Religious minorities in Africa

In many societies of Subsaharan Africa, practitioners of different religious traditions live side by side and interact at a daily basis. While this situation of religious plurality has been the subject of much scholarly work, comparatively less attention has been paid to how dynamics of religious plurality are shaped by the specific situation of religious groups who form not only a numerical but also political minority. Those studies the do explore religious minority communities in Subsaharan Africa rarely relate individual case studies to current debate on state regimes of religious governance and secularities in regions of the Global South. Instead, there is at present a strong tendency to focus primarily on the everyday and on lived experiences of interreligious plurality, while paying less attention to the institutional conditions that generate systematic inequalities among religious groups.

In my current book project, I explore the dynamics of religious plurality from the point of view of Muslims who form a religious minority in Uganda. To grasp the situation of Muslims in Uganda, and their views of and answers to it, in all their complexity, diversity and possibly contradictory nature. This requires, on the one hand, taking a broader perspective on the dilemmas that arise for Muslims from the existing structure of school education; and, on the other hand, to ask how the historical experiences of Muslims shape their view of their current situation, but also their self-image as practicing believers and as a group singled out by their religious difference. I also argue that beyond any bleak portrayal of Muslims as those who endure state regulation, we should account for their active role in becoming a minority, a perspective that requires looking at the intersections between state regulatory structures and community dynamics “on the ground”.

Online article: Schulz, Dorothea (2024): Secularity and Muslim-Christian Relations in Uganda.