Review of Terje Østebø, Localising Salafism: ReligiousChange among Oromo Muslims in Bale, EthiopiaIslam in Africa. Leiden: Brill, 2012. xxvi + 380 pp. ISBN 978 9004 18478 7

Samson A. Bezabeh

# Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2012

Keywords Ethiopia . Salifism . Islamic identity . Oromo . African Islam

Compared to other fields of study, the number of books on Islam in Ethiopia is quitelimited. To date there are only a handful of books and monographs that take Islam astheir main topic in Ethiopian studies. In view of this, Terje Østebo’s book is awelcomed addition to the small literature on Ethiopia’s Islam. In his book, Østeboaims to understand ‘Salafism in its particularity.’ He also aims to apply a localizedapproach to religious change that also takes into account human agency. Having thisaim, Østebo therefore studies the localization of Salafism in southern Ethiopia byfocusing on agents of change. His aim, however, is not limited to giving a localizedperceptive. Well aware of the relation that localities have with the extra local, Østeboalso aims to understand the relation localities have with the ‘outside world.’ He tellsus that ‘this study sees localities as interacting and layers of context as intersected.The work thus seek to demonstrate how different localities have influenced each otherin dialectic process and how they have been shaped by each other’ (p.3). QuotingJean and John Comaroff (1992, Ethnography and the Historical Imagination, 1992,Boulder,Westview Press). he tells us that localities are located in an historicalembrace.

In his book Østebo discusses the localization of Salafism in ten chapters. The firstchapter introduces the objective and location of his study. The second chapter discussesvarious theoretical positions regarding religious change. Based on studies which arealready undertaken, the third chapter relates to the reader the history of Islam insoutheast Ethiopia. Chapter four outlines what Østebo referred to as traditional Oromoreligion. From chapter five onward, Østebo treats Salafism in various contexts: fascistItaly, imperial Ethiopia, the Derg period and the current EPRDF period.

Cont IslamDOI 10.1007/s11562-012-0234-7

S. A. Bezabeh (*)Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen, Fosswinckelsgt. 6, 8 floor, P B 7802, 5020Bergen, Norwaye-mail: samson.bezabeh@sosantr.uib.no

In its core chapters, Østebo relates to the reader how Salafism was localized inBale and thus achieves what he has promised in the initial part of his book. He givesdetailed descriptions of events and names of agents and tries to contextualize this withregional dynamics. In these chapters he describes in particular the influence that camefrom Saudi Arabia. He also discusses the different genealogy of Salafism abroad ascompared with the local history of Salafism in Bale. Interestingly, however, Østeboremains silent about the interaction of Salafism with the Western world, particularlywhen he discusses the contemporary period. As noted above, Østebo aims to study‘localities as interacting and layers of context as intersected,’ but his understanding oflocalities is closed within an Islamic universe. As a text written post 9/11 and giventhe increased global, particularly Western, attention to Salafism, Østebo ought to haveactively discussed the role localities play beyond Islamic nations such as SaudiArabia and Pakistan. He should have taken into to account not only Salafi agentsbut also the role of Western agents.

By not doing so Østebo’s study falls into a genre of studying Islam in this region ofAfrica: a genre which aims to understand Islam without relating it to the West. In thisregard, the genealogy is long and can be seen for example in the recommendation ofWestern colonial scholars such as Charles Brosselard (Les Khouan: De la Constitu-tion des Ordres Religieux Musulmans en Algérie, Paris, Imprimerie de A. Bourget,1859, p. 3) who, over concern with Muslim activism and the perceived danger ofTariqas to the French empire, recommended a closer study of Muslims withoutrelating it to the West:

We have to implant our self in the intimate brotherhoods, by sitting in theirhomes, sitting on their assemblies and get one by one their deepest secrets.Perhaps we will succeed in explaining the undisputed power of the religiousorders and understand the truly prodigious influence they exert on the mass(reviewer’s translation).

Needless to say, Brosselard is not alone in this. Western scholars who focused onthe Horn of Africa region such as Rene Basset (‘Opinion,’ Question Diplomatique etColoniales, 1 October 1901, p. 389) and Alfred Le Chatelier (‘Politique Musulmane:Lettre a un conseiller d’Etat,’ Revue du Monde Musulman 12,(9),1910) also madesimilar recommendations or approached the study of Islam from a similar standpoint.

Although separated from the above scholars by more than a century, like themØstebo aims to interrogate the soul of Islam and look and obtain an insider perspec-tive of Islam without actively taking into account the role of the West. In Østebo’scase this has been done irrespective of his aim of seeing the relation that localitieshave with other localities. Despite the strong Western influence in a sensitive regionas the Horn of Africa, Østebo’s dialectics does not take into account the West andtherefore remains without an antithesis, i.e., a possible negativity that remainshowever important for the development of Østebo’s initial concern with the locali-zation of Salafism.

Østebo’s gaze is apparent as ‘Western’ when he outlines his reason for focusing onagents of changes. He informs us that he is focusing on agents of change not becauseof any political reason (as one might legitimately suspect in a post 9/11 environment)but because he wants to challenge the victim position of Africans. He tells us that his‘study challenges the notion of the African as merely a victim of external forces, and

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pays due attention to how locally situated actors actively carried process of change. Itbrings back the African subject as an active agent’ (p. 30). What Østebo forgets is thefact that this victim status of Africans and the idea of uplifting Africa from victim-hood serve as an undesirable discourse that is born, nurtured and used in the West bythe West to victimize the Rest. Moreover, in juxtaposing Bale (a small locality insouthern Ethiopia) with Africa Østebo compounds the problem which is alreadymade present when he desires to uplift the generic category of Africans.

In short, Østebo’s book will be an interesting read for those who want to gain aninsider perspective of Islam, particularly of how Salafism is localized in this Ethio-pian community. I would however doubt very much its usefulness for the people ofBale, to whom the book is dedicated, and Ethiopian Muslims in general. What thebook does is to record their history with an aim of informing what is inside to theoutside Others. It does not inform them comprehensively about their current situationby going out of their universe and by documenting the role of the Western Other inthe development of localized form of Salafism.

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