This gallery focuses on the writings of al-ḥājj 'Umar ibn Abī Bakri of Kete-Krachi (d.1934), a West African Muslim scholar who lived through European conquests and imposition of colonial rule in the middle Volta River basin (today's Ghana). Al-ḥājj 'Umar, the preeminent Muslim scholar of his era, wrote works in Arabic and Hausa that commented on the arrival of Europeans and discussed Muslims who negotiated new positions in the colonial era.

Al-ḥājj 'Umar was a Sufi Muslim, a participant in a mystical tradition that he adopted during his life. This introduction provides an overview of Muslims in the middle Volta basin, discusses developments in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century that informed al-ḥājj 'Umar's writings, and offers a brief biography.