate and shape identities. Contributors investigate the multiple roles of radio in the lives of African listeners across the continent. Some essays turn to the history of radio and its part in culture and politics. Others show how radio throws up new tensions, yet endorses social innovation and the making of new publics. A number of contributors look at radio's current role in creating listening communities that radically shift the nature of the public sphere. Yet others cover radio's central role in the emergence of informed publics in fragile national spaces, or in failed states. The book also highlights radio's links to the new media, its role in resistance to oppressive regimes, and points in several cases to the importance of African languages in building modern communities that embrace both local and global knowledge. Liz Gunner is visiting Professor at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research; Dina Ligagais a lecturer in the Department of Media Studies, University of the Witwatersrand; Dumisani Moyo is Research and Publications Manager at the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa. Southern Africa (South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Zimbabwe & Swaziland): Wits University Press

This volume envisions social practices surrounding mosques, shrines, and public spaces in urban contexts as a window into the diverse ways in which Muslims in different regional and historical settings imagine, experience, and inhabit places and spaces as "sacred." Unlike most studies on Muslim communities, this volume focuses on cultural, material, and sensuous practices and urban everyday experience. Drawing on a range of analytical perspectives, the contributions examine spatial practices in Muslim societies from an interdisciplinary perspective, an approach which has been widely neglected both in Islamic studies and social sciences.