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Paper short abstract:

In Niger, the higher education system is going through a number of crises, not only financially but also regarding its academic model. New religious actors on campus try to overcome these crises and achieve political reform by shaping students towards a new social model informed by moral principles.

Paper long abstract:

Between the insecurity in the Sahel region, the chronic political instability, poverty and food insufficiency, the Nigeriens seem to live in a state of permanent crisis. When it comes to identifying its causes, Niger's education system is often singled out for its lack of resources and its economic or cultural inadequacy in relation to the needs of society. The emergence of jihadist movements throughout the Sahel (especially Boko Haram), is no stranger to this educational crisis. Beyond their violent rejection of the dominant and secular educational model inherited from the colonial era, other actors, notably religious ones, rather try to reshape this model. Moreover, the Structural Adjustment Programs imposed in the 1980s sacrificed higher education in favour of mass schooling. Despite its structural problems and its failure to bring about development and prosperity, the Université Abdou Moumouni (UAM) of Niamey remains a crucial institution in the production of future elites. Since the 1990s, religious discourses have supplanted Marxist and secular ideologies on West African campuses. New actors in academia seek to solve the university crisis by shaping students towards a new social model. Who are these actors on the UAM's campus? What are their strategies and discourses to cope with educational crises and to achieve reform? This paper will present a few ethnographic vignettes and show how Muslims, Christians and unionists on campus respond to the current crisis in higher as they seek to reform political practice towards good governance and to impact the Nigerien society positively.