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Gott und Magie im Swahili-Islam: Zur Transformation Religiser Inhalte am Beispiel Von
Gottesvorstellung und Magischen Praktiken by Klaus Hock
Review by: M. A. Tolmacheva
The International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 21, No. 4 (1988), pp. 725-726
Published by: Boston University African Studies Center
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/219766 .
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 BOOK REVIEWS 725

GOTT UND MAGIE IM SWAHILI-ISLAM: ZUR TRANSFORMATION

RELIGI6SER INHALTE AM BEISPIEL VON GOTTESVOR-
STELLUNG UND MAGISCHEN PRAKTIKEN. By Klaus Hock. Kolner
Ver6ffentlichungen zur Religionsgeschichte 12. Cologne, Vienna: B6hlau
Verlag, 1987.Pp. vii, 214. DM 48, paper.

This modest book grew out of the author's 1981 master's thesis at the Ludwig
Maximilian University in Munich. Even in these days of active interest in
Swahili history and culture it stands out as a rare example of religious inquiry by
a religious specialist rather than a cultural anthropologist. The work aims to
correct the perceived "Islamic bias" in the common separation of Swahili Islam
into orthodox Muslim beliefs and African "survivals"by promoting a holistic
view of the coastal religion and arguing that, in the process of interaction, both
the African and Islamic traditions underwent dynamic transformation resulting
in a dialectical unity rather than mere syncretism. The book's two main subjects,
God and magic, were chosen as representative of, on the one hand, the dichotomy
of the two religious traditions, and on the other, of theory and practice united in
one socio-cultural system.
After the Introduction, the book falls into three uneven parts: Islam and
the Swahili Coast, God and Magic in Swahili Islam, and Aspects of Swahili Islam.
A glossary, a bibliography and a detailed English summary are provided.
The main body of the study dwells on the concept of God in African and
Islamic thought, the conception and practice of magic in Swahili society, and the
problems encountered in attempting to analyze the process of theological
transition to monotheistic belief. Hock cautions against simplistic equation of the
Supreme Being of African religions with the Muslim Allah. Looking into parallel
usages of "Mungu"and "Allah" in Swahili Islam, he suggests, in effect, that the
two terms, while often perceived as signifying the African and Muslim aspects of
the Swahili Supreme Being respectively, have both undergone transformation in
coastal Islamic thought, with the result that the Mungu of the Swahili is no less
different from the Supreme Being of the neighboring African religions than is
the Allah of Swahili Islam from the orthodox Sunnite concept. Hock considers
Western theological categories inadequate for terminological identification of the
resulting religious system, but offers no solution to the problem.
After a summary description of Swahili magic in an Islamic framework,
the author argues that the strength of magical-religious practices in a new
spiritual environment of the coast derives from a redefinition of traditional
concepts which discards the old intellectual categories without destroying the
belief itself. The ritual experts representative of Islamic (mwalimu)and African
(mganga) aspects of Swahili magic are observed to fulfill the same functions in
pursuit of classification and neutralization of evil (spirit possession is the subject
of a separate excursus).
Hock concludes that "Islam in context" avoids both dichotomy and
parallelism and fuses the two polar concepts of "god"and "magic"into a coherent
unity. Somewhat confusingly, while this dialectic is seen by Hock most clearly in
traditionalSwahili Islam, in the concluding part, where aspects of modern and
missionary Islam are discussed, the traditional form is declared moribund.
These conclusions apart, the book represents a synthesis of existing
research and is theoretically dominated by earlier studies of J. S. Trimingham and

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726 BOOK REVIEWS

I. M. Lewis. For Islamic orthodoxy, the articles in the Encyclopaediaof Islam (2nd
edition) are a major source; the American reader may benefit from a relatively
more extensive use of European publications. The African historian will be
frustrated on at least two counts. First, some major contributions of the last
decade to East African coastal history are overlooked in the historical overview
of the Islamization of the coast, leaving both the introductory survey and the
cultural-historical premise of the work to disappointingly and misleadingly echo
traditionalist Swahili historiography. Second, the author's choice of a synchronic,
rather than diachronic, approach to data may be justified if aimed at
reconstructing the most complete vision of Swahili concepts and beliefs.
However, the bringing together of data belonging a century apart (if reported,
for instance, by the early travelers and missionaries vs. contemporary field
anthropologists) obscures the process of religious adaptation and transformation,
demonstrating which had been Hock's declared ambition; instead, the reader is
offered rather a composite description of the phenomenon. The historical
summary of colonial and post-independence Islamic development in East Africa
in Part 3 is too truncated to be of much value and too far divorced from the
theological perspective to serve as a logical conclusion.

M. A. TOLMACHEVA
WashingtonState University

MEDITERRANEAN AFRICA. By Monir S. Girgis. Lanham, Maryland:

University Press of America, 1987.Pp. 338.$16.75paper.
A SAVAGE WAR OF PEACE. By Alistair Horne. Revised Edition. New York:
Penguin Books, 1987.Pp. 606. $8.95paper.
A COUNTRY WITH A GOVERNMENT AND A FLAG: THE RIF WAR IN
MOROCCO, 1921-1926.By C. R. Pennell. Wisbech, England: MENAS Press
Ltd., 1986.Pp. 274. p26.50.

Two of these three additions to the corpus of English language material on

North Africa are aimed primarily at a non-scholarly, although not necessarily a
non-academic, audience. Of the three books under review, one is a textbook
(Girgis); one is a popular account intended for the general public, including
students (Horne); and one is a scholarly monograph (Pennell). The diversity of
the readership targeted suggests a widening interest in North Africa in the
United States and the United Kingdom. Unfortunately, these three books do not
serve their readers equally well.
By far the one of greatest interest to scholars is A Country with a
Governmentand a Flag. There is no shortage of studies on the Rif War, but many
are really biographies (and sometimes hagiographies) of its most intriguing
figure, Abd al-Krim. Few probe, in any depth, political, economic, and social
developments in the Rif during this crucial period. Relying on captured
documents of the Rif government now housed in French archives, on Spanish
military intelligence reports, and on unpublished papers in the Moroccan
archives, C. R. Pennell has done precisely that. After surveying the Moroccan

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