The Department of Philosophy will be conducting on-campus interviews for potential candidates for a dinstinguished professor position within the Religion and Cultural Studies program. Part of the on-campus interview process will have candidates giving a research presentation that is open to students to attend and provide feedback to the department. Please join us for the research presentation of Dr. Jeffry Halverson, titled "Embodying the Mahdi: Islamic Messianism and the Body in Modern Senegal."
Abstract:
This presentation explores the case of a Muslim messianic movement that emerged among the Lebou people of Cap-Vert in French-ruled West Africa during the 19th century. Known as the Layene Brotherhood (La Confrérie Layenne), its adherents hail Libasse Thiaw (d. 1909), better known as Mouhammadou Limamou Laye, as the awaited Mahdi ("Guided One") of Sunni Islam, and his eldest son, ‘Issa, as the second coming of Jesus Christ, fulfilling (in their view) a tradition laid out in the Sunni books of Hadith that the Mahdi and the returned ‘Issa al-Masih would exist on Earth together. Most distinctively, the Layene believe that Limamou Laye—in his role as the awaited Mahdi—was the reincarnation of the Prophet Muhammad. Indeed, the Layene believe that Limamou Laye was the black African embodiment of Muhammad’s soul, returning to the world as a fulfillment of prophecy. The same claim was extended to Limamou’s son and successor, ‘Issa Thiaw, as the black African embodiment of Jesus’ soul—the second coming of Christ. Thus, uniquely, the human body becomes a transitory vessel for the return of the souls of two great prophets in Islam. This core Layene belief is a special form of metempsychosis and one at odds with the historical tradition of Sunni Islam on multiple points, yet it is hardly uncommon in indigenous West African religious traditions. The distinctive historical and cultural context of French West Africa therefore presents us with a unique religious amalgamation and lived expression of modern Islam, as well as a distinctive approach to tajdid or religious renewal in the colonial era.