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Examines the emergence and development of Islamic spaces in contemporary Africa that are responding to the continent's increasingly global character.
List of contents
Preface: Framing the Masjid in Contemporary Islamic Africa; Introduction: 'A Place of Prostration': The Concept of Masjid in Contemporary Africa; 1. Spaces Both Radical and Revolutionary: The Intersectional Masjid; 2. Monument, Memory, and Remembrance: Rethinking the Masjid Through Contemporary Heritage Regimes; 3. 'All the Earth is a Mosque': The Masjid as Environmental Advocate; 4. Masjids on the Move: Mobility and the Growth of 'Portable' Islamic Space; Conclusion: Looking to the Future: The Masjid as a Space on the Edge.
About the author
Michelle Apotsos is Associate Professor in African Art History at Williams College, where she specialises in Afro-Islamic architectural sites and landscapes. She is the author of Architecture, Islam, and Identity in West Africa: Lessons from Larabanga (2016) and has published in various journals including African Arts, the International Journal of Islamic Architecture, and Material Culture Review. She is a member of the African Studies Association, the Arts Council of the African Studies Association, the Society of Architectural Historians and the Global Architectural History Teaching Collaborative based at MIT.
Summary
Through the lens of the masjid, Michelle Apotsos examines alternative spaces and architectural landscapes of Islamic practice in contemporary Africa that highlight the unique solutions that Muslim communities are adopting in order to confront contemporary modernization and the new diverse conditions it brings.
