Africa at Noon on October 15, 2014

Fodiology in America: Muslim Americans Following a Nigerian Model of Education

Beverly Mack
Professor, African and African American Studies
University of Kansas

Time and Location

12:00pm, 206 Ingra­ham Hall, 1155 Obser­va­tory Drive, Madi­son, WI

Download Poster (pdf)

Description

Nana Asma’u was a 19th C daughter of Sokoto Jihad leader Shehu Usman ‘dan Fodio. She established a model of women’s education that continues to the present in Nigeria. Since the publication of her works in English in 1997, Muslim women in the United States who follow the Fodio Qadiriyya Islam of the Fodios have established their own models for Muslim women’s education in places like Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Fort Lauderdale, and Baltimore. This presentation explains the Fodio following in America and their establishment of Muslim women’s education models.

Bio

Beverly Mack is a Professor in the Department of African and African American Studies at the University of Kansas, where she also has served as KU’s African Studies Program Director and Language Coordinator. Her field research among Muslim women in Nigeria and Morocco has been funded by the Carnegie Corporation, Fulbright Hays, Woodrow Wilson, NEH, and the AAUW. Her books include: Hausa Women in the Twentieth Century (with Catherine Coles) Muslim Women Sing: Hausa Popular Song and three volumes with Jean Boyd, including: The Collected Works of Nana Asma’u, Daughter of Shehu Usman dan Fodiyo, 1793-1864, One Woman’s Jihad: Nana Asma’u, Scholar and Scribe, and Educating Muslim Women: the West African Legacy of Nana Asma’u.