Visiting Fellow Sebastian Elischer (political science) has published a book titled, Salafism and Political Order in Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2021).
The book provides a comparative analysis of how different West and East African states have engaged with fundamentalist Muslim groups between the 1950s and today. In doing so, it establishes a causal link between state-imposed organizational gatekeepers in the Islamic sphere and the absence of homegrown jihadi Salafism.
Illustrating that the contemporary manifestation of violent Islamic extremism in sub-Saharan Africa is an outcome of strategic political decisions that are deeply embedded in countries' autocratic pasts, the book challenges conventional notions of statehood on the African continent and provides new insight into the evolving relationships between secular and religious authority.