The Ahmadiyya in the Gold Coast: Muslim cosmopolitans in the British Empire by John H. Hanson (review)

Abstract

hierarchical. Chapter 4 discusses the role migration andwork played in the lives of balokole, illustrating the close relationship between migration and male identity (men, more than women, moved around and were more obviously implicated in the colonial economy). Chapters 5 and 6 remind us of the tension between the personal pietistic aspects of the movement and its more confrontational aspects. Chapter 5 focuses on the ways in which domestic lives were reconfigured around balokole identities. There is a contrasting analogy between the tidy new homes that balokole made for themselves and the ‘dirty’ homes they spoke of coming from. Chapter 6 looks at the confrontations that developed in educational institutions, as school authorities sought to discipline balokole students, while balokole students sought to reorient life in accordance with their understanding of salvation. A concluding chapter, ending with a section titled ‘Unity’, weaves together the themes of the book, presenting how others saw the balokolemovement and how the balokole saw themselves. Reading between the lines in Living Salvation, we get a sense of how much of that ‘living’ was tied to everyday practices that helped people feel that they were on their way to somewhere positive, somewhere ahead. It strikes me that central to popular experiences of Christianity in Uganda is a sense that to be a spiritual person is to be a ‘developed’ person. Balokole were interested in teachings on hygiene and personal dress and sought to mark themselves out by embracing the new. For example, we find revivalists using ‘pesticides before taking tea’. It would have been interesting for Bruner to more fully theorize the relationship between Christianity and development, particularly given his interest in the prosaic, everyday ways people chose to ‘walk in the light’. It is perhaps inevitable that his oral sources favour a somewhat positive view of the movement; a view that is also bolstered by Bruner’s concern with separating out notions of agency from dissent. We get accounts from those who have clearly valued and cherished their identities as balokole but less of those who struggled with their faith, or who fell by the wayside. It would have been interesting to learn about those moments when boundaries blurred or when religious convictions came up against more practical concerns. What did ordinary balokole do about land conflicts, where negotiations had to be made with institutions and relationships that fell outside the movement? What happened to balokole when they died (a different way of thinking about balokole bodies)? Bruner’s writing is engaging and Living Salvation offers an important addition to the literature on the East African Revival. We begin to get a sense not only of the broad contours of the movement, but also of the ways in which ‘being balokole’ found expression in everyday ways.