Larabanga Mosque
The spread
of Islam into West
Africa, beginning with ancient Ghana
in the ninth
century, was mainly the result of the commercial activities of
North African Muslims. The empires of both
Mali and
Songhai
that followed ancient Ghana in the Western Sudan adopted the
religion. Islam made its entry into the northern territories of
modern Ghana around the fifteenth century.
Mande speakers (who in Ghana are known as
Wangara) traders and clerics carried the
religion into the area. The northeastern sector of the country was
also influenced by an influx of
Hausa
Muslim traders from the 16th Century onwards, and a second wave of
migrants escaping the fundamentalist jihads of
Usman dan Fodio in northern Nigeria during
the early nineteenth century.
Most Ghanaian Muslims are
Sunni, following the
Maliki version of Islamic law. However, since
the 1980's,
Shi'a Islam has been
spreading rapidly after Lebanese traders set up businesses there.
There are now an estimated one million Shi'as in Ghana now.
Sufism is not widespread in Ghana; the
Tijaniyah and the
Qadiriyah brotherhoods, however, are represented.
The
Ahmadiyya, a sect originating in
nineteenth-century India
, is also
present.
Despite
tensions in the Middle East, North Africa, and Nigeria
since the
mid-1970s, Ghanaian Muslims and Christians have had excellent
relations. Guided by the authority of the Muslim
Representative Council, religious, social, and economic matters
affecting Muslims have often been redressed through negotiations.
The Muslim
Council has also been responsible for arranging pilgrimages to
Mecca
for believers who can afford the journey. In
spite of these achievements, the council has not succeeded in
taking initiatives for the upgrading of Islamic schools beyond the
provision of basic
Qur'anic instruction. This
may explain the economic and technological gap between Muslims and
non-Muslims.
Although official Ghanaian census reports 16% of Ghanaians as being
Muslims, this figure is questioned by some.
Some estimates put the figure closer to 30 per cent and in some
instances, as high as 45%. Such figures have been challenged though
and given the politicisation of numbers any estimate must not be
confused with facts.
See also
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