Food is a unifier. Across all races and cultures. Food is one unifying force that brings together the different culinary experience and tastes of people across the world. It is our everyday experience to cook, to buy food and to share food and our food experience with others.
Food is the real deal in any gathering of any kind. In meetings, its tagged as Item No 7, that part we all look up to after the serious parts are concluded. In parties, that’s when the “real” party begins…sharing of food and drinks with it cokes with gists, gossip, meet and greet and bonding. That is how vital food is to all cultures. The sharing of food therefore covers our faith.
For instance, during the Ramadan period of fasting for Muslims, during the breaking of the fast called iftah, Muslim faithful are encouraged to share their food with families and friends. It is a time of gifting. Christian friends also send food packages as gifts to Muslims during the period.
Like wise during Christian fasts, friends are invited to dinner and food gifts are also sent to orphanages and also distributed to the widows, the less privileged and the poor within and outside the church community.
In traditional settings, there is something called “saara” which could loosely be called sharing. Children are served with sweets, fruits and snacks by their mates, often done after a special prayers. Sharing of food, especially beans, is mandatory for appeasing the ancestral spirit of twins. Also food is shared during the worship of different pantheons of gods.
Now like it or not, our faith gives room for celebration. Festivities come with our faith. And so, according to the teachings of the Muslim faith, Ramadan celebrates sacrifice, which focuses on the story of Abraham. Abraham is the believed to be the father of the two faiths through Ishmael and Israel.
The ram that was offered for sacrifice in place of Abraham’s son, Israel had become the focal point of celebration of Eid-el-Kabir. After surviving that test, Abraham told his son that it was time to return home, Ile ti ya or Ileya.
Every year, we all felicitate with our Muslim friends. We visit them, we enjoy the food, the drinks, the atmosphere. Many of them gift us with the sumptuous ram meat along with steaming dishes of food. The festivities affect us all.
Then, about four months later, it is Christmas. The tinsels and lights are out. Some Muslims gifts their Christians friends with cards, gifts or hampers. They slaughter chickens along with us and we all make merry since we have all being gifted with life to celebrate.
But after the festivities and sharing, laughers and joy, our religious bigotry returns. We cannot stand the sight of each other. We attack and bully each other. Fight and curse one another…on and off social media. Sadly, we kill each other in senseless religious wars.
We all need healing. We all need that tolerance we project during festivities to reflect in tolerance for our different faiths. If you have eaten fried ram and later detest your Muslim friend, you are a hypocrite. And if you collect Christmas chicken, eat, make merry and continue to detest your Christian friend, you are a hypocrite. And if you’re killing your fellow human in fighting for your faith, you are fighting for yourself.
The Divine does not need fighting for. Our festivities, food and faith should begin to unite us. None is separate from the other.
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