By Dr Cherno Omar Barry
Author background
Lamin O Sanneh’s authority as a scholar of religion is central to the credibility of Beyond Jihad. Born in The Gambia in 1942, Sanneh grew up in a Mandinka Muslim family before later converting to Christianity, a trajectory that equipped him with a rare ability to interpret both traditions from within. His long academic career at Yale University and earlier at Harvard positioned him among the foremost interpreters of religion in Africa. Readers approach this book, therefore, with the awareness that Sanneh was not only a historian but also a cultural insider with a unique vantage point on Islam in West Africa.
Sanneh’s earlier works laid the foundation for this book. His scholarship often interrogated how religions adapt to cultural environments, as seen in Translating the Message, which highlighted Christianity’s linguistic and cultural flexibility in Africa. Beyond Jihad applies a similar lens to Islam, showing that its success in West Africa owed less to militant conquest and more to its pacifist accommodation of indigenous life. This continuity across his work underscores his lifelong interest in religion as a bridge rather than a barrier.
Finally, Sanneh’s personal story—an African Muslim who became a Christian scholar—provides the book with an ethical urgency. While his conversion may incline some to suspect bias, Sanneh consistently approaches Islam with respect and fairness. His aim is not to diminish Islam but to amplify aspects of its African expression that the world too easily forgets. That dual identity makes his voice persuasive in an era when religion is too often weaponised in scholarship and politics alike.
Summary of the Book
Beyond Jihad challenges the idea that West African Islam is mainly about jihad and militancy. Throughout twelve chapters, Sanneh highlights a pacifist tradition found in clerical lineages, travelling Qur’anic teachers, and Sufi orders. He argues that these groups intentionally avoided political power and warfare, instead focusing on education, spiritual leadership, and community reconciliation. The book is therefore not just a history, but a correction to a common story that depicts Islam mainly through conquest.
The structure of the book progresses from conceptual framing to specific case studies. The early chapters clarify how the idea of jihad has been misrepresented both by colonial observers and by modern extremists. The middle chapters provide detailed accounts of the Jakhanke clerics, the Murīdiyya, and the Tijaniyya, demonstrating how each practised pacifism in reality. The later chapters consider the implications of this heritage for contemporary Africa, especially in light of current extremism in Nigeria, Mali, and beyond.
Sanneh’s thesis is bold: pacifism is not incidental but intrinsic to Islam in West Africa. He insists that alongside celebrated militant reformers like Usman dan Fodio, there existed equally influential figures who built authority through peace. The book is thus both descriptive—mapping a neglected tradition—and prescriptive—inviting Muslims and non-Muslims alike to reclaim that legacy today.
Language and style
Sanneh’s language is both scholarly and evocative. His prose is dense with historical and theological detail, yet he avoids jargon-heavy abstraction. He writes with clarity, always defining terms like jihad, sabr (patience), and baraka (blessing), while showing how they acquire particular resonance in African contexts. This linguistic attentiveness allows readers to appreciate Islam not as a monolithic import but as a faith textured by local cultural meanings.
The style reflects Sanneh’s dual commitment to precision and persuasion. He marshals archival sources, oral histories, and Qur’anic exegesis with academic rigour, yet his tone is pastoral, almost sermonic, when he underscores the moral lessons of pacifism. The narrative rhythm—moving between concept, case study, and reflection—keeps the book from collapsing into either dry history or theological polemic. Instead, it reads as a sustained meditation on peace.
At times, the language carries the cadence of oral storytelling, perhaps influenced by Sanneh’s own Mandinka heritage. He introduces clerics and Sufi saints not only as historical actors but as figures embedded in living memory, revered in villages and households across Senegambia. This stylistic choice deepens the book’s accessibility, reminding readers that Islam’s pacifist tradition is not confined to archives but remains inscribed in everyday cultural life.
Historical context
Sanneh places his work within the transformative centuries of the eighteenth and nineteenth, when West Africa experienced both Islamic reform movements and colonial encroachment. He recognises the prominence of militant jihads—Usman dan Fodio’s founding of the Sokoto Caliphate being the most notable—but asserts that these should not overshadow the clerical traditions that favoured nonviolence. By situating his argument in this period, Sanneh shows that pacifism was not a minor footnote but a parallel course.
The book also draws attention to the Senegambian context, where the Jakhanke clerics cultivated itinerant schools and forged networks that crossed ethnic and religious boundaries. They survived precisely because they did not seek political control, positioning themselves as mediators and teachers. This emphasis on non-state authority challenges assumptions that power in Islam must always be political or military.
