Dhikrayati fi Ifriqiya
- Author died
- 1443 AH
- Editions
- الجامعة الإسلامية
Dhikrayati fi Ifriqiya (My Memories in Africa) is a travel memoir and published lecture by the Saudi scholar and traveler Muhammad bin Nasir al-Abbudi (d. 1443 AH / 2022 CE), examining the conditions of Islam and Muslim communities in sub-Saharan Africa.
Background and Composition
The text originated as an address delivered by al-Abbudi during his tenure as Secretary-General of the Islamic University of Madinah, which was subsequently published as a booklet by the Muslim World League in Mecca. The work drew directly upon notes and diary entries recorded during two journeys he undertook across the continent: the first in 1384 AH (1964 CE) and the second in 1386 AH (1967 CE). Al-Abbudi defines the scope of his inquiry as sub-Saharan Africa—the newly independent nations emerging from European colonial rule—rather than the whole continent.
Content and Regional Observations
The work presents personal observations, field encounters, and a country-by-country overview of Muslim communities across eleven African nations visited by the author: Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania (Tanganyika and Zanzibar), Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia (formerly Northern Rhodesia), Rhodesia (Southern Rhodesia), and Malawi.
Al-Abbudi highlights notable figures and grassroots initiatives that advanced Islamic education and conversions:
- Hajji Musa Kasule in Uganda, a convert from Christianity who funded several large reinforced-concrete mosques with commercial endowments, built an Islamic preparatory boarding school five miles outside Kampala, and established over two hundred schools and kuttabs for Muslim women's education.
- Shaykh Shu'ayb Ishaq, who endowed his 28-acre estate in Kotumu, Uganda, to establish the Madrasat al-Din wa-al-Tahdhib al-Islami, whose graduates founded seventeen branch schools, reportedly contributing to the conversion of over 200,000 people.
- Muhammad Dawud in Kenya, a former Christian priest from Kisumu on Lake Victoria who embraced Islam and became an itinerant preacher, whose efforts were affirmed by Kenya's Chief Judge, Shaykh Muhammad Qasim al-Mazru'i.
Alongside these successes, al-Abbudi illustrates the acute poverty and educational deficits facing African Muslims. In Ndola, Zambia, he recounts how poor African copper miners collected small donations over seven years to raise 6,000 British pounds and performed the manual labor themselves to build their only central mosque, moving the supervising English engineer to waive his fees. In the segregated Harare suburb of Salisbury (Rhodesia), he describes a newly built mosque whose attached school stood idle and where prayers were frequently suspended because no one in the neighborhood knew Arabic or could lead the congregation in recitation.
In his geographic survey, al-Abbudi observes that Muslims in Eritrea and Ethiopia formed a demographic majority but lacked political influence and faced intense missionary competition. In Kenya and Uganda, conversions were increasing, though coastal Kenya and Uganda suffered from internal factional or political disputes. In Burundi, the Swahili-speaking Muslim minority in the Buyenzi (Muyenzi) quarter of Bujumbura enjoyed favorable conditions. In Malawi, where Muslims accounted for 42% of the population with historical roots in the ancient Sofala region, the community suffered from deep economic and educational weakness.
Recommendations
The work concludes with five strategic proposals to support Islamic institutions in Africa:
- Establishing an international Islamic fund to finance educational and missionary efforts.
- Expanding university scholarships in Islamic institutions abroad for African students.
- Founding orphanages and shelters to protect destitute Muslim children from foreign missionary indoctrination.
- Dispatching qualified teachers and instructors from across the Muslim world.
- Translating and distributing Islamic literature in local and widely used languages, including English, French, and Swahili.
Al-Abbudi acknowledges the early financial and institutional support provided by King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Grand Mufti Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ibrahim Al ash-Sheikh, the Islamic University of Madinah, and the Muslim World League.
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