The Pope has invited Burkina Faso’s president to the
Vatican later this month to see what can be learnt from the West African
nation’s example of religious tolerance. BBC Africa’s Lamine Konkobo is from
Burkina Faso and assesses if this can continue in a region under assault from
Islamist militant groups.
Religious tolerance has long been wired into the
social fabric of my country, with many people drawing their faith from more
than a single creed.
The Islam practised by many Burkinabe Muslims who
account for about 60% of the population would be considered blasphemous by
Salafists, as they include many animist practices.
My own father was not born a Muslim. He converted to
Islam in the 1970s as a result of his business dealings with El Haj Omar
Kanazoe, a rich trader from the Yarse sub-ethnic group known for their
affiliation to Islam.
While my father chose to become a Muslim, setting his
children up to follow in his footsteps, the rest of his family remained animist
and my father could not disown them for that.
In the neighbourhood where he chose to set up his
household, he was under the tutorship of his maternal uncle, a patriarch named
Yandga who was the custodian of the village’s fetishes.
Anywhere my father looked, even if his new co-religionists
urged him to hate, he could not have done so without losing his soul.
Like many others across the country, he had to adapt
to the dynamics of society around him by accepting that Islam was not the only
way.
As children, we grew up with people with differing
religious beliefs – playing together, being told off by each other’s parents,
celebrating each other’s festivals, mourning each other’s deaths, with humanity
as the overriding connector common to all.
And what is true for my family is also true for
millions of others across Burkina Faso. Indeed, religious tolerance has
prevailed with sun-rising certainty that we hardly ever pause to consider it.
It is not something that was ever taught. It is an
instinctive survival mechanism that occurs naturally among a people so socially
interconnected as to leave no chance for religion to play a divisive role.
About a quarter of the population is Christian – again
with many using animist rites alongside Christian forms of worship.
In terms of identity, most people feel stronger ties
to their extended family and ethnic group, than their religion.
However, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said in
a report released last month that it was concerned that this long tradition of
tolerance is now being dangerously tested in two different ways:
·
Would
the peaceful co-existence survive if the country were to experience another
attack by Islamist militants such as the one carried out in January by al-Qaeda
in the Islamic Maghreb?
·
Could
the growing frustration of the Muslim community over their under-representation
within sectors of the public administration lead to a dangerous radicalisation?
Clearly, these two questions do raise serious cause
for concern.
On the danger of external influences such as in the
case of random massacres by foreign jihadists, the example of neighbouring Mali
serves as a worrying precedent.
Apart from the Tuareg issue in the north, which is
more ethnic than religious, Mali had long been known for its religious harmony
in much the same way as Burkina Faso.
First Published in Tribune!
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