Most events or occasions in Ghana begin with a prayer of sorts. A marriage, family meetings and gatherings, parties, journeys. Most often than not, the event would be somewhat underway (greetings and pleasantries done or on-going; water and drinks served; finger foods being passed around ...) so the prayer really marks the beginning of formalities.
When important guests are present or a critical mass is achieved, there’s the usual “May I have your attention please. Shall we begin with a prayer”? Alternatively, “shall we be upstanding”; this usually means we are about to pray. In traditional settings the call to prayer would be somewhat different-quieter and more sombre but still very much the same rite.
At the start of the event a god will be invoked through other beings, things or demigods and requests for good fortune and thanksgivings will be poured out. At the end it will be a prayer for “travelling mercies” and more thanksgivings.
In any of these situations, guests would respectfully comply with the rituals of the host, whatever they may be. For example, I was at the launch of a clothing line some years back. It was a cocktail which begun only after guests had spent an hour walking "aimlessly" about the shop. I guess that must have been the idea. When the guests were finally rounded up for an opening prayer, we were treated to a 20 minute long prayer by the host’s “prayer consultant”. Guests who couldn’t help but be “upstanding” kept raising their heads at each pause after the first 5 minutes of the prayer thinking it would be over. I contented myself with keeping a keen eye on my purse and watching out for any underhand dealings that might occur about the praying mob. An attempt by a seeming crazy woman to tear off my necklace during prayer time at a funeral sometime in history is still fresh in my mind. Besides the woman leading the prayers had some rather interesting body movements as she prayed.
That said, what happens when the turf is neutral? Like say a state function, business meeting, and meetings of various associations or training programs? Well, at state functions we get to do Christian, Islamic and traditional prayers generally, and when the president so graciously decides to shorten the praying segment, we just do the Christian. By the way, yes the state is colourless when it comes to religion. It is neither Christian, Islamic, Baha’i nor Aladura. We are just a god-fearing bunch, even though if you asked me, I would say I have my doubts. The rest of the time, i.e. business meetings and the like, mostly the time factor is of essence so the Christian prayer suffices and everyone else is deemed to be covered.
I was rather taken aback therefore when the president’s wish to shorten rather lengthy prayer sessions (and that’s what I think he was trying to do) which are really a repetition of the same requests and thanksgivings to the same god except in different languages and with different antics, earned him some backlash. Prominent voices including those from the clergy suggested his Christianity smelled fundamentalist. Many called especially for the recognition and re-instatement of traditional prayers during state functions. Some well-known figure even threatened the wrath of the gods who he was certain were displeased with their abandonment. Incidentally, there are indeed numerous traditional gods and debates about which one is most powerful than the other can end in fisticuffs. There are personal gods, ethnic and family gods; all reaching to One Omnipotent God. The earth and sky gods are somewhere inbetween and likely to be common to all the ethnic groups.
So it was that on a trip with work colleagues not long ago we started our journey with a prayer. All souls were dedicated; vehicle was firmly placed in His hands including the driving. We arrived at our destination safely. Before the return journey begun, the same prayer warrior who did the honours earlier was about to do the rededications when another colleague raised objection. This colleague brought to attention the fact that a Christian prayer was said at the beginning of our journey coming in and it was only fair and right that we say a Muslim prayer on the return journey. True it had been a Christian prayer- the requests to God were made through Jesus Christ and included no other rituals except the sign of the cross on a few foreheads. The group quickly agreed with the protester, feeling very much ashamed for failing to recognize the group’s diversity earlier. That was a group of about 5 to 1 of only two of the God fearing factions.
The conversations in all of these typical scenarios, makes no mention of the non god fearing or non believers. Neither are non Christians and non Muslims mentioned. First it is assumed that everyone believes in God; second, it is assumed that all those who believe in God or a god want to say a prayer together whenever there is a gathering and third everyone is Christian, Muslim or traditionalist.
Whatever the assumptions, I am all for short prayers during state events, if we must pray (particularly after my cocktail prayer experience) and doing away with the “and me too, and me too” business. That's simply because very soon we won’t be able to deal with the few more “believers” sects (other than the 3 we know so well) who will be chanting “how about us” when they find their voices.
So then suppose shorter prayers was a national objective and we stuck by our all inclusiveness mantra, we could still deploy the tried and tested “elimination by elimination" strategy and let the traditional prayer hold sway. Remember tradition embraces us all and therefore binds us together. Also it is generally agreed that the traditional prayer does ultimately end with “God” and its rituals represent our Ghanaian-ness whichever corner of the funny sack- shaped country we come from.
Suppose however that we went by the non-exclusion clause; we would be looking at 2 to 3 hour opening and closing prayers at functions. This will likely be a challenge for many a stout god fearing senior citizen on the dais. In any case our idea of non-exclusion as earlier mentioned does not take cognisance of the “no-religion-no-praying practitioner” groups.
I ...... am ......thinking, a minute's silence, in which all and sundry call on Whomever, Whatever, No One, in the silence of their hearts.
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