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October 20, 2005
One faith, one baptism.... two wives...? (Part 1)
The pastor wouldn't baptise Yusuf. What should I do now?
To be fair, pastor Suley wanted to baptise Yusuf, but his denomination in Burkina Faso wouldn't baptise polygamists. They insisted that only the first wife was truly the man's wife, and that he should get rid of any subsequent ones.
No-one questioned the reality of Yusuf's faith. He used to be a religious teacher in Islam, and could actually read and understand the Quran in Arabic. He had seen how highly the Quran spoke of Isa al-Masih, ibn Mariyama - Jesus the Messiah, son of Mary, and had discussed with teachers of the "Jesus way" over a period of time. Finally, he came to pray and receive forgiveness in the name of this same Jesus the first Fulani Christian in his village.
I say finally, but that was the start of a long period of discipleship. He testified that straight away he saw changes in his life - he no longer got angry the way he used to, and his character changed as he became a calmer man. But he also had a lifetime's worldview, teaching, and practices to sift through, to see what from his previous life he should retain, and what should change. Since there was no church in his village, could he continue to pray at the mosque, but in the name of Jesus? Could he fast with everyone else during the month of Ramadan? And what about Tabaski, when the Muslims killed sheep in memory of Abraham offering up his son, who was saved by the sheep provided by God? Could he kill a sheep too, in thanks for that event's prophetic fulfilment in Christ's death? Islam and the Quran, he said, had helped him develop a love of God, and had led him towards Christ - what should he think of that now?
So many questions.
He was unfazed by being the only follower of Jesus in his village. He was the head of his household, and a hard worker, whose fields generally gave a good harvest, so he was not dependant on anyone. He read the Bible on his own, switching between Fulfulde and Arabic to check more accurately the meaning. Not everyone understood why he had decided to follow this way, and there were some who ridiculed him. But he was patient and calm, and answered when people asked him. And little by little he tried to explain the Jesus way to his two wives.
Funnily enough, he hadn't even intended to take two wives. He loved his first wife, Hawa, and they had moved some years before to another village to be near a charismatic Islamic teacher who had started a new sect. Yusuf had got disillusioned and had returned home, but Hawa had decided to stay. So, when Yusuf arrived back home, he took another wife, Salimata. Then Hawa came back too. He loved them both, and did his best to treat them both the same, even buying them the same sets of clothes.
When he could, he would walk into the nearest town on Sunday to go to church. Whenever he came, pastor Suley would try and find someone to translate everything into Fulfulde for him. And whenever he could, Suley would get his 50cc moped and head out across the fields and dunes to visit Yusuf. They had no language in common, but they developed a friendship. As Yusuf grew in faith and read his Bible, he started to ask about getting baptised. That's when Suley came to see me to explain that his leaders wouldn't allow him to baptise Yusuf unless he got rid of Salimata. What should we do?
Interestingly, the Bible doesn't actually make such a big deal of polygamy. Yes, it is clear that "one man, one wife" is God's plan for marriage from the beginning, and is the reflection of the relationship between Christ and his one bride, the church. This is the solid foundation for society, and in fact, most polygamous marriages I know have endless problems of arguments, favouritism, and manipulation.
And so, a qualification of eldership is that they have only one wife, unpholding and modelling this good basis of society. And yet, the very fact that that is a qualification for eldership indicates that there must have been other Christians in the 1st century church with more than one wife. They are nowhere told to get rid of any of their wives - they are simply disqualified from eldership. On the other hand, divorce is clearly frowned upon, and to get rid of a wife would have been to bring shame upon her, and maybe to leave her destitute.
Pastor Suley agreed with me that it wouldn't be right to tell Yusuf to send Salimata away. But he also didn't feel it was right to go against his leaders by baptising Yusuf. What then should he do...?
To be continued....
Tags: burkina faso africa polygamy burkina fulani church baptism mission
October 03, 2005
Prepare for a long walk
"By one o’clock, the sun is indeed hammering our heads, and the landscape glares like an overexposed photograph. My water bottle is empty. The others, incredibly, have just one small water bottle between them.
