Semiotics of sufism; or how to become a saint / Abdelmajid Hannoum -- The path of sainthood: structure and danger / Abdallah Hammoudi -- Sufi eschatology and hagiography as responses to colonial repression / Cheick A. Babou -- Gender and agency in the history of a West African Sufi community: the followers of Yacouba Sylla / Sean Hanretta -- Historical perspectives on the domed shrine in the Nilotic Sudan / Neil McHugh -- Genealogies of "orthodox" Islam: the Moroccan gnawa religious brotherhood, "blackness" and the figure of Bilal ibn Rabah / Amanda E. Rogers -- The promise of sonic translation: performing the festive sacred in Morocco / Deborah A. Kapchan -- The visual performative of Senegalese Sufism / Allen F. Roberts and Mary Nooter Roberts -- A Darfur-Doha encounter and a Sufi mystic's whirling for peace / Rogaia Mustafa Abusharaf -- Rethinking the distinction between popular and reform sufism in Egypt: an examination of the mawlid of Muhammad Mitwalli Sha'rawi / Jacquelene Brinton.

Print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

This interdisciplinary volume brings together histories and experiences of Sufism in various parts of Africa, offering case studies on several countries that include Morocco, Algeria, Senegal, Egypt, Sudan, Mali, and Nigeria. It uses a variety of methodologies ranging from the hermeneutical, through historiographic to ethnographic, in a comprehensive examination of the politics and performance of Sufism in Africa. While the politics of Sufism pertains largely to historical and textual analysis to highlight paradigms of sanctity in different geographical areas in Africa, the aspect of performance adopts a decidedly ethnographic approach, combining history, history of art and discourse analysis. Together, analysis of these two aspects reveals the many faces of Sufism that have remained hitherto hidden.