Notes from Gambia: The Islamic Context of Christian Education

I am staying in a missionary compound in Banjul, The Gambia, not too far from the University of The Gambia, where I have a room. I am here as Global Scholars Canada’s director to observe our Christian Studies program within the university, where we just opened an M.A. program in addition to our B.A in Christian Studies. It is 35 degrees Celsius, and gorgeously sunny. The magpies squawk as some vultures leer from the compound wall.

Just outside the compound is the street, a bustle of cars and horns and colourful people and goats and dogs and sand and dust. Young mothers sit on mats under a tree watching their children. Booths and storefronts line every centimetre of the side of the road. Some signs and ads have Arabic written on them, although it is not one of the national or tribal languages. The national language is English, the legacy of British colonialism in Africa.

This is the minaret of the mosque directly beside our WEC missionary compound.

The reason there is so much Arabic script on the street is that the Gambia is over 95 percent Muslim, and the compound where I sleep sits directly beside the local mosque. Call to prayer comes from the minaret in the wee hours of the morning, and it is loud, and it is in Arabic. It happens to be Ramadan just now, so restaurants have few customers, and people are hangrier than usual: it is a fast of no water or food until sundown for a month.

“We have some converts from Islam in our local church,” said Pastor Benjamin, who is our champion promoter for the Christian studies program we teach at UTG. “Conversion means they lose everything, including family and friends. We have special houses set aside for them to live.” There is freedom of religion, but it comes at a price.

Conversely, some young Christian women marry Muslim men. This is unfortunate, as they do so to maintain ties of culture and tribe at the expense of their faith.

Our program in Christian studies at UTG is an ecumenical endeavour, including Methodists, Presbyterians, Anglicans, and Roman Catholics. Christians need to work together to cultivate informed, dedicated leaders who will give spiritual guidance and nurture to Christian youth and so strengthen the church community. Our program brings different denominational leaders and tribal identities together in fellowship and a common pursuit of a deeper understanding of the faith and the Bible, in a context that gives credibility to a different faith.

There are no courses at this time directly in “Muslim-Christian Dialogue.” I am told such courses might attract unwanted attention from authorities. So we stick to strictly Christian theology, history, ethics, and spiritual formation courses.

The fish market just outside Banjul.

Incidentally, I write this while sitting in Dr. Manhee Yoon’s Hebrew class in our M.A. program in Biblical Studies. Dr. Glen Taylor just pointed out to our nine students that the Hebrew pronouns are very close to the Arabic equivalents. The students are taught in English, but they all speak their own tribal language as well. When you consider this small gathering: English, Hebrew, Arabic, and multiple tribal languages — all in one room!

It is interesting to learn that the tribal languages are part of oral cultures. So this program is not only introducing the students to new languages–the original languages of the Bible–but also to a text-based culture–which is a significant part of the Christian faith (even more so since the Reformation). We are not People of the Book in the sense of the Muslims, Sikhs, or even Jews because we are People of Person and his Kingdom first. But the Good Book shows the way to that Person.

Christians teach the faith within specific contexts wherever we are, comparing and contrasting the two cultures or worldviews in order to discern the relationship and God’s call within that context. In the Gambia, that context is overwhelmingly Muslim, with a tribal culture further ordering human relations within a colonial history. Our goal is to help local leaders relate the gospel to all these cultures with both wisdom and winsomeness. The gospel can be as simple as good news, but its application can be complex and layered and worth the labour of a good education. Education in turn nurtures leadership.

Fishermen bringing fish to market.

The universal greeting here is “As-salaam ‘alykum”—the Arabic salutation of “peace be upon you.” It is known as the Muslim greeting, although we know 600 years before Muhammad walked the earth Jesus said those very same words in Aramaic (John 20:19). The common Hebrew equivalent for thousands of years has been “Shalom.”

In the midst of these bustling streets of religious and tribal identities, this is our vision: to bring the good news shalom of Jesus to all the layers of human life and culture. To do this well takes time and care, the virtues of Christian education. University cares for culture and sets it in a certain direction: for careerism, for secularism, for Islam, or for the kingdom that Jesus taught his disciples.

When he commissioned these disciples in Matthew 28, he said to teach others “all that I commanded you.” We have four gospels built on an Older Testament that Jesus taught. So we teach the original languages so that the students see the nuances of language and culture and are modelled a way to discern with the Spirit the call of God in our lives and in our context.