Paper short abstract:

An assessment of the Ethiopian experience of secularism indicates that co-option & control were the modes of state-religion interaction disregarding the principle secularism from both sides.

Paper long abstract:

In principle, secularism dictates states/governments to remain neutral from religious affairs or be in equidistance from all religions and respect the freedom of believers to worship, teach, observe or practice their religion. An assessment of the Ethiopian experience of secularism, at least in the last three decades where secularism was a constitutional principle, indicates that co-option and control were the defining features of state-religion interaction disregarding the principle secularism from both sides. While the 1995 Constitution guaranteed religious freedom and the secular identity of the state, in practice, there were open and systemic violations of these provisions. The government tightly controls religious institutions to the extent where the latter are mere agents for the former in implementing its policy of controlling political power at the total exclusion of dissidents. The government controls the activities of the Patriarchate of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council that in turn undermines the implementation of the principle of secularism. The controlling mechanisms are more systematic and sophisticated as it uses the co-opted Patriarchate and Islamic Council to control religious activities. These institutions are given de facto executive powers to veto the registration and licensing of religious organizations - the mandate that normally fall within the state. This paper argues that religious institutions are nothing more than instruments of the government. The objective of the paper is to qualitatively analyze state-religion interaction in post-1991 Ethiopia by focusing on constitutional principle of secularism vis-à-vis the practice.

Paper short abstract:

À partir de l'exemple du Cameroun confronté au terrorisme, à la transnationalisation du pentecôtisme et à la cyber-religion, cette réflexion tente de rendre compte des turbulences (Rosenau, 1990 ; 1993) qui influencent la conceptualisation et la gouvernance de la laïcité en ce début de XXIe siècle.

Paper long abstract:

La perspective de compétition que livre la nouvelle pluralité de forces religieuses en coalition aux acteurs politiques (Fox, 2013) invite à un dépoussiérage d'une laïcité de plus en plus sous turbulences au Cameroun, en Afrique voire en Europe occidentale. Sont particulièrement envisagés ici les défis que posent à la laïcité un ensemble d'évolutions récentes et de facteurs de plus en plus interconnectés et interdépendants aux niveaux micro, micro-macro et macropolitique. Il s'agit particulièrement de l'effervescence pentecôtiste (Séraphin et al. 2004) ou de l'émergence de nouveaux fondamentalismes évangéliques et islamistes, la diversification et la montée en puissance des acteurs religieux transnationaux (Levitt, 2004 ; Devin, 2004) originaires d'Afrique (particulièrement les pasteurs pentecôtistes camerounais, nigérians, ivoiriens), les médiascapes et financescapes (Appadurai, 2015) mobilisés par les religions, une confessionnalisation avancée de l' « espace public concret », et la résurgence/accumulation de crises sécuritaires et terroristes sous apparat religieux (Boko Haram et crise anglophone). Pour cette étude qui s'appuie sur l'histoire sociopolitique de la scène camerounaise des dix dernières années, les résultats s'articulent autour de trois tendances : dépoussiérer et repenser l'esprit de la politique publique de laïcité en mode réactionnaire, jeter les bases d'une logique d'amendement de la lettre de la plupart des lois et règlements encadrant peu ou prou directement les secteurs inhérents à ces facteurs qui impactent la laïcité au niveau national, et entrevoir les schémas de gouvernance de la diversité religieuse sur la scène internationale empreinte à des turbulences similaires.

Paper short abstract:

This paper argues that the Moroccan religious policy (1984 -2002) has relatively succeeded in forming a strong state fundamentalism that is used effectively by the Moroccan regime to cope with the political development and enhance the modern state building.

Paper long abstract:

Unlike many securitist-based analysis that overestimated the importance of the Islamist actor as the exclusive determiner of Morocco's State religious strategy since the end of 1970s, it seems that the official Islam was facing during that period, besides the Islamist challenge, other constraints related to the socio-political transformations marking the Moroccan society. In parallel to the growing activity of the Islamist movements boosted by the Iranian revolution, some political forces and modernist currents (political parties and feminist movements) have sought in their part to impose their visions and demands in the confictual context between the opposition parties and the Monarchical institution.

This paper highlights this paradoxical situation that the Moroccan political system was forced to deal with, in a way to ensure its balance and stability as well as to promote the principle of consensus in order to strengthen the modern state legitimacy.

This paper argues that the religious policy (1984 -2002) has relatively succeeded in forming a strong states fundamentalism which is used effectively to cope with the political development process. The Moroccan experience shows that political modernity can be undertaked through an investment of the "public religion" inseparably from the cultural and political local context. However, this modernization function does not work always in the same way as in Western classical experiences. Yet, this one may function in conservative, authoritarian way. The point, therefore, concerns more precisely a kind of «authoritarian conservative modernization», which positively interacts with the political process in the contemporary Morocco.

Paper short abstract:

In several African countries religious authorities bring challenges to state laws or legislative proposals seen as threatening/unacceptable to the faith. I discuss cases showing how some recent laws were contested merely on grounds of religious conviction, thereby delegitimizing the political order.

Paper long abstract:

Issues of religion, secularism and state in Africa are well-studied and complex in a multidimensional way. Most studies focused on doctrinal differences and clashes of - mostly - Christianity and Islam with the state, examining rivalries of power and 'primacy' claimed by these registers of religion and state, despite that most African constitutions are 'secular'. This paper highlights a few interesting cases of contestation in three countries (Mali, Nigeria, Ethiopia) where religious 'authorities'/institutions brought challenges to state laws or legislative proposals seen by the 'community of the faithful' as threatening or unacceptable. These cases show that some recent laws, directives and codes aiming to regulate religious life vs. the state in contexts such as family, crime or educational establishments were contested merely on grounds of religious conviction. This despite the fact that in all countries the pluriformity of religions and religious sub-communities was evident. Some implications of the resulting clash of particularist narratives and state narrative - claimed as addressing the public/political order as a whole - are discussed. Historical analysis often shows that relations between 'the political' and 'the religious' in Africa were not clear-cut; in fact often separated or relegated to different spheres already in pre-colonial times, invalidating the often-heard contention that the 'problems' of secularism and religion in Africa are merely an heritage of colonialism. I claim in this paper that religious 'lawfare' against state laws as 'not respecting the religious affinities of citizens' is a contentious practice tending to subvert the pluralist religio-political order.

Paper short abstract:

I examine approaches and strategies of creating secular and public spaces in contemporary Kenya and conclude that ethnicity is propelled in Africa through tensions that are continuously created between political and religious or sacred spaces

Paper long abstract:

Over the last decade or so, one event has surprised observers of Kenyan politics-the increased participation of the clergy in political sphere and their role in ethnic and electoral conflicts. This development presents an intriguing puzzle in the nature and dynamics of religion in Kenya. One might well say that the traditional public spaces are irreversibly shrinking and collapsing. Even more so, one might argue that the loss of traditional 'form' secular engagement with the public or ways of spatial experience would definitely affect the role of traditional public space in building up a civic identity, and even destroy the very sense of 'traditional Christianity. Consequently, cultural factors such as ethnicity and religion have become more important in people's search for fundamentals on which to build their hopes for the future. The paper examines both the sacred and secular spaces as sites of conflict: conflicting memories, conflicting values, conflicting interests, conflicting narratives of place and so on. I examine approaches and strategies of creating secular and public spaces in contemporary Kenya and conclude that ethnicity is propelled in Africa through tensions that are continuously created between political and religious or sacred spaces.