One peaceful family

Weekly ceremony at Presentation school, Brikama

Around 9 in the morning I see children and teachers facing one of the imams at catholic Presentation school in Brikama. Like every Friday the Muslim children and teachers of the school gather outside to pray together and listen to the imam. Some of the girls share a kala (sjawl) to cover their heads. “What does it mean when a person greets you with salaam? It means peace.  So Islam represents peace.”

On the other side of the playground, just a few steps away, I see another group of children, teachers and a sister.  This is the Christian population of the school. They surround the priest, who starts the weekly school mass with a prayer.

God must be happy

If I close my eyes I can hear both of them: talking about morals, about prophet Mohammed or Jesus as role models for a good life, singing English Christians songs, reciting Quran text in Arabic, praying to Allah / God for the wellbeing of the Gambia and other parts of the World. Once in a while I hear the word Allah, but most of the time the priest and the imam use the word God. “The peace of Jesus be with us always. Let us offer each other the sign of peace. Let us shake hands.” Haven’t I heard preaching peace before this morning?

Father Gomez smiles to me and ends the mass. “We are lucky at this school. Muslims praying to God on that side of the playground and Christians praying over here to him. God must be happy with us!”

Chat with the teachers

Chatting with some of the teachers I hear what I’ve heard many times before over the past three weeks in the Gambia.

“In the Gambia we are all related. Christians, Muslims, Bahai. Wolof, Madinka, Fulla. We talk to each other. That brings us closer.” “I’m from Nigeria, but I do not want to go back yet. I like it a lot here in the Gambia. People treat Muslims and Christians the same here. For me as a Christian it is not always that easy in Nigeria. Over here they take care of each other. They share their food, welcome you, no matter what religion you have.”

“It’s very good we have these prayers every Friday. That’s why our children have very good achievements. Even the other day they became first in a school tournament.” He’s not the first to tell me there is a direct correlation between prayer and school achievements.

Chat with the children

Teachers, principals, lecturers, taxi drivers, random by passers - many tell me it is common for Muslims and Christians to live together in the Gambia. Let’s have a chat with some of the children. In groups of four, two Muslims and two Christians, they enter the office where I seated myself.

“What did you like most this morning?” “Prayer.” “What do you like about prayer?” “You learn from prayer. It’s good for the Gambia. Then there is peace. Peace is different in the Gambia. In strange countries there is not always peace. We all talk together. We sit together. We need peace in our country.”

“If we know more rules and regulations from each other we will not insult each other. This does happen sometimes. When we are angry they insult you. They say your father is not a good Muslim or your mother is not a good Christian.”

“In the Gambia Christians and Muslims are all one. They are all friends. I am Muslim. He (points to one of the other children) is my best friend and is Christian. When I have Tobaski (offerfeest) celebration I call him. And we come together to eat.  When he has Christmas. He calls me to come. Just like we are from the same family.”

Dutch Family?

The same family… I don’t hear this that often in the Netherlands if it comes to religious and cultural diversity in our society. What do you think? How do you see this diversity? And how come we don’t see all Dutch people as one family? 

Motivated co-workers!

One of the Bush-taxi's

“Brikama, brikama, brikama” Last couple of days I hopped on one  of the overcrowded bush-taxi’s to Gambia College in Brikama. There I’m sharing an office with Metsje Krol, lecturer at Windesheim and Gambia College.  Students walk in and out of the office to inquire about their grades, to ask for a stapler and to have a chat with the 'stranger'.

My desk at the college

So I met many people, and especially three very motivated people I’m going to be working with:

Head of the College

Mme Isatou Ndow is head of the College. As she was attending a Christian school as a Muslim child, she sees possibilities for interreligious education at lower and middle basic schools in the Gambia. “Learn from the other and you will learn more about yourself.”

She also finds it necessary. She sees a lot of good examples of people with different religious and cultural backgrounds  living together in Gambian society, celebrating together. But also a growth of fundamentalist  Christian and Muslim youngster. Dialogue in education, can play a part to keep values as sharing and tolerance high in the Gambia.

