De l’école coranique à l’école de la République, enjeux d’une cohabitation à Mayotte

Abstract

In Mayotte, a French department of the Comorian geographical and cultural space, the population is more than 95% Muslim. Multicultural and multilingual, the island sees the coexistence of several languages (local, official, and liturgical) which cut across three complementary social universes: private interactions, secular school, and koranic school. Today, the socio-political history of Mayotte makes it a society under European influence with a two-speed globalization that doesn’t affect families in the same way, according to their migratory trajectory and their socio-cultural heritage. These upheavals are crystallized in particular around the place and the role of koranic education in a society which sees secular and republican school compete with the rhythms traditionally devolved to the shioni, the traditional koranic schools. From ethnographic surveys on the frequentation of the shioni, we’ll show how the confrontation between these principles of “living together”, derived from Islam, and the imperative of secularism, tends to destabilize the secular social order.

Keywords

• Islam
• school
• koranic school
• language
• Mayotte