Today is the day after the day of celebration of Tabaski (name in West Africa) or Eid-al-Adha, when our Muslim cousins commemorate Abraham’s obedience towards God when he was asked to sacrifice his son Ishmael (not Isaac, if you thought you read wrongly), but God intervened by providing Abraham with a sheep to sacrifice instead. In the weeks leading up to the celebration, the streets are full of goats wandering or tethered in random spaces in preparation for the mass slaughter and feast. Tabaski normally passes peacefully.
This morning, Sarah had asked our housekeeper’s granddaughter Marie to go to the market to buy some tomatoes and aubergines as we would be eating with 80-year-old Gandhi Marinova, the pioneer called by God to establish the Mission Philafricaine in Guinea for a meal (more about her, yes her, in the days to come). She’s visiting Guinea as it’s the 30th anniversary of the mission this year. She had received a cockerel as a present this morning and had kindly given it to us for our lunchtime meal. After a morning meeting, Sarah returned to find that Marie had returned empty-handed. Mariam, her grandmother explained that a young Malinké boy had been killed in a nightclub in town.
Eric returned from work and as usual, took the route towards the town but was diverted by the military as they had cordoned off the market and central areas. It turned out that two boys, one Peul, the other Malinké around 13/14 years old had seen a mutual love interest that they both yearned for. The young Malinké was successful and set about dancing with her. The young Peul saw them both dancing together and wanted revenge. He made for home, seized a knife, returned to the club and stabbed his ‘friend’. Now, as ever in Guinea, this has turned into an ugly tribal problem. The Peuls or Fulani are the largest people group, and dominate the commercial scene, and are often blamed by other people groups for controlling the food prices and resisting integration into the general population. There was much tension between the Peuls and Malinkés in the run-up to the general elections last year in which the Malinké candidate Professor Alpha Condé won the election and became president. Soldiers quickly surrounded the house of the young Peul to protect the family from Malinké exacting revenge. It’s not clear if the boy is still at the house or is in hiding somewhere else. A very precarious situation has transpired in that the ‘prefet’ or the head of state at regional level is also a Peul and any statement or intervention from him would only be seen as biased. In a very ill-judged move, a group of elders from the Peul community made a visit to the home of the bereaved family of the Malinké boy in order to seek reconciliation. They were met with by a furious mob who had tried to decapitate one of the elders who was rushed to hospital.
- Please pray for this terrible situation, that the hearts of the family of the Malinké boy would be comforted and that they seek not to exact revenge.
- That God would calm the hearts of those who are living in rage.
- That He would send an envoy capable of bringing the Malinké and Peul to the table to dialogue.
- For the military to act wisely and responsibly.
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