RAMADAN 1438: FASTING IN OTHER PLACES
Welcome to Ramadan. We all have various experiences of Ramadan growing up. Sometimes, because our comfort zones are usually nice and comfortable, we have no idea how others elsewhere are observing Ramadan. In the past on this column we have discussed the suffering of those fasting in difficulty. This Ramadan, we hope to hear diverse […]
Welcome to Ramadan.
We all have various experiences of Ramadan growing up. Sometimes, because our comfort zones are usually nice and comfortable, we have no idea how others elsewhere are observing Ramadan. In the past on this column we have discussed the suffering of those fasting in difficulty.
This Ramadan, we hope to hear diverse experiences of Ramadan – call it Ramadan Unusual. This week, we begin with the experiences of two good friends of this Column, Ruqayyah Abubakar (a PhD in view) who grew up in Calabar; and Amina Mamman (a Professor) who spent half of Ramadan 1982 as a child in a then very peaceful Borno State. Enjoy:
RUQAYYAH SAIDU ABUBAKAR ([email protected]): “RAMADAN IN CALABAR”: As a child growing up in Calabar, Cross River State (where I was born and bred although I hail from Adamawa State) I didn’t know Ramadan was such a spiritual and fun time. When I was growing up, fasting was relatively ‘dry’ because there were not many Hausa/Fulani people living in the area then. But now that I have grown and left Calabar for the North, I have rediscovered Ramadan as the special period it is. Also, my relatives who still live in the South South tell me that now that many Hausa/Fulani live in the region, Ramadan is very different.
As a child in the 1980s Calabar, the Hausa/Fulani were only found around Bagobiri (dominated by the Hausas) and Nasarawa (dominated by the Fulanis). We had no Islamiyya School, only Makarantar Allo. There was a scarcity of Mallams who only came during Ramadan and left immediately after Sallah. I can remember my father hosting some of the visiting Mallams who came to conduct Tafsir.
But we, the girls, didn’t even know what Tafsir was because at that time the was no Tafsir for women, only for the men. And as the women never attended the Tafsir, our brothers would come home with interesting stories about the questions asked in the mosque during, especially questions by our nomadic Fulani relatives who would always ask funny and sometimes silly questions.
But Ramadan in school was very interesting. I attended FGGC Calabar and I was the only Muslim in my set in my Bassey Edet Enene House, and we were only three Muslims in the entire 1997 set. Our then Principal, Barrister Eno Bassey, always kept our (the few Muslims’) meals warm and nice and served us during Iftar. And we were also woken up for Sahur. We were excused from housework but we had to join the morning jog even if it were Ramadan, and it was not funny at all.
Many of our teachers had been to the North and so knew bits and pieces about the lives of Muslims. For example, one day during Ramadan I skipped morning exercise. The PHE teacher noticed my absence and followed up to the House. Fortunately, I was praying Subh. The teacher knew prayer, but didn’t know how long it would usually. So my two-rakaá Subh became ten rakaás; when the teacher didn’t leave, it reached twenty-one rakaás that morning!
Sallah in Calabar was like any other day, but with a little difference of going to Eid, returning home, watching movies and visiting relatives (which are actually our next door neighbours whom we visit every day). Shi ke nan! Sallah has finished. So it was a revelation when, for the first time, I celebrated Sallah in the North, in Jos to be precise. Now that was a real Sallah! What celebration, what merriment! My stories to my siblings when I returned to Calabar made them so green with envy, and they looked forward to coming up North to visit, if not for anything but for Sallah!
Ramadan in Calabar today is much different from when we were kids, and Sallah has become much more interesting. But I don’t envy my remaining Calabar family at all because I’m sure no matter how festive it is over there, it can never be compared to Sallah a Arewa, though I miss my Calabar. Home is always sweet home!
AISHA INDO MAMMAN ([email protected]) “RAMADAN IN BORNO”: Whenever I hear the atrocities of Boko Haram, I clearly recall that thirty five years ago, during the Ramadan of 1982/1402, I was for many weeks in the very same area which is now called a ‘theatre of war’. I vividly remember everywhere I was during that Ramadan – Maiduguri, Marte, Gamboru Ngala, the shores of Lake Chad.
During that Ramadan, my friend Rakiya Shuaibu and I from FGGC Bakori were finalists of the Radio Nigeria National Schools’ Challenge Quiz Competition holding in Maiduguri. I remember we flew from Kaduna to Maiduguri on Ramadan 15, 1402. National Quiz Master Ibrahim Bala Turundu received and deposited us with Borno Radio GM, informing him we were fasting. From that day till the end of Ramadan, the GM’s family generously gave us Iftar and Sahur despite the arrangements made by Radio Nigeria.
On Ramadan 29, contest organisers took us on an excursion to Ngala through Marte, with a stopover on the shores of the Lake Chad. We reached Marte around 4.30pm in time for Asr. We disembarked at the Lake Chad Basin Authority outpost. But as we prepared for prayer, the sun completely disappeared and everywhere was overcast, leaving only a twilight illumination. We were convinced it was not an eclipse, so to our youthful eyes the landscape was one that resembled sunset. Time to break our fast, or so we thought! But our drivers quickly alerted that it was not yet sunset. We had forgotten that we were even preparing for Asr, and not Maghrib!
But for the drivers’ alert, the disappearance of the bright scorching sun on the arid landscape against the backdrop of the Ramadan fast was a stimulus for an early Iftar! It was not long before we discovered the reason; a huge sandstorm that swept across the area completely blocking our view of the horizon had occluded the sun with sand particles interspersed by drizzles of desert rain. The storm lasted for several minutes as we were pelted with sand particles of various sizes while the darkness persisted. The storm cleared and the sun re-appeared around 6pm. Our skins felt gritty from the deposits of the sandstorm. It was the desert’s way of welcoming us to a terrain of which were completely ignorant.
We got to Ngala in time for the call for the real Maghrib. Being a rural settlement in 1982, water for Iftar and prayer was provided in tiny clay pitchers. It was cool and refreshing after a hot, dry, fasting day on the road. We ate dates (which were abundant), said our prayers and made for the buses in preparation for the return journey to Maiduguri.
We heard the announcement of the sighting of the new Shawwal moon on the bus radio on our return journey and immediately switched into Sallah mode. We celebrated Sallah with the Zazzau family of Alhaji Talat Balal resident Maiduguri and whose daughter Hajara was our classmate. The family facilitated Kayan Sallah for us from the Radio Nigeria pocket money. The host family made us feel at home and we had a wonderful time in Borno, even visiting the Shehu of Borno with a tour of the magnificent palace; we also visited the Kyarimi Park and Zoological Gardens.
It is so sad to remember that such a nice place (Borno) which gave me and others such a joyful 1982 Ramadan experience as a child is so troubled. May Allah return the joy of Ramadan to the people of Borno!