^the Mouride broherhood of Senegal. Founded by Amadou Bamba who is their 'Mohammed'. It must be commended that these Africans were able to take a possible foreign religion without taking on the 'arabism' and cultural customs attached to it.
Lets not forget that Islam came to West Africa because of arab involvement in international trade. As opposed to any holy epiphony and thing, those dreams all came after Mansa gained his riches ;-)
"While the motivations of early conversions remain unclear, it is apparent that the early presence of Islam in West Africa was linked to trade and commerce with North Africa. Trade between West Africa and the Mediterranean predated Islam, however, North African Muslims intensified the Trans-Saharan trade. North African traders were major actors in introducing Islam into West Africa. Several major trade routes connected Africa below the Sahara with the Mediterranean Middle East, such as Sijilmasa to Awdaghust and Ghadames to Gao. The Sahel, the ecological transition zone between the Sahara desert and forest zone, which spans the African continent, was an intense point of contact between North Africa and communities south of the Sahara. In West Africa, the three great medieval empires of Ghana, Mali, and the Songhay developed in Sahel."
Copy without the spaces:
http://spice.fsi.stanford.edu/docs/the_spread_of_islam_in_west
_africa_containment_mixing_and_reform_from_the_eighth
_to_the_twentieth_century
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