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Faith and Charity

Faith and Charity

Religion and Humanitarian Assistance in West Africa

Edited by Marie Nathalie LeBlanc and Louis Audet Gosselin

Translated by Steven Watts

Series: Anthropology, Culture and Society

An innovative perspective on the relationship between religion, civil society and development through the prism of faith-based NGOs in West Africa
Since the 1990s, most African economies and public spheres have been liberalised, and new civil society actors have emerged. As mapped out by Marie Nathalie LeBlanc and Louis Audet Gosselin, in West Africa Christian and Muslim organisations have come to dominate the field of humanitarian assistance.

Moving beyond mainstream development theory, Faith and Charity brings out the crucial role of religion in the development process and the interplay of moral and political ideologies. From faith-based NGOs to individual local activists, the authors explore how each group makes sense of, and contributes to, the wider process of social development in the neoliberal era.

Based on extensive research and deploying a sophisticated and original frame of analysis, Faith and Charity will make an important contribution to the existing literature on development anthropology and the anthropology of religion in Africa.

Marie Nathalie LeBlanc is an anthropologist and professor in the Department of Sociology at Universite du Quebec a Montreal. Her publications deal with religion and social change in Cote d'Ivoire with a special focus on youth, women and Islam.

Louis Audet Gosselin is a historian and a sociologist, based at Universite du Quebec a Montreal. His current work focuses on the NGO-isation of Christian missions.

Steven Watt holds a PhD in history from the Universite du Quebec a Montreal and has extensive experience in the community sector. He lives in St John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, where he works as a freelance translator and editor.

'In this outstanding collection, familiar debates about the depoliticising effects of charity, the marketisation of civil society, and the ambiguities of religious networks are given fresh life' - Jonathan Benthall, Honorary Resarch Fellow, Department of Anthropology, UCL, author of Islamic Charities and Islamic Humanism in Troubled Times (Manchester University Press, 2016)
Series Preface
Acknowledgements
List of Acronyms
1. Introduction: Faith, Charity and the Ethics of Volunteerism in West Africa - Marie Nathalie LeBlanc and Louis Audet Gosselin
Part I: Religion, Politics and Development: NGO-isation and Religious Influence in the Twenty-First Century
2. Reflections on the Socio-Political Roles of Islamic NGOs in West Africa: Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso - Mathias Savadogo, Muriel Gomez-Perez and Marie Nathalie LeBlanc
3. Muslim NGOs in Côte d’Ivoire: Towards an Islamic Culture of Charity - Issouf Binaté
4. Catholic NGOs in Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire: A Case Apart? - Louis Audet Gosselin and Boris Koenig
Part II: Religious Actors and the Making of NGOs
5. Precarious Agency in the Face of ‘Good Governance’: The NGO-isation of Muslim Women’s Associations in Côte d’Ivoire - Marie Nathalie LeBlanc
6. Leaders of National and Transnational Muslim NGOs in Burkina Faso: Diverse Forms and Experiences of Islamic Civic Engagement - Kathéry Couillard, Frédérick Madore and Muriel Gomez-Perez
7. Private Evangelical Assistance to Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Burkina Faso: Religious Voluntarism and the Road to Success - Louis Audet Gosselin
8. From Local to Transnational Challenges: Religious Leaders and Muslim NGOs in Burkina Faso - Mara Vitale
9. Christian Citizenship, Evangelical NGOs and the Ethics of Holistic Rehabilitation among Socially Marginalised Groups in Côte d’Ivoire - Boris Koenig
10. Conclusion - Louis Audet Gosselin and Marie Nathalie LeBlanc
Notes
Bibliography
Notes on Contributors
Index
Published by Pluto Press in Oct 2016
Hardcover ISBN: 9780745336732

135mm x 215mm