Paper short abstract:

this paper explores the shifting role of islamic swahili newspapers in tanzania from media of religious instruction to mobilizing agencies re-interpreting current events in a historical framework

Paper long abstract:

In 1965 the editor of one of the first Islamic Swahili newspapers wrote to its readers: 'this newspaper is a sheikh who will visit you every month'. In line with this view the paper published religious articles on faith as well as speeches from Muslim leaders. News and reflection on political events only played a minor role. When the political climate changed in the early 1990s a different kind of newspaper emerged and these weeklies focused much more on politics than on religious instruction. This change of focus can be illustrated by a passionate plea published by the al-Huda editor in 2012. He urged mosques to turn into educational centres supporting the national Islamic movement (harakati) by teaching the public in a similar way as newspapers and other media already did.

Borrowing from social constructivistic theories of social movements I look into these shifting newspaperparadigms with special emphasis on an-Nuur, the Islamic Propagation Centre's (IPC) newspaper distributed since 1991. In more than thousand copies an-Nuur created a shared definition of the deplorable state of Muslims in Tanzania. Whereas the IPC demands for changes are cloaked in recent human rights idiom, the justification is often interpreted as rooted in historical comparisons. Demonstrations are often scheduled on important historical dates in the Islamic calendar. I argue that this historical framing can only be understood if we take into account the important role played by the IPC in the development of an Islamic school curriculum in which history is of paramount importance