Idl Adda

“Good morning, and to all my muslim brothers and sisters, a happy Idl Adda”.

In true Ghanaian style, the radio announcer from a popular radio station - a Christian – passed on well wishes to everyone celebrating the Muslim holiday.

Forgive my theological ignorance – and please don’t hold what I say here to be fact. My understanding of the holiday is all based on conversations and not extensive reading of the Koran. The celebration of Idl Adda was explained to me like this: God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his own son. Abraham spoke to his son and told him God’s wishes. Together they decided that if this was God’s wish, then Abraham should sacrifice his son. His son was tied to a tree and as Abraham raised his knife to conduct the sacrifice, God ordered him to stop – that he was happy Abraham was willing to obey, but it was not necessary to sacrifice his son. Then, immediately, a ram appeared in the place of his son and was sacrificed to God.

The Muslims celebrate this holiday by fasting in the morning and going for communal prayers. Following prayers, a ram is slaughtered by whoever can afford it (or a larger animal if can be afforded), and the fast is broken by eating pieces of the ram’s liver breaded in flour and fried. Then the meat is prepared for eating. Half is distributed to the poor – as charity is one of the pillars of Islam - and the other half is eaten in various dishes by extended family.

At our house, everyone began preparing to go to the town center for prayers. The central mosque is not large enough to hold everyone, so for events like this the prayers are said in a big field (see pic). I put on a long dress and donned a veil over my head and went with the children to town. There's a photo of three of the girls - getting Ghanaians to smile in photos is not easy! The men go separately because the men and women are segregated during prayers. The prayers were over quickly, and we went back to the house.

The rams were not slaughtered that day, because the celebration conflicted with normal Friday prayers, so there was not enough time to prepare the food.

The next day, two rams were slaughtered at my house (pics of rams before and after). I sampled the fried liver but turned down the intestines and slices of stomach that were in our soup for lunch. The ‘meat’ in the sense that we’re used to, came that night at dinner with a special treat of rice instead of the usual daily TZ. The big meals continued throughout the weekend, and everywhere you went, both Christians and Muslims greeted with “Barka la saala”.

The peaceful co-existence of Christians and Muslims seems to come easy to Ghanaians. The next big holiday will be Christmas, and my Muslim office mate has already started playing his favorite Christmas songs over his computer speakers. I know that everyone in town, regardless of their religion, will be in the Christmas spirit come December 25. Too bad the people of Northern Ghana can’t be more of a model to people in other parts of the world.