Except for a few localised inter-ethnic conflicts that are normally rooted in chieftaincy and land disputes, Ghana has proven to be a country of peaceful inter-ethnic and inter-religious co-existence. None of these area-specific and localised conflicts, such as the recurrent ones between the Nanumba and Kokomba; Nkonya and Alavanyo; Konkomba versus Gonja, Dagomba and Nanumba; Gonja versus Vagla; Abudu and Andani, among others, have ever spilt over and escalated on a national scale as in the case of the Rwandan Genocide of 1994 that was rooted in pure hatred and led to the heartless massacring of almost one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
These Ghanaian conflicts have always been contained within their vicinity. Likewise, Ghanaian Christians and Muslims have co-existed peacefully to the extent that there are even inter-religious marriages just as inter-ethnic marriages which are all too common in the gold-, cocoa- and oil-producing nation of 31 million people of diverse cultures and languages.
In contrast, for example, there have been decades-old Christian-Muslim strife in Nigeria since 1953. The Boko Haram insurgency that seeks to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria is the culmination of that strife in Africa’s most populous country. There are also examples of the Islamist Tuareg rebellion in Mali since 2012 and the conflict with the Al-Shabaab militia in Somalia. Also, the Bundu dia Kongo in the Democratic Republic of Congo has demanded a religious state based on a syncretic form of Christianity.
In another example, the Lord’s Resistance Army which was originally birthed in Uganda, held Christian demands. As well, the Sudanese civil war was a showcase of how Muslims and Christians (and Animists) clashed in bloody confrontations. Massive bloodshed between Christians and Muslims has also haunted the Central African Republic (CAR) since 2013. The fighting has been between the government of the CAR’s former Seleka coalition of rebel groups who are mainly from the Muslim minority and the mainly Christian anti-balaka coalition. That conflict has been part of the CAR’s civil war since 2012.
In Ethiopia, a Christian-dominated government is fighting several predominantly Muslim rebel groups. Most of these religious conflicts are normally underpinned by the discrimination of one group or the other. And just as happened in Rwanda during the genocide, there is so much suspicion between the two sides to the extent that there is nothing like peaceful co-existence as pertains in Ghana, where despite the religious and ethnic differences, Muslims marry Christians and vice-versa; while Muslim politicians are even able to freely and very tolerably attend church services and ceremonies when need be and fraternise with their Christian counterparts and share goodwill messages during Christian festivities such as Easter, Christmas, among others. Similarly, Christian politicians can freely, without the slightest fear of harm or suspicion, go to the Mosque to partake in Islamic rituals and even make donations to Muslim communities during festivals like Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-adha. And it doesn’t end there. There have been occasions where Christian and Muslim clerics have sat around the same table at various events and even held inter-religious gatherings. The country’s National Chief Imam Sheikh Dr Nuhu Sharabutu has had to fraternise with Catholic Bishops and other Christian clerics at special ceremonies. The relationship between Muslims and Christians in Ghana has been generally and largely so cordial and peaceful to the extent that the National Chief Imam’s spokesperson, in January 2023, said in public interviews that he believed Christians even held the country’s topmost Islamic cleric in much higher esteem than his fellow Muslims.
On Sunday, 21 April 2019, Easter Sunday, the National Chief Imam brought the essence of Ghana’s religious peace and co-existence to a palpable crescendo when he showed up at the Christ The King Catholic Church in Accra, to celebrate mass with Parish Priest Very Rev Father Andrew Campbell and the congregation.
“His coming here is a sign of togetherness, unity, and living in harmony with one another”, remarked Very Rev Campbell. The Chief Imam’s aides explained that the cleric’s visit to the parish for mass was a reciprocal gesture to the several Christian clergy and delegations that have paid courtesy calls on him for the past two decades. Such is the blessing of peaceful inter-religious co-existence that Ghana enjoys, which, unfortunately, some Ghanaians, may be taking for granted. Ghanaians must know that the peaceful ethnic and religious co-existence they enjoy and appear to take for granted is so rare and would be an invaluable privilege for others in countries like the CAR. To forge a united Ghana devoid of typical war-triggering divisive ethnic and religious sentiments as was witnessed in the Rwandan Genocide and the turmoil in the CAR, it is highly important to keep nurturing the conducive environment prevailing in Ghana to a mature stage where its fragility will give way to sturdiness and resilience. And to achieve that, complacency and the apparent lack of respect and appreciation of what a great privilege that is, must fritter and make way for a consistently conscious, deliberate and intentional effort on the part of every Ghanaian to concretise the gains made so far in that department.
