The rise of Salafism across Africa is not a religious revival but a structural outcome of Africa’s incomplete state formation. Where postcolonial states failed to educate, protect, and command moral authority, Gulf-sponsored Salafism filled the vacuum, turning aid into institutions and theology into power.
This wave rose within the global upheaval of 1979, which marked a rupture in the world order. The Iranian Revolution made Islam a governing language of legitimacy. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan weaponised faith for insurgency.
