Contenu du sommaire : Dossier : Routes migratoires africaines et dynamiques religieuses

This paper explores media-techniques of conversion among Arabic speaking Christians along the Nile. Their practices build up on and intensify long existing religious dynamics of missionization (through migration and re-migration of evangelical Christians) and conversion (from existing religious communities into new, transnational movements) and are formed around narratives of modernisation. In past and present Christian proselytizing has articulated universal aspirations that are to be realized in situ through the differentiation between believers und unbelievers. The demand to make a complete break with the past is emphasized by the use of media (books and more recently the internet) and formats (like a creed) that are seemingly removed from the modifications of time and space. Exploring the various strategies and media-practices of Christian proselytizing along the Nile through time, this paper offers a more detailed analysis of a recent prophetic movement and its territorialisation strategies in the context of the founding of the state of South Sudan.

In a geopolitical context of closing borders in Northern and Southern which encourage migrants to increase and extend their stays in the Arab world and redefine their migration projects, new actors are emerging, such as religious institutions who accompany these movements. Our research shows the development and strengthening of the role of religious organizations and of organizations of religious origin on the routes between West Africa and the Arab world. Some religious institutions are strengthened or find a second breath thanks to migrants. This is the case of Al Azhar University in Cairo, a university which attractiveness has regressed among Egyptians but which has found a new dynamic with the recruitment of foreign students, among whom Africans are becoming central. Thus, Al Azhar is becoming an important part in the crossroad of African migration routes in the Arab world. Our paper wishes to account for the historical bond which ties students from West Africa to this university. It will also expose migratory itineraries and describe the ways in which these African students become a community through their common migration and studying experience: the Azharis students. We will confront the projects and projections carried by these students – and the social constructions arising from these trajectories - with the reality of life in Cairo which lasts much longer than expected while returns in their original country become less glorious.

The returning graduates from the Arabic modernised education system, trained in the universities of the Arab-Islamic world struggle to find a place in Burkina Faso. Interviews of students returning to Ouagadougou after several years spent studying in Islamic universities (in Egypt, Algeria, Saudi Arabia or Libya) will allow us to look at how the academic profiles of these students, shaped by the historical and political context as well as by their existential motivations have affected their professional careers. Parental injunctions and grants have mostly determined the place of study and the subjects, taking part in shaping the professional trajectory. For most, studies turned out to be lengthy and chaotic, and professional opportunities after their return seldom matched the training they had received. Reintegrating these students into the Burkinabè society is problematic. They do not always master French, the official language, and are often excluded from the labour market. They have failed to put pressure on their government for recognition of their diplomas. And they suffer from a denial of recognition that does not lead to open protest.

The Église Évangélique au Maroc (EEAM) was founded in Morocco under French colonialism in the early twentieth century as an expression of the Reformed Protestant tradition.  Attended first by Europeans only, its numbers had inexorably declined from Morocco's independence in 1956 until the nineties. Since that time, the Church has experienced a deep sociological mutation with a continuing influx of sub-Saharan Africa nationals (students, migrants, businessmen, etc.). As the only officially recognized Protestant church, the EEAM has congregations in many cities all over the country, where regular attendees are 95 % Sub-Saharan Africans, with very diverse religious and cultural backgrounds. Members of EEAM churches come from both traditional mainline Protestant churches and more recently established Pentecostal or charismatic churches (PCCs). This cohabitation of heterogeneous religious identities within the same institutional structure often creates tensions and misunderstandings.  Varying theological reference points, patterns of church organization, and religious practices bear witness to this pluralism-in-tension.The EEAM acts as a resonance chamber for a global, multiform African religious field, with each church member reflecting a particular dimension of this field. At the same time, the EEAM operates within the field as a key-player, presenting an original African religious expression marked by denominational pluralism, interculturality, and personal agency. After considering the influence of the virtual religious field (internet) on the church as well as the links between the EEAM and the informal network of house churches existing on its margins, this article will explore the articulation between a changing religious institution on one hand, and, on the other hand, the individual religious trajectories it generates with their own dynamics, oscillating between adhesion, contestation or subversion.

In this article the author analyzes the religious practices of sub-Saharan Africans Christians in Tunisia and the recomposition of the religious landscape arising from the installation of the African Development Bank (ADB) in the capital. In this Muslim country where the history of the Churches is embedded in colonial history, playing host to African Christians contributes to complicate identity and religious affiliations. After describing the circumstances of the installation of Africans in Tunisia and their sociological diversity, the article describes the revival of Catholic and Protestant churches across the country, mainly due to the involvement of African students. Finally, the author details the issues at stake with the installation of an African Pentecostal Church, the Redeemer Church of Champions, born in Nigeria and in activity in an upscale area of Tunis since 2005. This highlights the special place that Tunisian converts hold in the churches discourse of religious conquest.

