Islam and the Prayer Economy: history and authority in a Malian town (review)

The book is important for many reasons. First, very little of northern Namibian scholars’ work on their own past has reached international audiences. These two studies announce a promising beginning and show that continuing the collection of oral history in northern Namibia should be a primary concern. From the point of view of research, the volume abounds with ‘new’ and exciting data. It also identifies a serious problem to be tackled: that of communicating the Finnish sources to the Namibian scholars in a more efficient way.