Permanent Pilgrims : : The Role of Pilgrimage in the Lives of West African Muslims in Sudan / / C Bawa Yamba.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Edinburgh University Press Archive eBook-Package Pre-2000
• VerfasserIn: Yamba, C Bawa,
• Place / Publishing House: Edinburgh : : Edinburgh University Press, , [2022]; ©1995
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Series: International African Library : IAL
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (240 p.)

West African pilgrims in Sudan believe that walking across the savannas and desert is the only proper way of performing the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca. However, their journey appears to stop halfway in Sudan, where many of them reside in stranger enclaves as fourth- and fifth-generation immigrants. Describing themselves as transients, they see these villages as temporary stations on their way to Mecca. This book examines life in a set of pilgrim villages to show how the concept of pilgrimage is maintained. It examines why these people allow themselves to live in a state of permanent transition, and argues that here pilgrimage is a symbolic journey analogous to life itself.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- List of illustrations -- Acknowledgements -- Chapter 1 Introduction -- Chapter 2 The history of West African migration to Sudan -- Chapter 3 The rural dwellers: moral virtues, secular constraints -- Chapter 4 The urban dwellers: landlords, clients, fakis and beggars -- Chapter 5 The Islamic pilgrimage and the West African subculture in Sudan -- Chapter 6 Divine design and its consequences for the achievement of pilgrimage in this life -- Chapter 7 The pilgrimage as a paradigm for life -- Appendix I: In the field -- Appendix II: Some brief biographical notes on the key informants quoted in the test -- Glossary -- Notes -- References -- Index