Migratory trans-Saharan routes to Egypt have become more diversified since the end of the 1990s. Refugees from Sudan and from the Horn of Africa (Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea) are no longer the only ones to be attracted to this country of the Mashreq. These find refuge in Egypt, while others (students, « adventurers », religious leaders, from Cameroon, DRC or Nigeria) hope to find opportunities to complete their training and continue their journey. However, since the early 2000s, the Egyptian government, the UN institutions in Egypt and the European Union have been involved in the closing of borders and in the creation of a lasting migratory deadlock. The purpose of this article is to explain the settlement processes of African migrants, mostly Christian, to better support the wait. Without legal recognition and integration policy, they access various resources and anchoring means from the bottom, in particular through several Christian missionaries' institutions, faith-based organizations and for some, through their flexible religious path. Today, Cairo's urban and religious landscape is thus discretely changed.

The article questions the role of the zawiya of Ahmad al-Tijani in the everyday life and the trajectories of sub-Saharan migrants and students living in Fez. Based on an ethnographic research carried out in and around that sanctuary-mosque and qualitative interviews conducted with migrants and students, it analyses the function, role and place that this West-African pilgrimage site has for sub-Saharan residents of Fez. The article begins with a description of the physical space of the zawiya and analyses its embeddedness in both the local religious topography and the transnational Tijani territories. It then explores the relationships that sub-Saharan residents have with the zawiya: first, this place symbolizes an African presence in Fez; second, it takes the role of a space of integration and intercultural sociability for them. Finally, African residents develop a sense of belonging and ownership of the zawiya and its saint, largely due to the influence of the Tijaniyya in West-African countries and the way black Africans are welcomed in this religious site.

Although the Tijaniyya is not very practiced within Morocco anymore, it remains a powerful link between this country and Senegal, where more than half of the population belong to this brotherhood. Many Tijaniyya's adepts consider the pilgrimage to Fez, the Moroccan town hosting the mausoleum of the brotherhood's founder, an act of devotion as important as the Hajj to Mecca. This pilgrimage is not new, as it dates back more than a century. However, it is only over the last ten years that it has grown in scope, becoming a major societal phenomenon in Senegal and an important commercial and diplomatic issue for Morocco. This article is based on ethnography of a pilgrimage organized by a Senegalese travel agency, for the Laylatoul-Qadr («Night of Destiny»), in August 2012. The discourses and temporalities that characterize such organized groups of pilgrims, feed particular imaginaries and reveal a multiplicity of dimensions, including social, political and religious dimensions of Senegalese society. The present article emphasizes two aspects: firstly, the meanings and motivations of those travels to Morocco, which allow to understand number of mutations in contemporary Senegalese society (the concept of family, death, belief, leisure, etc.); secondly, the discourses and counter-discourses about the nature of the links between Senegalese and Moroccan peoples, qualified by the governments as «exceptional and fraternal», but which are often differently experienced and reported by many Senegalese residents in Morocco.

National Caritas organisations are each autonomous under their bishops, but they combine as part of the Caritas Internationalis confederation, which is a body of the Catholic Church. Present at several intersections of sub-Saharan migration routes, Caritas organisations initially based their work towards migrants on the social doctrine of the Church and the values of Catholicism. But in a changing environment and facing a high politicization of migration topic and its manipulation by the mediterranean governments for their own benefit, their project are evolving. Here is the example of Caritas Morocco. Firstly, with outsourcing management of migratory flows from Europe to the Maghreb countries and the strengthening of the repressive policy of the moroccan government, the figure of the african migrant beneficiary changed. Secondly, institutional requirements for standardization and alignment of humanitarian practices with european policy and competition between social or humanitarian organisations impact on strategic and programmatic choices. How Caritas Morocco positions itself in this particular context? Which role is the organization playing in management of migratory flows? How the catholic identity is influencing his choices? Which strategy is adopted in order to address these constraints? How these choices are compatible with its identity and catholic values?

In recent years, Lebanon has experienced an unprecedented evangelical Protestant activity. This country enjoys freedom of religious expression higher than that of its neighbours. What's more, hundreds of thousands of refugees and foreign migrants from around the world reside in Lebanon. Therefore, these foreigners are ideal targets for evangelical missionaries who wish to convert them. Thus, refugees and migrant domestic workers, who are welcomed in these churches develop new forms of sociability. This article analyses the integration of foreign workers and refugees into evangelical structures, which offer new social horizons and possibilities.