A child-centered approach should be part of the Interreligious Education. That’s going to be a challenge. Some of the lecturers are grasping it, others still find it difficult to apply. I’m welcome to talk to the lectures and observe their classes to see how they translate this specific approach.

Head of the Christian department

He didn’t had much time, the first day, but as soon as he saw the word dialogue he started to talk very enthusiastic. Father Edu Gomez, head of the Christian department of the College, wrote his thesis about dialogue. And as father of the Catholic church in Brikama he has a very good contact with his neighbor, the imam of the big mosque in Brikama. “Interreligious dialogue will bring acceptance, harmony and peace. So we can have a good life in the Gambia. I’m very happy to assist you.” And so he did: introducing me to a couple of schools, providing me with the syllabi for Christian Religious Education of the College and of the schools and with more time to talk.

Head of the Islamic department

“Gambia College is the base for all the teachers in the Gambia. So this is the place to start interreligious education”, according to Mr. Ibrahim Touray, head of the Islamic department of the College. “It will be good for Gambian society and also efficient for the schools.” Right now every school is obligated by government to give Religious Education. That can be Islamic Religious Education and / or Christian Religious Education. Sometimes both are needed. There's not always budged for this. Won’t it be more efficient and less expensive for schools to have one teacher to teach Interreligious Education?
Resistance might be there from some schools, but motivation as well. Motivation from schools and the Islamic Council. As Mr. Touray had experienced before as co-author in a study about cross-cultural education together with English researchers.

'Datumprikker'

So three motivated co-workers from the College, providing me with contacts of schools and counsils, with curriculum syllabi, and more. The only thing we still need to find is a date to sit down with the four of us to get the 'dialogue' starting. Feels just like home: always hard to find the right date for all of us :-) 

Meeting place at the compound

As soon as I open my front door a child peeks in to see what’s going on in my ‘kitchen’room.  I’m staying at a compound in Busumbala (near Brikama) where three other families live. Altogether there are nine kids and one on the way. After school the other children from the compound meet at my kitchen table to play games, chat - about their day, about my day, about The Gambia, about The Netherlands -  or just to hang around with the toubab (white person/ foreigner).

Let me introduce you to some of the children of the compound:

Meet Buba Jammeh

Buba hardly leaves my side when I’m at the compound, unless he’s playing soccer or has to help his mum. Buba is 7 years old, has one older and two younger brothers. His mum takes care of the kids, the compound and the garden. His dad is a police officer.

Buba is very good in drawing animals. So you can imagine what’s on my wall. Buba goes to lower school. Every other week he has the morning shift or the afternoon shift at school. At school he learns English, math, Arabic, integrated studies, poetry and more. First day we met he showed me his school work with great enthusiasm.

Meet Lamin Samura (like samurai, but without the i)

Lamin helps out a lot in the compound – gardening, making ataja (very sweet green tea) - but he likes to sit at the kitchen table with the others as well.

Most first born sons in the Gambia are called lamin, after prophet Mohammed. First thing Lamin showed me at the kitchen table was a Quran from school. Very proudly he read out loud from the Quran.

Lamin is 15 years old. His is living with his mother, older sister and brother in law in the compound. His brother in law, is my landlord. The brother of my landlord is the owner of the compound and lives in Denmark.

Lamin goes to an Arabic school.  There he’s educated in Quran, Arabic, English, Maths and more. Because of his school Lamin speaks better Arabic then English. He says it’s good for his future to speak Arabic, so he can work abroad in Arabic countries in a couple of years.

Multi lingual

A lot of children here speak multiple languages. Cause Buba and Lamin quarrel in Malinka, one of the dialects in the Gambia, about that one can speak English better and the other can speak Arabic better. So I would say at the age of 7 and 15 they are very multi lingual.

If you have any questions for Buba or Lamin, let me know!