Religious tolerance and hospitality

Friday was Salah, a big celebration for the Muslim faithful. Like I said in my last post, I was privileged to visit some Muslim friends to celebrate with them, which I believe is a good thing. There is nothing wrong with celebrating with one another, even though I’m not a Muslim. I believe everyone is entitled to their religion and what they believe in.

In a country like ours, religious tolerance is seen in almost every part of the nation, especially in the western region. The Yoruba are said to be the most tolerant when it comes to religion. In a typical Yoruba family, you will surely find both Muslims and Christians; in fact, traditionalists are also not left out. This shows how much the Yoruba embrace one another. Although that’s not to say there aren’t some Yoruba who are religious extremists, they are just a few.

Yesterday again, a family friend who happens to be a Muslim invited us over to celebrate with him and his family. At the time he called, I was actually busy working in the garden, as weeds had taken over the area where we planted maize and cassava. A couple of weeks ago, I harvested some maize which I had planned to use to make pap.

Before setting out to visit the family that invited us, I had to work in the garden myself, with the help of just one aboki. I worked for about three hours clearing the weeds and also attended to the pen where we keep our goats and rabbits. As I speak, our rabbits are almost two months old, and they have grown really well.

After I was done, I headed to the man’s house, and I was wowed by the level of hospitality my family and I received.