Call for Papers: Colonialism and Muslim Family Law in Sub-Sahara Africa, 05/01

Call for Papers: Colonialism and Muslim Family Law in Sub-Sahara Africa, Stanford University, 11-12 May

The Stanford-Berkeley Center for African Studies invites papers for its seventh symposium on Law and Colonialism in Africa. The theme of the 2001 symposium will be on Colonialism and Muslim Family Law in sub-Saharan Africa. The symposium seeks to explore the rich ethnography, social history, and comparative theoretical issues underlying colonialism in its encounter with Islamic law. The organizers have a preference for papers that deal with a specific country or region with a thematic focus on one of the following categories:

A) Reconstructing the practice of Islamic law on the eve of the colonial encounter in a specific country or a region. How were Muslim courts organized? What legal texts were used? How were disputes settled? How were qadis trained and selected? How did Muslim family law and legal practice change over time?

B) What were the colonial policies towards Islamic law in sub-Saharan Africa and how did they change over the course of the colonial period? Some colonial powers viewed Islamic law as distinct from customary law while others established native courts that applied Islamic and customary law more or less indiscriminately. Here we are particularly interested in exploring the policies of each colonial power towards Islamic law, whether there were elements of uniformity or whether policies differed over time and place. What impact did colonial policy towards Islamic law have on the practice of Muslim family law? Research that focuses on colonial archival resources will be particularly welcome.

C) How did the reconstruction of Islamic law into a project of empire influence the practice of Muslim family law? Why did colonial authorities find it necessary to retain an element of religious law especially in the domain of the family? Was the construction of Muslim family law as a recognizable body of law a product of modernization? Did the colonial authorities succeed in transforming the indigenous Islamic law structures into the formal law? Did the establishment of official Muslim courts succeed in incorporating Muslim family law into the colonial system? What strategies and politics did they employ? What kind of resistance, if any, was there to such policy and practice?

D) Papers that deal with an aspect of Islamic law and colonialism in sub-Saharan that hitherto did not receive serious scholarly attention will also be considered.

We are especially interested in papers that use court records to examine these issues. Court records are potentially vast, but relatively unexamined repositories evidence about social change in colonial Africa. However, much methodological and epistemological work remains to be done before students of the colonial period can effectively use these sources.

Abstracts must be submitted to the Center for African Studies by 1 March 2000. If accepted, draft papers must be received by the Center by 23 April 2000 in order to be duplicated and made available to the participants before the symposium.

The Joint Stanford-Berkeley Center for African Studies will cover hotel, food, and ground expenses during the symposium for all the participants. The Joint Center can provide travel subsidies to defray air travel, but cannot cover the full costs of transportation.

Please direct inquiries and abstracts to Richard Roberts, Director, Center for African Studies, Stanford University: rroberts@leland.stanford.edu or fax 650-723-8528.