Paper short abstract:

How have global Salafi networks shaped African jihadist landscapes? The paper addresses this question based on a case study of (coastal) Kenya. It identifies and explains the absence of foreign-educated clerics from Kenya’s jihadist scene.

Paper long abstract:

The emergence and expansion of jihadist activity in contemporary Africa is inextricably linked with the Saudi-promoted rise of global Salafism. In several countries, growing Salafi milieus have bred influential jihadist clerics. At the same time, there is a broad scholarly consensus that it is highly inaccurate to equate Salafism with militancy. How, then, have global Salafi networks shaped African jihadist landscapes? Addressing this question based on a case study of (coastal) Kenya that draws on field research carried out in March 2022 and April 2018, this paper identifies a paradox. While the overall rejectionist tendencies of Salafi thought represent a non-trivial enabling condition for jihadist mobilization in Africa, at the individual level the emergence of jihadist clerics rests on a lack of integration into Saudi-dominated transnational Salafi circles. Examining the personal trajectories of Kenya’s leading jihadist preachers, the paper finds that while all of them had been influenced by Salafi ideas and actors to different degrees prior to openly embracing jihadism, none had gone to study abroad at a Saudi or any other Arab university. I contend that the absence of foreign-educated clerics from Kenya’s jihadist scene is not a coincidence but the result of both ideological and material factors predisposing Salafi “returnee” scholars to not turn into jihadists. By advancing this hypothesis, I intend to contribute to nascent research on the micro-dynamics of jihadist preaching.