The West African Muslim Challenge 

West Africa represents one of the clearest demonstrations of the conflict between light and darkness. Powerful sorcerers govern the daily lives of West Africans, holding the power of life and death, success in business, good harvests and healing from sickness. Their curses are greatly feared and their ability to break them just as significant.

Alongside this dynamic, Islam in West Africa has gained more ground than any other region in the world. There are several reasons for this:

1) Islam positioned itself as a form of resistance to European colonialism. The harsh treatment of West Africans by the British and French, including centuries of the slave trade, left a legacy of anti-Christian sentiment.

2.) Islam was culturally better suited for the nomadic and polygamous societies of many large groups such as the Fulani. One nomad put it this way, "When you can figure out how to put your Church on the back of a camel, I will consider what you have to say."

3.) The Muslim missionaries to West Africa were Sufis, which is a mystical expression of Islam. Sufism blended better with the animistic practices and worldview of West African peoples. Further Islam did not position itself in conflict with sorcery. Rather it provided an additional option to obtain power through Sufi rituals. The principal strategy of the Sufis has been the establishment of madrassas, or Islamic schools for children. Every Muslim child is expected to enroll, and it is through this means that Islam has strengthened itself in over 300 people groups in West Africa.

With these three strikes against the Christian faith, progress has been slow going in this region. The last fifty years has been a race against time as Sufi missionaries evangelized from tribe to tribe, converting scores to Islam. Although the conversions were nominal in the beginning, eventually they became interwoven with the culture and resistant to further change. Billions have been poured in from oil-rich gulf countries to build mosques, establish madrassas and fund Islamic businesses.

Now as Islam has solidified its hold in the Sahel, they are pushing south. The early Christian missionaries in the 19th century recognized the potential for Islam to sweep southward and convert the entire continent. For this reason they strategically placed a string of mission centers accross the sahel from Sudan to the West Coast. To some extent this worked as everything North of these stations became strongly Islamic and the southward spread was slowed.

Today's strategy for West Africa must take all of these factors and realities into account. It must be indigenous, it must be powerful, and it must be mobile. Here and there, it is beginning to happen. We see glimpses of hope and breakthrough. The day of spiritual breakthrough for West Africa is dawning.