16. Pioneering Interreligious Education in the Gambia

JESSICA BOUVA AND DUNCAN R. WIELZEN

16. PIONEERING INTERRELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN THE GAMBIA

A Pilot Module for Interreligious Education at Gambia College1

INTRODUCTION In 2013 Gambia College, School of Education (GCSE) entered into a partnership with Arkade, a curriculum advice centre in the city of Amsterdam.2 This relationship was established due to GCSE’s request for educational assistance in incorporating interreligious education within the curriculum of its Islamic Religious Knowledge (IRK) and Christian Religious Education (CRE) divisions of the Religious Studies department. Arkade offered expertise in person, through one of its educational advisers who was part of a team that had designed a pilot module for interreligious education for teacher trainees, and GCSE offered a team with logistical and administrative support for the pilot module. Prior to designing this pilot module, an explorative ‘field trip’ was undertaken to GCSE, in Brikama, located in the West Coast Region in The Gambia. During the field research, individual interviews were conducted with 30 respondents (10 females and 20 males),3 amongst whom were GCSE lecturers and students, teachers from different schools, pupils, curriculum designers and representatives from both the Supreme Islamic Council4 and the Gambian Christian Council.5 The main aim was to discover whether there was a shared need for interreligious education and what the underlying objectives of this type of education would be. In addition, a project group was formed for consultation and monitoring of the module’s design. To understand the background and relevance of the pilot module (2014) for Gambian society, we will start with a brief description of the social context of The Gambia, and focus on religion and religious education. In the following paragraph, we will present the pilot module developed from the data that was used for its design, its theoretical framework, main features, and how it was tested and evaluated. In the final paragraph, we will draw the conclusions based on the research presented. This chapter gives a full account of the pilot module that has been designed based on the research data sampled from interviews and pedagogical studies. Because it has been conducted as a pilot, the authors regard this module as ‘work-in-progress.’

SOCIAL CONTEXT OF THE GAMBIA6 The Gambia, officially ‘The Islamic Republic of The Gambia’ since 2016,7 is the smallest country in mainland Africa. It is surrounded by Senegal with a narrow Atlantic coastline at its western border. This West African country is situated at both sides of the Gambia River, from which its name is derived. The population is about 2 million with almost 60% under the age of 25 with more than half of the population living in the urban areas. About a third of the population lives below the international poverty line.8 The country’s economy is based on farming, fishing and tourism. The Gambia is promoted as ‘the smiling coast of West-Africa,’ and even after gaining independence from England in 1965, English has remained the official language. There are several ethnic groups in The Gambia, each with their own language, rituals and traditions. Mandinka and Wolof are two of the largest ethnic groups. Marriages occur between people from different ethnic groups as well. Thus, inter-ethnicity or ethnic diversity becomes visible from the smallest social unit throughout Gambian society.

Religion in The Gambia Recent numbers of religious affiliations and practice in the daily lives of the people indicate that religion is an important part of Gambian daily life. About 90% of the Gambian population is Muslim with the majority adhering to Sunni laws and traditions. The remaining part of the population consists of 9% Christians – Roman Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Pentecostal – and next to that, 1% adheres to traditional indigenous beliefs or to another philosophy of life. In recent years, a small group of followers from the Baha’i Faith and a small community of Hindus among South Asian immigrants added to the religious landscape of The Gambia. Intermarriage between members of different ethnic and religious groups is legal and socially acceptable; it is also common between Muslims and Christians. As one participants stated in an interview “There are interreligious relationships all over Gambia. There are families where you will find Christians and Muslims in one family.” Religion was always considered a stabilizing factor (Frederiks, 2017). Among Muslims and Christians there are also those who engage in practices of Animism. This is still occurring in parts of the Foni and the Combo coastal region in The Gambia. These practices pre-date the arrival of Islam and Christianity, with some people blending or syncretising a mixture of their new religion (Islam, or Christianity) along with these practices which comes in various forms. Hence, ancestor worship continues to be part of the daily life of some Muslims and Christians. Muslims and Christians live peacefully together in The Gambia. Their relations with one another are part of daily life, and are manifested by attending each other’s wedding and burial ceremonies. Mutual respect and tolerance are also shared with people from other faiths and philosophies of life. Muslims and Christians together with representatives from the Baha’i communities, form the Inter-Faith Group for Dialogue and Peace, where they discuss matters of mutual concern such as

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