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Past Research
Later, after my PhD studies (Religion and Politics: A Critical Study of the Politicization of Islam in Kenya), I was involved in a research project (2009) with other two colleagues (Hassan Mwakimako, Pwani University, Kenya and Justin Willis, Durham University, UK). The research project, Trends in Kenyan Islam, explored initiatives in three areas, through which Kenyan Muslims are seeking to challenge their perceived marginalization and improve the status of the community. They included Muslim leadership, education, religious (Islam) broadcasting. The findings of this study have been published in form of a research report that was presented to the sponsor’s of the project.
Mandhry Mosque in Old Town, Mombasa, Kenya
Research Statement/Research Interest
My research interests are broadly focused on Islam in Africa, especially sub-Saharan Africa, and they revolve around Islam and politics, religious authority within the Islamic tradition, Islam and education, religion and sexuality and witchcraft among African societies.
A village in Faza Island, Kenya
Past Research: As a Postdoctoral researcher at Freie Universität Berlin (2013-2014), I worked on a research project, Mediated Sermons: Production, Women and Popular Themes of Muslim Preachers in Kenya. The study explored how Muslim women preachers in Kenya through media tools of CD/DVD and sometimes radio broadcasting programs have succeeded to make themselves and their sermons visible in the Muslim public sphere.
Recent Research:
I recently completed coordinating a one-year (2021-2022) research project Mediated and Mediatization of Islamic Knowledge in Kenya: Educational Institutions, Media Technologies and Performative Aesthetics. The project was funded by the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence, University of Bayreuth, through the African Cluster Centre (ACC) of Moi University, Kenya.
The project explored the production and transmission of Islamic knowledge as well as the religious artifacts and institutions involved in these processes in Africa, with a focus on the case study of Kenya. It analyzed the ways in which Islamic knowledge gains significance for Kenyan Muslims through various means of transmission, including established educational institutions (madrassas and Islamic-integrated schools), poetry, works of art, and various media technologies
The other members in this research project are Dr Mohammed Mraja, (Bomet University College, Kenya), Dr Halkano Wario (Egerton University, Kenya), Dr. Suleiman Chembea (Bomet University College, Kenya).
In this project, I (Hassan Ndzovu) examined the competing madrassa (religious schools) and Islamic-integrated schools (semi-secular or semi-religious) in the production and transmission of Islamic knowledge, focusing on the standardization and consistency in curriculum delivery in the two systems of education. Mraja analyzed on Islamic radio based fatawa treatise drawn from question and answers programmes as well as mapping the impact such programmes have had on knowledge transmission and religious authority in Kenya. Wario on the other hand documented religiously themed materialities of counter-radicalization campaigns in Kenya. And lastly, Chembea explored on the shifting dynamics of spiritual poems and dances in the mediation and mediatization of knowledge and religious economy.
Swafa Integrated School in Lamu, Kenya
Tahdhib Muslim Academy, Malindi, Kenya
Al-Ghania al-Islamiyah, Mambrui, Kenya
In addition, I was academic partner in the research project (2020-2022), The Sexuality and Religion Network (SERENE) in East Africa. This was a research network that sought to build sustainable partnerships between academic researchers and community-based organisations in Kenya and Uganda. The aim was to understand and enhance the role of religious leaders in the area of LGBTIQ equality and inclusion in the East African region. (see https://serene.leeds.ac.uk/partners/)
Recent Project:
From 2019 to 2022, I was a member of a research project, Toward an Islamic Cultural Archive (ICA): Building a Collaborative Database of Islamic Learning in Africa (2019-2023). This was a collaborative project that sought to build an innovative digital tool that documents Islamic learning in Africa. It is designed as a step toward establishing an Islamic Cultural Archive (ICA), which will be based on an expanding Wiki with entries on Islamic culture in Africa. We pursued this objective through individual but interconnected studies revolving around Islamic learning in Africa conducted by the team members who hailed from Germany, Tunisia, Mauritania, Senegal, and Kenya.
My contribution to this project was on, Women, Education and Mediatized Sermons: The Changing Nature of Religious Authority and Transmission of Islamic Knowledge among Kenyan Muslims.
Germany Partners:
Prof Ruediger Seesemann, University of Bayreuth
Prof Ulrich Rebstock, University of Freiburg
Dr. Franz Kogelmann, University of Bayreuth
Dr. Britta Frede, University of Bayreuth
Africa Partners:
Dr. Fatimatou Wahhab, Mauritania
Dr Mohamed Mraja, Kenya
Dr Ben Ramzi, Tunisia
Dr Abdourahmane Seck, Senegal
Prof Hassan Ndzovu, Kenya
Team members of the ICA research project
Manazilul Abrar Islamiya, a femal-only madrassa in Mambrui Kenya
Fatma Kitoto, teacher at Madrassatul Darul Hikma al Islamiah, Malindi, Kenya
Britta Frede
Dr. Musa Ibrahim
Sumaiya Mwamazandi
Islamic Popular Culture workshop, Mombasa, Kenya, September 2022
Hassan Ndzovu
Dr Mwanakombo Mohamed (posthounous)
Mohamed Ndaro
Recent Research
From 2022 to 2025, I coordinated a four years research project Islamic Popular Culture and Public Performance Practices: The Production, Transmission of Religious Knowledge and Creation of Cultural Identity in Africa. The project was funded by the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence, University of Bayreuth, through the African Cluster Centre (ACC) of Moi University, Kenya.
The project aimed to look at Islamic popular culture by examining the three public performance practices of ‘Islamic-poetry’, ‘Islamic-music’, and ‘Islamic-film video’ as practical sources for relaying religious knowledge. The three purveyors of popular culture not only support religious meanings, but also give variation in the transmission of religious knowledge, a process that has demystified the traditional textual and religious space of the mosque by embracing social halls, homes and entertainment places. Consequently, in a reflexive and relational ways, this research project sought to examine the role of gender, local languages and performative aesthetics in the production and transmission of religious knowledge and how subsequently the resultant popular culture creates cultural identity and sense of belonging among Muslims in Kenya, Zanzibar, Senegal and Morocco.
The other members in this research project were Dr Britta Frede (University of Bayreuth, Germany), Dr Musa Ibrahim (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana), Dr. Suleiman Chembea (Bomet University, Kenya), Dr Mwanakombo Mohamed (posthumous).
The project also integrated two PhD candidates who added an analytical focus to the project by studying a specific topic pertaining to Islamic popular culture and public performances as manifested in the dynamic context of contemporary Africa. The two PhD candidates were: Sumaiya Yunus Mwamzandi affiliated in the Department of Kiswahili Studies and Mohamed M. Ndaro affiliated in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies
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