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What's (not) in a leather pouch? Tracing Islamic amulets in Asante, Ghana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2020

Benedikt Pontzen
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Abstract

Islamic charms and amulets (lāyā) are simultaneously fairly common, highly valued and ardently contested items among Muslims in Asante. Tracing their history and the relations in which Muslims in Asante manufacture, make sense of and debate them, this article places such amulets within relations and delineates the discourses surrounding them. For those who manufacture and request them, these amulets are part not only of the Islamic tradition but of the divine, which permeates them. For their critics, these are un-Islamic idols that contravene the religion of Islam as they ‘keep people away from God’. Such amulets and their usage – or their non-usage – are therefore central to people relating to the divine, and as amulets thus take part in various (re)makings of Islam, they matter and are part of larger processes that knit several elements together. If one considers such amulets as genuine sources, they provide a lot of information not only about how people conceive of, debate and live Islam, but of how Islamic lifeworlds come into being and of the various entities that participate in these processes.

Résumé

Résumé

Les talismans et amulettes islamiques (lāyā) sont des objets à la fois assez courants, hautement valorisés et ardemment contestés au sein de la population musulmane d'Ashanti. Cet article, en étudiant l'histoire de ces objets et la relation dans le cadre de laquelle les musulmans d'Ashanti les fabriquent, leur donnent un sens et en débattent, situe ces amulettes dans des relations et décrit les discours qui les accompagnent. Pour ceux qui fabriquent ces amulettes et les sollicitent, elles s'inscrivent non seulement dans la tradition islamique, mais aussi dans le divin dont elles sont imprégnées. Pour ceux qui les critiquent, ce sont des idoles contraires à l'islam qui « éloignent de Dieu ». Ces amulettes et leur usage (ou leur non-usage) sont par conséquent au cœur du rapport au divin, et ce faisant, elles participent à divers éléments (re)constitutifs de l'islam, elles importent et s'inscrivent dans des processus plus larges mêlant plusieurs éléments. Si l'on considère ces amulettes comme de véritables sources, elles fournissent nombre d'informations non seulement sur la manière dont l'islam est conçu, débattu et vécu, mais aussi sur la manière dont les mondes de la vie islamiques prennent naissance et sur les diverses entités qui participent à ces processus.

Type
Debating religious practices and religiosity
Information
Africa , Volume 90 , Issue 5 , November 2020 , pp. 870 - 889
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Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2020

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