Social Revolutions in Africa

(A case study of Islamic revolutions in East Africa).
In the 2nd half of the 19t1l century Africa in general and at the coast in particular was invaded by Arabs with the aim of Islam.sing East Africa people III the area, unfortunarely
these muslim rnissionanes didn 't achieve what they expected from East African people.
Why there was a Limited Spread of Islam in East Africa.
There arc a number of reasons, which worked jointly against the widespread of Islam in East Africa. These were political, social and economic as well as the nature of [slam its self. These hindrances Included:
Islamic culture:
The attributes of Islam served to demoralize any prospective converts, Islam was for example characterized by not eating pork, not taking alcohol, praying five times a day, fasting in the month of Ramadhan and above all bloody method of' circumcrsion. These were Indeed scaring customs compared to Christianity which was relatively easier to adopt.
Competition with Christianity
If Islamic had taken firm roots in east Africa, it had to outcompete Christianity and this wasn’t an easy thing to achieve especially compared to Christianity which had superior
Evangelization tactics like.
Use of gifts:
To gain sympathy of African chiefs and also receive blessing to carry on their evangelist
mission, the European mission bribed African leaders.with material goods such as beads, rosaries, clothes, spices etc. Unfortunately the Arab Muslim missionaries lacked such incentives neither did they have any thing to offer to their potential converts. This was in
sharp contrast with Christian missionaries who could bribe their converts with very many
European products.
Lack of Islamic missionaries; compared to Christian missionaries. Muslim missionaries in East Africa were few in number and even the few who were available were not committed
to the spread of Islam.
Concentration at the coast
Worse still a few committed Muslim missionaries only operated at the coast of east Africa leaving the interior of East Africa unattended to. It' s in light of this that Islam took strong routes at the coast of East Africa than the interior areas.
Concentration of trade:
The other negative aspect was that even the few committed Muslim missionaries were involved in the East African coastal trade that reduced their concentration. On top of this, some even abandoned the Islamic missionary activities and concentrated on profitable trade of long distance trade in East Africa. The Arab involvement in this trade is so clear to very many Afncan historians as for example at one time Seyyid Saidi had this to say;
" Am nothing but a merchant prince".
This was a reply he gave to the concerned Muslims when they asked him about his role as an Islamic missionary.
Association with slave trade;
They were very much associated with the slave trade, which degraded Afncans very much. The natives held the Arabs responsible for the horrors caused by slave trade In East Africa. For this matter East African people acquired a natural hatred for anything that was Arabic. Indeed, the Arabs had been instrumental in this inhuman exercise and therefore they had to squarely face the consequences.
Competition with African traditional religion;
It should be noted that there was no religious vaccum in Africa. In most of the pre-colonial societies Africans had their own traditional religions, for example, the Baganda had Lubaale, the Nyamwezi respected the Mterniship divine powers. Similar cases were common in other East African societies. Islam could not easily erode it For this matter it remained a very big stumbling block in the spread of Islamic religion.
9) Lack of domestic support
It's unfortunate that even the Muslim missionaries didn't receive support from Arabia their home country. The lack of political and financial backing limited the spread of Islamic religion in East Africa. Some scholars are of the view that probably because unlike many European countries which were colonismg powers who therefore supported Christian missionaries in East for the purpose of laying a foundation for the future colonization of Afncan continent, Arabia was not a colonizing power and therefore had less interest in the spread of Islam.
10) Language problem;
Being Arabic by origin, the Islamic religion was strictly taught in Arabic language. It was therefore hard to internalize the norms, customs and behaviours of Islam religion in parts of East Africa. Even those who had been Islamised did not know how to read and write Arabic language which greatly scared the interested converts. Meanwhile, there were Christian missionaries who bothered to spread Christianity as far as possible in local languages and teaching East Africans who could read and write hence making the spread of Islam completely outcompeted.