“Diallo, is there a pump ahead?” I ask, trying to sound nonchalant.
“Not far,” says Diallo. When a Fulani man says “not far”, prepare for a long walk."
(From Steve's latest article published inthe Sunday Times.)
I was once travelling to a Fulani village on my motorbike. I'd only recently bought the bike, and it was my first time on such a sandy route. I now love biking through such terrain and over the sand dunes, but that first time I was very nervous. I had also rashly picked up a hitch-hiker on the way. The bike was sliding all over the place in the sand, and I could feel my travelling companion was getting tense, wondering what he had let himself in for. I was hoping I was almost there, so I stopped on the way to ask a Fulani herder if it was far. Predictable response: "It's not far now."
Trying to get more precise information, I tentatively asked if he knew how many kilometres - expecting that a Fulani "duroowo" would not know the measures. I was surprised
"It's only four kilometres," he replied with confidence.
With renewed courage I pressed on for four more kilometres. And four more. And four more... After 20 km of nervous sliding, we finally arrived at our destination, and I deposited my hitch-hiker. He seemed relieved that he had actually arrived in one piece, without being thrown in the sand by the "tubaaku", who clearly had no idea how to ride a motorbike.
Twenty kilometres... our herder friend's estimate had actually been one-fifth of the real distance. That seems to be a fair estimate of the Fulani perception of distance. If a Fulani tells you how far something is, multiply it by 5.
Now, of course, that perception is largely to do with them being used to walking long distances behind their cattle, as Steve discovered. One Fulani Christian I know used to walk 40km each way, every weekend, just to get to church. (Would you...?) But their mathematics of the distance is interesting. My own theory about that has to do with the way they count money...
The smallest coin in Burkina Faso is the 5cfa coin, which is known in Fulfulde as "mbuudu wooturu" or "one coin". From the days before the Fulani started to learn to read, they could not decipher the numbers on the coin, so money was calculated in mulitples of the "mbuudu wooturu". Thus, 50cfa is "sappo" - "ten". And so on. Transfer that to distance, and Amadu is your uncle.
So, when you come to Burkina, be prepared. That journey, or that nice Fulani blanket you want to buy, may be five times more than you think it is going to be!
Tags: burkina faso africa travel burkina fulani
October 01, 2005
Radio station progress
Preparations for the Radio station we are trying to start in the north of Burkina are making progress.
It seems we have all we need to make the application. Finance is coming in, and HCJB are being very helpful. Steve reports that their latest projection of the range covered, if we can get a 500W transmitter, will be 100km. This will go up to and across the border with Mali, covering the villages we visited on the trip that birthed the vision for the radio station.
Please continue to pray for this. Our vision is for a station that will not only give access for the gospel into villages that have no contact with the good news of Jesus Christ, but also that will be a channel of health, social, and other development.
Tags: burkina faso africa burkina fulani radio
Make Poverty History - where now?
After the big build up to the G8 meeting in July, where there was some progress on improving Aid and cancellation of Debt for poor countries, the Make Poverty History campaign was brutally pushed out of the public eye by the London bombings and subsequent events. So where are things at now?
The UN Summit and IMF/World Bank meetings in September (more information below) did little more than reconfirm the agreements made at the G8 Summit in July. And there were no moves towards establishing trade justice for the world’s poor. So all eyes are now on the World Trade Organisation meeting in December.
Make Poverty History is encouraging us to press for action at the WTO to change unfair trade rules and work towards trade justice. The call is upon rich countries to:
· stop pushing poor countries to open their economies
· respect poor countries' right to decide on trade policies to help end poverty and protect their environment.
· remove rich country trade barriers
You can do this by
* Voting for trade justice - if you haven't already done so.
* Joining a Mass lobby of Parliament.
* Getting ready for White Band Day 3 on 10 December.
* And more...
For more about these issues, read the postings I wrote earlier on
1. Biblical attitude to the poor
2. Corruption
3. Aid and Development
4. Debt
5. Trade.
