The shifting world of South African madrasahs, 1973-2008

Abstract

This essay seeks to unearth the historical development of madrasah education in South Africa from 1973 to 2008. It identifies transformations that have taken place in the madrasah education landscape in the last thirty to forty years. This work may be seen as largely an exercise in contemporary historical excavation. In addition to determining whether the transformations have changed or sustained the central function of madrasahs as spaces for religious socialization and sectarian identity formation, the essay is an attempt to underline the link between these changes and the broader shifts and developments that have taken place in Muslim communities and the country. The conclusion suggests that while major transformations have taken place at South African madrasahs, the changes - in a broader sense - still fall very much within the central function of madrasahs historically and globally. There has been no radical shift, or even a conception thereof, beyond often sectarian religious orthodoxy.