Inteligencias múltiples 28

The coastal region of Kenya and specifically the coastal towns of Mombasa, Lamu and Malindi did not experience the same challenges like the people in the interior. The British colonial government assimilated the Arab leaders such as the Liwali and the Qadhi into colonial administration. In 1908, Muslims sought representation in the legislative council because Indians had been promised representation in the legislative Council.

The Commissioner of East African British protectorate Sir James Hayes Sadler agreed to grant Indians two seats in the legislative council. In 1909, an Indian representative called Allibhai Mulle Jeevanjee was nominated to the Legislative Council. The liwali of Mombasa Ali Bin Salim mobilized Arabs to demand representation in the Legislative Assembly. In 1912, Ali bin Salim was nominated to the legislative Assembly to represent Arabs and Muslims. In 1924, the Coastal Arab Association, CAA demanded appointment of Muslisms to the executive council. The CAA was led by Rashid b.Soud and Ali Haider Matano.

The leadership of the CAA demanded that African Muslims in the coastal region too deserved a representative in the Legislative Council. The colonial administration felt threatened by the activities of CAA and organized to dismantle it and indeed in 1924 the association collapsed. Thus by the 1920‟s and 1930‟s, a number of Muslim aristocratic families had began identifying with British administration so as to preserve their privileged status. The British colonial administrators gave special privileges to Arabs and marginalised Africans at the coast. The Arabs were more privileged than the black Africans. They were therefore used to implement colonial policies in the coastal region (Nzouvi, 2010, pp. 6-7).

Justin Willis has also noted that from the early years of British rule, land was an issue that produced stiff resistance against European colonialism in Kenya, however in the ten mile coastal strip of Kenya, Arabs owned land both on lease hold and free hold basis. This was because the British colonial administration recognized that the Arabs were the

owners of the ten mile coastal strip at the coast and that the British only administered it on behalf of the sultan of Zanzibar (Willis, 2013, pp. 48-71).

The British colonial government used carrot and stick strategy in dealing with Arabs and Swahili in coastal Kenya. In the political sphere, the British colonial government strategically gave Arab leaders opportunities in the administration and the Swahili were not given similar privileges. The same British colonial government undermined the traditional higher Islamic education that gave identity to Arab aristocracy.

4.7. Summary

This chapter has discussed how the Lamu Riyaadhi Mosque College and the Mazrui Mosque, Mombasa provided traditional higher Islamic education in Coastal Kenya. The curriculum taught in the two Colleges has been highlighted. The role of the Alawi brotherhood in the growth of traditional hiher Islamic education was examined. Lastly, the role of British Colonialism in the decline of traditional higher Islamic education was explored. A lot of emphasis was on the colonial economy, Western education and the colonial court system in causing gradual decline of traditional higher Islaamic education.

The impact of colonialism on higher Muslim education was manifested in the structural patterns of social and political roles and authority in coastal Kenya. The ultimate goal of a graduate student who attended Muslim educational system of education was to join the ulama class. This was an intellectual social and political class. This class was defined by the ability of its members to make informed choices and provide leadership on moral, legal, political and social issues that threatened or affected the Muslim community. It was

from this community of scholars that occupants of powerful offices like the Kadhi and chief kadhi were drawn. The sultan of Zanzibar also drew local administrators from this class. The mosques and religious organizations also drew imams and teachers from this class.

This is to argue that prior to 1939; Muslim education legitimized social classes at the coast and was a tool of social mobility from one class to the other. After the Second World War, the British colonial education system had successfully replaced Muslim education as the official and legal instrument of social mobility. For one to be a Kadhi, he had to possess Muslim educational qualifications but also had to have attained a considerable training in formal western education. The Muslim legal system or sharia was confined to religious and personal issues affecting Muslims, but Muslims in coastal Kenya like other Kenyans were bound by the secular colonial laws introduced by the British. Muslim education was suffocated by European imperialism and gradually had to give way to modern western education (Nimtz, 1982,pp. 16-19).

Indeed the coming of British colonialism eroded the epistemological prestige of Muslim culture, Arabic literacy and it led to the decline of Qadhi courts. The members of the Muslim community had freedom to seek litigation outside the Qadhi courts and they also had the freedom to seek secular education in colonial education institutions so as to access employment. This resulted into a gradual decline of Islamic knowledge economy and the Muslim elite who were productive members of this economy also declined. British colonialism also restructured the coastal society‟s imagery in the sense that prior to colonialism it was widely held that being Arab was being knowledgeable and cultured.

In the colonial era being European was being knowledgeable and cultured. This imagery set in motion a gradual process of decline of traditional higher Islamic education (Mathews, 2013, p.156).

The Islamic theory of education is relevant in the study of development of traditional higher Islamic education because, this theory gives prominence to revealed knowledge as the foundation of education. In colonial Kenya, the British colonialists did emphasize rational subjects while religion was to modify the character and morality of the student. The chapter examined educational institutions that offered Islamic education using the conceptual framework of theory of Islamic education and how these institutions survived parallel to the missionary and colonial educational institutions.

CHAPTER FIVE

5.0 TRANSFORMATION OF TRADITIONAL HIGHER ISLAMIC EDUCATION