Paper short abstract:

This paper examines Muslim popular cultural practices as impetus for contesting and negotiating Imamship in Gonjaland. It explores how contestations over Imamship between Sakpares (the traditional imams) and Salafists (the reformist imams) manifest at the intersection of Islam and popular cultures.

Paper long abstract:

This study examines Muslim popular cultural practices as impetus for contesting and negotiating Imamship between traditionalists and reformist ulama in Gonjaland. The Gonjas are Mandes from the ancient Mali Empire of West Africa, whose ancestors entered into a working relationship with Muslim clerics to establish the Gonjaland (Northern Ghana). This relationship crystallized into a blend of local cultures with Islam, which has existed for centuries. As a result, traditional cultural practices have greatly influenced the practice of Islam in Gonjaland. The Gonja traditional clerics, or Sakpare, are the official Imams of the Gonja people, enjoying the backing of the Gonja traditional chiefs. However, with the emergence of reform Islam known as Salafism, some of its members began to challenge this long-standing dominance of appointing only Sakpares as Imams. They also question their Islamic knowledge and the version of Muslim practices they promoted as unauthentic Islam. While the Salafists were allowed to establish their own mosques and preach to people, their authority was limited because people preferred the Sakpare Imams to supervise their cultural practices, such as naming, wedding, and funeral ceremonies. The Salafists' attempt to reform some of those popular Muslim cultural practices by taking over their supervision in Gonjaland created tensions that, at some point, resulted in bloody clashes between these two religious groups. Against this background, this paper examines how contestations over Imamship between Sakpares (the traditional imams) and Salafists (the reformist imams) manifest at the intersection of Islam and popular cultures.

Key words; Salafism, Imamship, Popular culture.