Interdisciplinary Fellow Group on Religious Diversity in Urban West Africa: Exploring Modes of Coexistence for Sustainable Governance (IFG 7)

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From left to right: Dr. Yunus Dumbe, Dr. Musa Ibrahim, Dr. Mariama Zaami, Dr. Nadine Sieveking, Dr. Issouf Binaté

With one of the world’s fastest urbanization rates, West Africa’s cities are constantly changing formations. Religious presence impact and are affected by their evolving urban settings in many ways; they lend their members with a sense of belonging and support, but religious differences also fuel the increasing diversification of urban areas. Religions are hence caught up with and affect the urban settings in which they take place. To reach a more nuanced understanding of these complex dynamics, our IFG asks how people of different religions encounter and coexist with one another in urban West Africa. Gathering an interdisciplinary group of senior and early-career researchers from West Africa working on religious encounters in different cities, we discuss and compare our findings. In the process, we carve out empirically grounded modes of coexistence. These modes could serve as tools for sustainable governance for a more diversifying urban areas in West Africa.

IFG 7 Fellows:

Dr. Yunus Dumbe (Co-convenor, KNUST)

Dr. Mariama Zaami (Co-convenor, University of Ghana)

Dr. Issouf Binaté (Université Alassane Ouattara)

Dr. Musa Ibrahim (KNUST)

Dr. Nadine Sieveking (University of Leipzig)