The companion process to the islamization of Africa was the africanization of Islam. By this I mean the various ways that, at different times over the past 1,400 years, Islam has been appropriated or articulated in particular societies; to put it another way, how African groups have created “Muslim” space or made Islam their own. The process is the same one that happened throughout the world that became Muslim or indeed throughout the world that became Christian or Buddhist or of any other persuasion. There is nothing pejorative about the africanization of Islam or, more appropriately, the “Berberization” or “Swahili-zation” or “whatever-ization” of Islam. There is something pejorative about the way that Europeans and many Mediterranean-based Muslims have perceived “African Islam” and the africanization of Islam. That is the subject of Chapter 6.

The question, then, for the Swahili, the various Berber groups, and many other communities in Africa is how could Islam become theirs. In what follows I discuss these “africanization” processes in terms of space and time, visual culture, and genealogical and spiritual attachment. Finally I look at one specific case study that I call “theological.” We could draw many analogies from the history of Christianity as it spread and was appropriated in different parts of the world.