Abstract
Abstract : This dissertation examines the role of religion in the way the Somali migrant community to Johannesburg adapted to the South African post-apartheid environment. The question of adaption for Somali migrants to South Africa is looked at from the perspective of their encounter of a new lived experience compared to that which they lived in Somalia and they transformed to adjust to this. An analysis of the uncertainty of migration is undertaken. This analysis investigates the effect of migrating to a South Africa some of whose citizens show hostility to immigrants through xenophobic violence. The study examined the validity of the notion that gaining resources is the main priority in shaping local identity and viability (Erikson, cited in Stevens 2008). It further shows how Somalian religious identity and expression has been re-shaped by its encounter with other local and more established Muslim religious tendencies. The study sought to investigate the role dominant Somali Somalian expressions of Islam played in influencing Somali Islam in South Africa (transnationalism) and its intersection with the more established South African Islam – largely shaped by Coloured (also referred to as ‘Malay’) and Indian Muslims.
M.A. (Languages and Arts)