Everyday Islam in Kumasi: Devout Lay Men and Women in Daily Life

by Gracia Clark

Allabar Women's Islamic School

The wife of an Islamic teacher founded this school in their home, in one of Kumasi's oldest Muslim neighborhoods. A long front room holds beginning, intermediate and advanced groups. It offers Arabic, English, math and sciences classes, and she has hired Muslim and non-Muslim teachers to present the full public school curriculum, although the school gets no government support. The students are mostly married women, who attend part time in between their family and work responsibilities.

Bantama Women's Fellowship

Bantama mosque serves a central Kumasi neighborhood that historically contained a large proportion of Muslim families before colonial rule. On Fridays, a group of women gathers under the supervision of the local Imam, to study the Koran and learn basic Arabic. On two Fridays they heard an explanation of this website project and were invited to record interviews for posting on it. Interviews were held in the large women's side chamber of the mosque before prayers began.

Tafo Women's Fellowship

Old Tafo lies along the main highway north from Kumasi, and was one of the earliest settlements for immigrant Northerners. As an old Muslim community it has several neighborhood mosques, and the imam of one founded a government-supported primary and middle school that offers instruction in the Koran and Arabic language along with the standard national curriculum. This group of women attends that mosque and meets on Fridays to learn Arabic and read the Koran. After hearing about the website project, those who agreed to record an interview for it met us in an empty classroom.

Men

Runaway Wife

Date: January 3, 1939
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This wronged husband is appealing to the Asantehene because he feels the chief of his ethnic community in Kumasi has been unfair.

Palaver Held at the Central Market, Kumasi

Date: October 13, 1946
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Muslim traders settled freely in Kumasi after British conquest in 1898, but they had to negotiate a place for themselves politically and economically as a minority. Each immigrant ethnic group acknowledged a Kumasi headman, who maintained constructive relations with the Asante chiefly hierarchy and the British colonial authorities to protect their trading activities and legal traditions. Although most of the translations for this case will be from oral interviews, the paramount chief's archives contain valuable English language documents from earlier decades, such as petitions and court cases. The following sample document shows high-ranking palace officials mediating a conflict between male traders from Gao (Mali) and Asante women traders. Their rivalry over access to truckloads of yams arriving in Kumasi Central Market sparked several violent clashes between 1938 and 1952.

Abdu Basit

Date: August 13, 2009
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"Bicycles have helped me."

Abdul Hannan Al Waiz

Date: August 13, 2009
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"I know what is bad and what is good for me."

Ahmed Bashir Baba

Date: August 13, 2009
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"All that we need is unity."

Mohammed Bawa

Date: August 13, 2009
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"First, be honest; second, be patient."

Suleiman Zakaria

Date: August 13, 2009
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"The religion of Islam is totally about peace"

Abdul Rashid Alhassan

Date: August 15, 2009
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"You must be seen to be a good Muslim."

Abu Rawbil

Date: August 15, 2009
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"Islam teaches us to love one another."

Fuseini Nahidshah

Date: August 15, 2009
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"People like coming here."

Ibrahim Abdul Rashid

Date: August 15, 2009
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"We don't advise that."

Sadick Jaffo

Date: August 15, 2009
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"I have to respect these people."

Ahmed Abdulah

Date: August 21, 2009
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"I will drive peacefully; I will come home peacefully."

Ahmed Abubakar Ali

Date: August 21, 2009
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"I'm a real Zongo man."

Muhammed Amin Abu Bakr

Date: August 21, 2009
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"Islam has taught me a lot."

Muhammed Bashiru Danakabu

Date: August 21, 2009
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"They are not doing it for Islam."

Suleman Haruna

Date: August 21, 2009
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Headloading at a Village Market

Date: 1979
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Headloading at a Village Market

Lifting basket on man's head.

Men Tomato Sellers in North

Date: 1979
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Men Tomato Sellers in North

Northern men with tomato boxes selling in Bolgatanga market.

Yam Porters and Drivers

Date: 1979
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Yam Porters and Drivers

People in rows of chairs in yam office in Kumasi Central Market.

Tailor Alley

Date: 1982
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Tailor Alley

Side passage with men's shirts and tailors.

Ramadan Class

Date: 2006
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Ramadan Class

Women in chairs, men at table with books at the mosque.

Cloth Importers

Date: 2009
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Cloth Importers

Two women and one man from Togo sit in cloth stall in Kumasi Central Market.

Discussion Club

Date: 2009
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Discussion Club

Street salon in front of a row of containers.

Front Porch

Date: 2009
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Front Porch

Interviewing on the front porch of a compound house.

Kumasi Central Market

Date: 2009
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Kumasi Central Market

Overview of Kumasi Central Market from above wholesale yards.

Roadside Shop

Date: 2009
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Roadside Shop

Young men in front of store in Dichemso, Kumasi.

Zongo Street

Date: 2009
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Zongo Street

Commercial building in Old Zongo.