There's no denying it, these bloggers are bound to make you jealous. Whether it's their guts, their energy or their tan you admire, overseas volunteers have got plenty to share with you about their remarkable work in fascinating countries. Read on to find out what you could be missing.

All | Ashley | Natalie | David | Sheila | Jonathan | James | Abi | Fiona | Community_Action_International | Project Mongolia | Sarah | Emily | Dana | Selina | Lucy | Hannah | Sally | Lucille

« Change is in the air | Main | A New Stranger! »

Monday Sep 21, 2009

Religion

In the taxi journey on the way to Tamale where I lived, it was written on the rear windscreen, ‘Remember God’.  The shop names in Tamale, were faith based praise more often than not for example, ‘Christ the lord clothes’. Religious practices are public and affect every aspect of life. You constantly see people praying with their heads to the ground, the mosques it Tamale are as common as Starbucks and McDonalds are in England.  The way of communicating is always linked to God, ‘how are you, Thank God good’ .Tamale is 70% Muslim, 30% Christian, the different religions communities I was told co-exist really peacefully.

Christian missionaries’ impact from colonisation until today can be felt in Ghana. The NGO I worked in was founded by a female Christian missionary from America.  The director of the NGO was born in a small poor rural village and a male missionary picked him out of all the children who didn’t go to school, to get an education and changed his life completely.

We visited a Muslim rural community and the people told us the village had resisted education when an American volunteer came and wanted to build a school. They didn’t want a school, as they linked schools with Christian missionaries and did not want to convert.  Religion is in Ghana’s history and present and is intertwined with many of the issues of development. Power, wealth, education and religion are often inseparable.

Traditional beliefs are often still held at the same time someone is Christian or Muslim beliefs which I found really interesting.  Witchcraft here is a common belief, many believe a woman giving her opinion three time shows she is a witch. I definitely know a lot of witches if this is the case! It was interesting to me to see the different ways Christianity and Islam were practiced here compared to what I’m used to in England. It makes you realise how religious tradition is greatly affected by culture.

Visiting ‘Paga Crocodile Park’ , the guide explained the crocodiles are friends with the villagers so don’t eat people. We saw and touched them, which apparently is a compliment as they only come out the water for honest, God fearing people. The guide was told me how they didn’t come out for a group of Ghanaian politician.

The majority of the Ghanaians I met were very religious people. One of my NGO workers fasts every Wednesday to ask God to improve his fortune. I wonder how the individual benefits from faith in a place where there is so little you can count on. Religion is  a key part of life and to be honest I was a bit jealous, I wish I could have the complete faith so many had. I was envious of their worldview in some ways.

Religion and community are extremely interlinked. The church or mosque is the central part of the community. The religious leaders often lead the community in every sense in their public and personal life with a great deal of power over the individuals in the community. The religious groups are the only real groups that can fundraise in Ghana. Religious leaders have so much power over their community even in the poorest of communities they can gather funds. It’s quite scary to me, the power many community leaders hold. My friend who went to church was shocked by the religious leaders openly sating I want to retire in wealth, give me your money and everyone like robots just gave it.

Religion was also a big part of my trip, ‘Tzedek’, the charity I went with is a Jewish organisation, which is motivated by Jewish values to do social action. The group was made up of sixteen British Jews and we discussed how Jewish texts and values give us an obligation to try to combat social injustice.It was interesting how people often only associated Jews with the biblical tribe ,as in Tamale everyone has a tribe, it amused us how people would say 'oh yes you are the hebrew tribe',

Religion , as I experienced it in Tamale, a force for positive social change and in my view, a force for oppressive social conservatism. Religion was liberating and subjugating to the individual. The really interesting question is what religion is and what is culture? How do you separate the two?

Posted by Lucille ( 1:53 PM )
Link to this post Comments[0]