o - Aceh Books website

550 MOSSI
exposes individuals to the advantages Islam offers in terms of protection and aid
from co-religionists of whatever ethnicity, while traditionalists lack a universal
link to non-Voltaics. Second, not all Mossi immigrants have gone to laboring
jobs. There are well-established Mossi trading communities in Ghanaian cities.
One study found that second- and third-generation Mossi in Kumasi, Ghana,
were increasingly assimilated into the Muslim Hausa-dominated zongo (stranger's
quarter) and knew very little of Mossi culture or even the language, although
they retained ethnic identity as Mossi in their own as well as others' eyes (see
Hausa).
The impact of Islam on Mossi society and culture is considerable. Mossi
Muslims are, however, enough of a minority and a historical and cultural novelty
that they are conscious of being part of a non-Muslim whole. West African Islam
in the savanna belt is known for embracing a continuum of believers ranging
from urban Quranic scholars of great orthodoxy to rural farmers repeating prayers
by rote alongside traditional shrines. But whereas a Hausa farmer, say, in Nigeria
is part of a self-consciously Muslim society with institutional supports, a Mossi
Muslim must rely on his own values and commitments to "Islamize" his daily
life. The continuing incorporation of Mossi and Upper Volta into regional and
world economic and political systems favors universalistic religions, and Islam
offers Mossi many advantages. Both Christianity and Islam are expanding at the
expense of traditional religion, but Islam has the greater momentum.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
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Fage, J. D. "Reflections on the Early History of the Mossi-Dagomba Group of States."
In The Historian in Tropical Africa, edited by J. Vansina, R. Mauny, and L. V.
Thomas. London: International African Institute, 1964.
Finnegan, Gregory A. "Employment Opportunity and Migration Among Mossi of Upper
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