An old colleague Magloire Somé and I agreed to meet for dinner, after a panel he was on for the American Political Science Association “study tour”of Burkina Faso…. so I went to the panel. It looked like it might be pretty boring at the beginning, but Magloire, true to form, launched a provocation that got everyone talking. His historian colleague Isa Cissé brought up what he called a “fusillade” at the mosque of Dassasgho after some incidents at the mosque of Zanghoettin in February-April 1995. I vaguely recall this, though of course we are talking pre-Internet here so searches do not come up with much. I wonder why, and whether, this incident really is a touchstone for the Muslim community in Burkina?

What looks like a very good source is this MS thesis from Laval: Frédérick Madore “Islam, Politique Et Sphère Publique À Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) : Différentes cohortes d’imams et de prêcheurs entre visibilité nouvelle et reconfiguration des rapports intergénérationnels (1960-2012).”

Magloire and I over dinner wondered whether there are good examples of intra-Christian sectarian violence in Africa… I guess Lords Resistance Army was one, though they targeted the state, I think, and not really other Christian groups, though I may be wrong especially in their early days.