Includes bibliographical references (p. 313-318) and index.

Contents:-Introduction : Islam(s) in African literature / Kenneth W. Harrow -- An historical context for the study of Islam in Eastern Afri ca / Jay Spaulding -- Islam and secularity in Swahili literature / Ibra him N. Shariff -- Language, poetry, and power : a reconsideration of "& 2Utendi wa Mwana Kupona&1" / Ann Biersteker -- Of poets and sheikhs : S omali literature / Ali J. Ahmed -- The two-sided image of women in &2S eason of Migration to the North&1 / Sonia Ghattas-Soliman -- An approac h to Islam in West African history / David Robinson -- Can a single foo t follow two paths? Islamic and Songhay belief systems in the Timbuktu Chronicles and the epic of Askia Mohammed / Thomas A. Hale -- Amadou Ha mpate Ba and the Islamic dimension of West African oral literature / Ga briel Asfar -- &2Kaidara&1 : Islam and traditional religion in a West A frican narrative of initiation / Denise Asfar -- Islam in Senegalese li terature and film / Mbye B. Cham -- Women, tradition, and religion in S embene Ousmane's work / Edris Makward -- Mouridism in Senegalese fictio n / Debra Boyd-Buggs -- The image of Islam in selected tales of Birago Diop / I.C. Tcheho -- Islamic elements in Camara Laye's &2L'Enfant noir &1 / Eric Sellin -- Crescent and consciousness : Islamic orthodoxies an d the West African novel / Lemuel A. Johnson -- Camara Laye, Cheikh Ham idou Kane, and Tayeb Salib [sic] : three Sufi authors / Kenneth W. Harr ow -- Through a prism darkly : "Orientalism" in European-language Afric an writing / George Lang.