Islamic Thought in Africa

This is the first English translation of and commentary on the collected poems of Alhaj Yusuf Ali Ajura (1910–2004), a northern Ghanaian orthodox Islamic scholar, poet, and polemicist known as Afa Ajura, or «scholar from Ejura». The poems, all handwritten in Arabic script, mainly in the Ghanaian language of Dagbani and also Arabic, explore the author’s socio-religious beliefs. In the accompanying introduction, the translator examines the diverse themes of the poems and how they challenge Tijaniyyah Sufi clerics and traditional practices such as idol worship.

Alhaj Yusuf ali Ajura (1910–2004) was an orthodox Islamic scholar, poet, and polemicist from northern Ghana. Zakyi Ibrahim is professor and chair of the Religious Studies Department at California State University, Fullerton