Templeton Religion Trust
What if African Christians and Muslims collaborated beyond their differences?
What if knowing more about the Islamic tradition of pacifism could combat jihadism’s growth?
What if religions throughout the world worked more cooperatively for social transformation?
It’s a visually arresting graphic …. and so much more.
The logo of The Sanneh Institute is a stylized depiction of two conjoined crocodiles. It’s one of hundreds of centuries-old symbols known as adinkra that persist in modern-day Ghana. Launched in 2018 and housed at the University of Ghana, the Sanneh Institute is a Christian-led academic venture committed to interfaith and interdisciplinary research. It chose its logo because of the message it conveys about cooperation, democracy, and unity in diversity.
“Our logo is Siamese crocodiles joined at the stomach. They share one stomach, yet they fight over food. The symbol represents the two dominant religious traditions in Africa — Islam and Christianity — and the potential for conflict and the power of collaboration between the two faith communities for the common good of African society,” explains John Azumah, Ph.D., the Institute’s founding executive director. “These powerful reptiles also stand for the power and influence of religion in Africa — its potential for good and for evil in the event of conflict. The main import of the logo is a call for constructive engagement and collaboration between different faith communities for the common good.”
With that intent at the forefront, in June 2022, The Sanneh Institute launched a three-year research project. Funded by Templeton Religion Trust, it has targeted four main outputs:
Twelve West African scholars — Muslims and Christians — have been awarded grants to research various aspects of the pacifist tradition in Islam. Two papers have been commissioned to be undertaken jointly by Muslim and Christian scholars.
Beyond detailed and rigorous scholarship, this project has a grand-scale goal: to move religious tolerance in West Africa from peaceful co-existence to constructive engagement between its different religious communities.
“Scholarship must not just be done for the sake of it. Our vision is about what we call offering scholarship as a tribute to God for the transformation of African society,” Azumah states.
Spurring the project was the surprising discovery that, despite the pacifist tradition being a very strong part of the Islamic story in West Africa, younger generations don’t know much about it. Especially since the 1990s, there’s been a disproportionate focus on militant jihadism in textbooks and popular culture. That has resulted in a knowledge void that Azumah describes as “a recipe for conflict.”
Scholarship plays a crucial role in bridging the gap between different religious narratives and promoting understanding and options for younger generations, he says.
“A lot of the conflicts that we’ve had in Africa – in Nigeria, for instance — normally started from university campuses. If we can get the up-and-coming generation to understand the history of Islam beyond the jihadi face of it, then people will realize that we have options. We have choices to make. It shouldn’t just be about tolerating one another or coexisting peacefully, but it should be more than that. It should be about striving together as communities, developing our societies together, and seeing how our societies can flourish together.”
West Africa has a long history of Muslims and Christians living together. The researchers aim to build on this connectedness to foster a new narrative of social transformation.
“This region has so much to offer to the rest of Africa if we are able to leverage this kind of connectedness that people have on the ground and link it up to research questions that will really bring about a new narrative that will foster constructive engagement,” Azumah states. “That’s what we are seeking to achieve with this research project.”
And in a world marked by polarization, much of it religion-based, its impact might exceed the boundaries of Africa’s vast continent. With Christians and Muslims in Sub-Saharan Africa constituting more than 90% of the region’s population, it may well be the world’s most important theatre for exploring engagement between the world’s most dominant religions.
