Abstract: This article presents some thoughts on the relations between religion and politics. These thoughts have emerged from fieldwork conducted since 1993 in Mali, in the neighbourhood of Bankoni, in the suburbs of Bamako. The development of different religious movements in this urban area was observed between 2000 and 2005, in days when the affiliation to a religious association was presented by individuals themselves as a solution to “disorder” and to the transformation of social relationships. Actually, the local religious configuration is nowadays characterized by the interdependency of competing religious movements, Islamic and coming from a “traditional religion” background, whose elites offer both an interpretation of the social and economic turmoil experienced by very impoverished populations, and a new ordering of the space of everyday life and of social relationships. The analysis highlights the practical and symbolic constructions elaborated by the faithful of the diverse religious movements, who select and reinvest elements of the religious traditions that they have embraced.
Publication Year: 2009
Publication Date: 2009-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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