Book description
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.
"Promises to make a major contribution not only to the study
of women's involvement in 'political Islam' in West Africa, but also
to comparative studies of commodification, mass entertainment, the
global emergence of new religious cultures, masculinity, and the
personal effects of neoliberalism." -Sean Hanretta, Stanford University
Dorothea E. Schulz is Professor in the Department of Cultural and
Social Anthropology at the University of Cologne.
