Happy Eid al-Fitr! Yesterday was the Muslim festival that ends the month-long fasting of Ramadan, in which the faithful abstain from eating, smoking, having sex - basically anything that would be considered fun - between sunrise and sunset.
This was especially visible here in Accra. A large number of Ghanaians practice Islam (especially in the North, in which about half the population is Muslim), so much so that it is a public holiday in Ghana. Not bad considering yesterday was Coronation, so two parties from two religions in two days!
The day begins with morning prayers at the mosque and later with celebration, although most Muslims are too tired and hungry to party by then. Joe and Amanda dressed up in full garb (including hijab) and went to mosque to meet up with a friend.
As you may or may not recall, I'm currently taking elementary Arabic. A considerable number of classmates are Muslims and so is our TA/prof, Abass. He invited the entire class to his house to celebrate Eid with his family in the afternoon.
Funny enough, the only two students who took him up on his offer were myself and Britney - the only two international students! Boy will the other students be sorry about that, because we had the best cultural experience so far here in Ghana that day.
We took a tro-tro to Ashaiman, which is North of Tema, the industrial and processing centre of Ghana, right next to Accra. We were picked up at the station by his brother, who was known as "Chief", since he happened to be the chief of Zongo, a district of about 9,000 people.
Zongo, more accurately, is a slum. The housing is basic, the roads are terrible and the sewage is pretty hard to ignore. There aren't any real social or public services (most of their money goes to Tema, so they give more to the city than they receive), save for what comes through Muslim charities from the Middle East, so life in general isn't too peachy.
Despite this, Chief told me that Ashaiman is like a United Nations, because people from all over Africa live there. It's a main transit route and he believes that there are about 500,000 people there - twice the official estimates.
Abass' compound (he lives with his brothers, their wives and their children) was quite modest. Despite his being a lecturer and his brother being a chief, there's not much money around, yet we were treated so graciously by his family! The ladies attended to us and asked about school, life in North America, how women act and dress back home. Then Abbas and Chief took us for a tour of the area. We met many important people in the town and ended up sitting in on a feast/political meeting of the opposition party (boy were we suprised). We met the key party workers and even their Member of Parliament.
However, the best moment was when we visited the Imam of Ashaiman (its spiritual leader, the Muslim equivalent of a bishop). He invited us into his home, gave us his blessings said a special prayer for us. While I'm no Muslim, I certainly felt very privileged to be part of such a solemn moment.
As the sun went down, we returned to Abass' house, where we were fed very well again. We said our goodbyes and were given a ride back to Accra. We vowed to come back again before Britney leaves in December and the women agreed to tattoo some traditional Muslim henna patterns on her hands and feet. How is that for Muslim hospitality?
That's all for now. Ma'a salaam!
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