Mali is 90% Muslim, though animism is influential enough to constitute most of the remaining 10% and skew a lot of peoples Islamic believes. It is sort of strange to see groups of black people practicing Islam since the stereotype in my head of a muslim is a white arabic looking person. Looking into it, I was surprised to see how far into 'Black' Africa Islam extends. My first guess would have been that the Sahara desert would have been a barrier to prevent the spread of Islam from entering black Africa. However, the maps below show that it is not the dryness of a desert the can block the spread of religion, but instead, the diseases of the tropics (exemplified by comparing the reach of Islam with the range of the disease spreading tsetse fly). Islam was unable to penetrate the tropical areas of Africa, allowing for Christianity to take root in many regions of subsaharan African during the colonial era. Mali, though considered subsaharan Africa, is certainly not tropical, and therefore, was heavily influenced by the spread of Islam.
Coming to Mali I had mixed feelings about becoming a part of a community that would probably be Muslim. It figured it would be fascinating to observe, but maybe a little stressful to explain that I would not want to partake in Muslim stuff. I was wrong. Islam has been insignificant enough in my life in Mali that I have waited seven months to even write a blog post about it.
It is very noticeable, the Islam all around me, but like I mentioned at the beginning, the muslim stuff becomes so routine that I forget that it is Islam I am seeing. When I greet neighbors in the mornings and evenings we give blessings to each other. To me it is just a part of the greeting and not really connected to religion in any way. My friend is suffering from a nasty snake bite and so I offer blessings of recovery whenever I greet her. For me, using a blessing that translates to 'may God make the pain go' is the only way I know how to say 'I hope you get better,' and so again its hard to realize that the phrase has any connection to religion. I see men in my village go to Mosque and pray, or pray outside there homes, several times per day (sometimes I see women pray too, but not often, and they are not allowed in the mosque in my village and during the mass prayers on holidays they pray in a separate area than the men). But to me it is just a form of meditation I am observing. When Muslim holidays come around and we slaughter sheep and eat good for a few days, I have trouble realizing it is a Muslim tradition I am partaking in and not simply a Malian thing.
The stereotype is that Islam is a religion of extremism, but in rural Mali I have found people to be very open minded towards people's personal spiritual beliefs. It may be that in the western world we over exaggerate a muslims attitude towards religion, or maybe Malian culture is less intense about its religion than other Islamic nations, but either way, my villagers have no problem with me not being muslim, or christian for that matter. I explain that I don't go to mosque. And sometimes I explain that I'm not really even christian. I say that I'm not anything. It creates some laughs and maybe a little interest, but overall, no one really cares what I say when it comes to religion.
Lately I've even become braver about being honest with my religious attitudes. I even tease my friends about going to the mosque. Yesterday I was trying to determine if I should ride my bike into town today and figured that wind would be the determining factor. So, when I saw my Homologue on his way to the mosque I told him to ask Allah if it would be windy the next day. He told me I should ask, and so I explained that Allah probably doesn't understand English. Such a comment said in America would be strange, maybe even offensive for some people, but when asked in Mali, by a white person speaking an obscure Dogon language, the result is a lot of laughter. I like asking where Allah is and when they say 'the sky' I look up and tell that I can't see him; again laughter. When asked about religion and praying I can usually admit that I am not into religion and that I don't know how to talk to Allah and that I never pray. Sometimes I chicken out though and say that I do my prayers at home instead of in the mosque, because I get scared that people will respect me less or something if they find out that I am not religious, but they really aren't fears I should be at all worried about. Mali is pretty opened minded towards white people and our strange behaviors.
I know religion probably plays a very important role in the way my villagers understand the world around them. There are four mosques, they pray several times a day, they mention Allah always... but for some reason I no longer really connect these actions with religion. Its just part of the stuff that makes up Mali. Religion, something I thought we affect my lifestyle in Mali greatly, I hardly notice.
whoa
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