North African Mosaic

North African Mosaic is a significant landmark in the field of North African studies in the United States. In the past couple of decades, that field has primarily reflected the research and works of scholars in Near East or Islamic studies. It is therefore very satisfying to welcome the publication in the English language of a serious compilation of scholarly essays on North Africa which departs from such a monolithic perspective. The book offers an array of superbly informative essays...
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North African Mosaic is a significant landmark in the field of North African studies in the United States. In the past couple of decades, that field has primarily reflected the research and works of scholars in Near East or Islamic studies. It is therefore very satisfying to welcome the publication in the English language of a serious compilation of scholarly essays on North Africa which departs from such a monolithic perspective. The book offers an array of superbly informative essays on a variety of ethnic groups and issues, encompassing Amazigh (Berber) history, Amazigh arts, contemporary views on Amazigh identity and cultural survival, and a remarkable chapter on the peoples of the Western Sahara. Together, the depicted ethnic "minorities," Amazigh for the most part but not exclusively, constitute a majority of voices which have unfortunately often been overlooked in American universities and whose history and culture may no longer be ignored. North African Mosaic breaks stereotypes and the Arabo-Islamic lock on North African studies in America. The result is a rich panoply of a little known contemporary North Africa. The perspective it offers its readers is not only refreshing, but undoubtedly more genuine in regards to the rich history and reality of a region which has not until now been examined in all of its diversity and effectively rooted in its African context. Helene E. Hagan, Anthropologist, Tazzla Institute for Cultural Diversity- Director In North African Mosaic, we have a group of innovative junior and senior scholars whose multidisciplinary approaches provide a diversity of subtle and complex interpretations of what it means to be an ethnic minority in a majority Arab-Muslim context. The conceptual and empirical landscapes covered are far reaching and intellectually bold. Whether covering schooling for modern Coptic subjectivity in nineteenth century Egypt or Berbers in medieval Al-Andalus or Amazigh painters in Morocco and Algeria, the authors to this impressive and original volume share a common humanistic vision that respects, indeed celebrates, differences whether in language, religion or ethnicity. Despite what otherwise poorly informed observers of North Africa may believe, the Maghreb is an incredibly diverse region, rich in cultural, religious, and ethnic traditions that neither colonialism nor the postcolonial project could marginalize or eradicate. The timing for such a scholarly endeavor could not be more propitious. As these distinguished authors so ably demonstrate, the multicultural, multiethnic, and multi-religious diversity that is the contemporary Maghreb is alive with accomplishment and promise that gives cautions optimism of a more enlightened future in an otherwise suffocating political landscape. This then is a timely, important, and engaging volume whose different authors, through their vast knowledge derived from direct field experience in the region, provide deep insight and analytical rigor on the subject of ethnic pluralism that has for too long been ignored, misrepresented, or vilified. From the Foreword by John P. Entelis