Em in Burkina

Thanks to the Foreign Affairs Canada website, I was prepared for religion's being a major force in Burkinabé life, but it's still been interesting to see the role it plays. Most people you chat with for longer than about 15 minutes will (after telling you how great Canada is and how much they'd love to go there, which I'll save for another post) ask you what your religion is. No one really cares what it is, though; what's important is that you have one. People smile and nod when I tug at my collar and say I'm "Protéstante" (however lapsed and questioning I may be); at the same time, if Nitha says she hasn't chosen between her parents' separate religions (Christian and Muslim) or Megan says she was baptized but doesn't practice, they sometimes get funny looks.

The Bamogos (the family we're living with) are also Protéstante, which in Burkina apears to mean Pentecostal. The services we've been going to with the family (and I don't think it's really an option not to go, since they know we're all in some sense Christian) are in many ways lovely: people dress up in their best clothing, often tailored from beautifully printed cotton, and the services are full of music and drumming--often from three or four separate choirs, in two languages, in the same service.

At the same time, there seems to be a fair bit of fire and brimstone, which I'm less accustomed to, having been raised in the relatively meditative and somber Anglican tradition. The preaching--which often switches back and forth between two ministers, one speaking in Mooré and the other translating into French, even as they play off each other--is forceful and sometimes almost theatrical, and tackles subjects including a resounding mockery and condemnation of The Da Vinci Code (book and movie, neither of which appear to be readily available in Burkina, so the ministers described the plot to the congregation, who were meant to laugh). There's also time set aside for loud individual prayer and speaking in tongues, which builds to a cacophony before being cut off either by a bell or the preacher's voice, newly soothing after an intense sermon.

It's all definitely not my thing--I prefer a lot more meditation and room for independent questioning in my approach to religion. But the mosques and Catholic and Protestant churches that appear every few blocks in the quartiers speak to the role any religion seems to play as a stabilizing force in people's lives, particularly in the face of poverty, unemployment, government corruption and more. The family is eager to learn some English hymns and teach us some in Mooré, and we'll definitely still be going to church, so hopefully I'll be able to learn more about how they view faith as the weeks go on.

posted by Emily @ 7:29 p.m.