We had a delicious breakfast at the Global dream hotel of yummy eggs, juicy watermelon and coffee. We then met up with Professor Iddrisu for a lecture to discuss our reading on “Slavery, Islam and the Jakhanka People” by LO Sanneh. We were rudely interrupted early in our lecture and had to move to a less glamorous location.
The rationale for slavery has a firm legal foundation in Islam, a religion that emerged when slavery was already an accepted norm of practice in most settled societies. All humans were created to enjoy freedom, but that came with two conditions: conversion to Islam or if not possible, a protection of the Muslim state though the payment of the dimmni tax. In further explanation Ahmad Baba explained that this was in reference to original Muslims but the complication is how can one determine an original Muslim on a battle field? And how can a slave trader release his slaves because they had converted to Islam? It boiled down to local practice and the supposed humane treatment Islam made possible for slaves as an act of piety. This was a great way to contextualize what we have seen and will be seeing.
Friday Prayers
After our lecture, we had some free time and then went to a mosque service and afternoon prayer in Tamale. Some of the lessons in the Khutbah included: respect for parents (especially your mother), honoring God, respecting your fellow man and respecting God’s authority over life and death (in the context of abortion, etc). Abdulai joined the congratulation prayers. We then got an opportunity to talk with the Imam who had given the Khutbah and got a photo with him.
We then went off to lunch after the Jum’at prayers. We tried some new food and drink including fufu and hibiscus juice. This was a nice way to unwind.
Shea Butter production.
We were lucky enough to see how shea butter is made. These steps included: collecting the shea fruit, de-pulping, boiling, drying, de-husking, sorting, second drying, checking moisture, and storing.
We then went to go buy some shea butter for ourselves and found that the prices had increased since last year which Abdulai attributed to us “looking very white today”. Once we bought the slightly more expensive but still affordable shea butter, we headed back to the bus.
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped for an ATM and some street vendors came on the bus. They tried to sell us the gineau fowl we have heard much about from Abdulai. Once they left, we were headed back to the Global Dream. When back to the hotel, we had a bit of free time and then were treated to some amazing Ghanaian dancing and music out in the courtyard of Global Dream Hotel.
Once we had watched a few dances, we were all invited to join in.
The dancing consisted of hip movements and was accompanied by some percussion and singing.
Many were reluctant at first, but everyone eventually tried it out and had lots of fun in the process.
Much of the convincing came from Abdulai’s very impressive and enthusiastic interpretation of the dance. After chatting with the very kind dancers afterwards, we were off to dinner.
For dinner, we went to our favorite regular restaurant “Miliki Mikuul” and chatted over some delicious Ghanaian food. Afterwards, we were treated to some American cuisine in the form of ice cream at KFC. This was a great treat to end the day. After this, we were back to our hotel to rest. We are looking forward to seeing Salega.
Adie, Kirstin, Adam, and Abby