Local Belief Systems in West Africa: An Analysis of Arabic and European Writings

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The aim of this research project is to consider the historical aspects of West African belief systems through an analysis of Arabic and European written sources. Field research was conducted in Senegal and Nigeria to gain access to the sources, especially the Arabic manuscripts. On the basis of an examination of the materials, including those found in the field research, I published a paper about the relationship between goldfields and the local belief system in the fourteenth-century Mali Empire. I have also made an oral presentation considering the relationship between Islam and the local belief system in northern Nigeria from the end of the eighteenth century to the beginning of the nineteenth century.