African Muslim Communities in Diaspora: The Quest for a Muslim Space in Ken Bugul's "Le baobab fou"

The essay explores the Islamic dimension of the novel "Le baobab fou (The Abandoned Baobab)" by the Senegalese author Ken Bugul to demonstrate that the identity crisis felt by the protagonist Ken in the novel is not only of an African but that of an African Muslim in particular and that this psychological alienation of Muslims provoked by colonialism did not end with colonialism but continues even today as seen in Ken's experiences in Belgium in a capitalistic and neocolonial environment. The analysis explores whether Ken as an African Muslim is allowed to create a truly multicultural space where her cultural and spiritual differences are not suppressed but allowed to co-exist through negotiation and dialogue. To this end, Ken's experiences as a post-colonial subject assume a particular dimension: that of an African Muslim first alienated by false ideologies learned in the French colonial school and later by systems such as capitalism.