Colonialism provides another context in Sanneh’s narrative. European powers often misunderstood West African pacifism, seeing it as weakness or insignificance. However, Sanneh reverses this view, illustrating that the persistence of pacifist clerical networks made them more capable of withstanding colonial disruption. By the time independence arrived, these traditions offered models of coexistence and resilience that militant legacies could not uphold.
Author’s arguments
Sanneh’s first argument is that pacifism is an authentic Islamic legacy in West Africa. He demonstrates how clerics based their teachings on Qur’anic injunctions against coercion and on prophetic models of restraint. This was not pacifism driven by necessity but by conviction. The Jakhanke clerics, for example, deliberately avoided political power, believing that spiritual authority should remain free from violence.
His second argument is that Islam’s African expansion succeeded largely because of its ability to adapt culturally. Instead of destroying local traditions, Muslim clerics integrated local practices into an Islamic ethical framework. This ability to interpret Islam in African terms allowed the faith to flourish without force. In Sanneh’s view, pacifism and adaptation were twin strategies for survival and growth.
Finally, Sanneh argues that this tradition remains urgently relevant today. At a time when groups like Boko Haram dominate headlines, reconnecting with West Africa’s pacifist heritage provides an alternative to extremism. He views these clerical lineages as a resource for promoting pluralism, interfaith dialogue, and nation-building in Africa currently. In this way, the book is not only historical but also serves as a moral intervention in current debates.
Perspectives and critical evaluation
Sanneh’s perspective is both descriptive and normative. Descriptively, he reclaims the often-overlooked pacifist tradition of Islam. Normatively, he champions this tradition as the more genuine path forward. This dual perspective grants the book its strength but also its possible vulnerabilities.
One strength lies in his use of diverse sources—oral testimonies, local chronicles, and Qur’anic commentary—which ensures that pacifism is not romanticised but grounded in evidence. He also succeeds in demonstrating the breadth of pacifist traditions, encompassing Mandinka, Fula, and Wolof contexts. His argument that pacifism rivals jihad in influence is both original and compelling.
However, a limitation is that Sanneh sometimes depicts pacifism too idealistically. In reality, clerical figures often navigated complex political patronage systems, and their abstention from violence was not always absolute. Some readers may also question whether his Christian perspective makes him more inclined to emphasise peace traditions. Nonetheless, the book’s core contribution—reframing Islam in West Africa—remains firm.
Comparative perspectives
Compared with John Ralph Willis’s The Jihad of al-Hajj Umar Tall, which highlights militant reform, Sanneh offers a necessary counterpoint by calling forth pacifist voices. His work also complements Ousmane O. Kane’s Beyond Timbuktu, which documents Islamic scholarship but does not emphasise pacifism as much. Together, these works deepen our understanding of the diversity of Islam in West Africa.
In a broader African literary context, Sanneh’s themes resonate with stories of resilience and resistance in fiction. Sally Sadie Singhateh’s The Sun Will Soon Shine depicts nonviolent resistance to harmful traditions, while Lady Augusta Jawara’s Rebellion highlights dialogue and endurance as strategies for survival. Both literary works echo Sanneh’s focus on peace as a form of strength.
Globally, Sanneh’s book can be compared to Karen Armstrong’s Fields of Blood or John Esposito’s writings on Islam and violence, which also critique narrow views of religion. What sets Sanneh apart is his grounding in African lived reality, providing a regional perspective to global debates.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Beyond Jihad is both a scholarly achievement and a timely intervention. Lamin Sanneh shows that Islam in West Africa has always contained a rich pacifist tradition, one that has shaped communities as much as militant reformers did. His insistence that peace, patience, and coexistence are Islamic virtues challenges global stereotypes and reclaims Africa’s role in shaping a humane religious heritage.
The book’s strength lies not only in its historical reconstruction but also in its contemporary relevance. In an era where extremist violence makes headlines, Sanneh’s reminder that African Muslims built civilisations through pacifism offers hope and guidance. This heritage, if rediscovered, could shape modern approaches to conflict resolution and interfaith dialogue.
Ultimately, Beyond Jihad calls for a rethinking of what power and authority mean in Islam. For Sanneh, true power is found not in conquest but in moral example, not in jihad but in the rejection of it. This perspective ensures the book’s lasting relevance for scholars, policymakers, and communities seeking models of peaceful religious living.
Bibliographic Entry:
Sanneh, Lamin O Beyond Jihad: The pacifist tradition in West African Islam. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. 296 pages.
