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MOSSI 549
the fringes of major Muslim states in the past and their position astride Muslimdominated
trade routes, but it is greater than one would expect from the conventional
description of the Mossi as anti-Islamic. For example, days of the
week have names which are cognates of the Arabic names. When a Mossi market
occurs on a Friday, as it does every 21 days, that market is an especially large
and active one. A Mossi eats with the right hand, reserving the left for toilet
functions. The Arab zagarid (shrill, trilling cries of joy) is made by women at
marriages, upon completion of group tasks like threshing and, significantly, to
salute important chiefs.
The spread of Islam was aided by the French conquest in 1896-1897, which
cast doubt on the efficacy of the traditional religion because it did not prevent
the defeat. The close connection between the Mossi political system and religion
had reinforced the latter when the former was strong; the linkage continued in
defeat with opposite results. As a consequence, Mossi became more receptive
to Muslim missionaries. These were largely from other African savanna peoples
and were evidence that one could convert without seriously disrupting a familiar
way of life. Christian missions suffered from association with the colonial rulers,
from having mostly alien clergy and from their more striking demands (especially
monogamy) upon prospective converts.
Islam continues to gain ground over Christianity as an alternative to Mossi
traditional religion, even though Roman Catholic missions controlled the colonial
schools which trained those who took power from the French. Many civil servants
are Christian. The first president (1961-1966) of independent Upper Volta,
Maurice Yameogo, was a Catholic Mossi, as is the first African cardinal, Archbishop
Zoungrana of Ouagadougou. The military presidents who followed were
Muslim but not Mossi; General Sangoule Lamizana (1966-1980) and Colonel
Saye Zerbo (1980-1982) are Samo, a Mande people. The November 1982 coup
d'etat leadership retained a non-Muslim as chief of the armed forces but installed
a Catholic Mossi, Major Jean Baptiste Ouedraogo, as chair of the People's
Provisional Salvation Council. In foreign policy, Upper Volta has become more
conscious of its Muslim neighbors and citizens. Despite the overall minority
status of Muslims, under President Lamizana Upper Volta applied at the 1973
Pan Islamic Conference in Pakistan to join the Islamic grouping.
Mossi Muslims are Sunni of the Maliki school of law. Like other West African
Muslims, they tend to be followers of one or another tariqa. Two of these
brotherhoods, the Qadiri and the stricter Tijani, are important. Despite their
voluntary membership, though, membership in a tariqa is much more a consequence
of family tradition or the affiliation of one's religious initiator than the
result of conscious choice between schools of religious interpretation.
Large Mossi populations outside Upper Volta are the result of labor migration,
especially during the savanna dry season, to work on cocoa farms in Ghana and,
more recently, Ivory Coast. Mossi have long been accustomed to a variety of
population movements and migration.
Mossi migration is important to Islamization in two ways. First, migration