The Ahmadiyya in the Gold Coast: Muslim Cosmopolitans in the British Empire, by John H. Hanson

Abstract

Africa’s Muslims, like their counterparts in Asia, have been challenged by various theological strands over the centuries. While some have left lasting legacies that are still commemorated and celebrated, lesser-known ones have come and gone. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Africa witnessed the formation as well as the importation of several strong theological reformist organisations in the “religious marketplace,” an appropriate theoretical device that John Hanson uses in the text under review. These reformist contenders, including those with non-African roots such as the Ahmadiyya movement which hailed from South Asia, made their mark by employing religious ideas and evangelist approaches that, at times, countered the views of those that they differed with and opposed.