Cultural continuity

Eid al-Adha in village

Life back in the US has offered me two satisfying moments of craved Togolese and Muslim cultural continuity.

The first moment was meeting two Togolese men who are originally from the area of Togo where I lived. They speak the language of Kotokoli that I learned to an intermediate level while in Togo. Speaking Kotokoli, with all of the cultural importance that is placed on certain subject matters and moments in communication, renders unto the last two and a half years of my life the feeling of richness that memories of those years deserve. Richness that, with no fault to anyone, dissipates like fog in the US context.

The second moment of cultural continuity came when I went to Friday prayer at a mosque here in Oregon. There were small differences, none of the Muslim rosaries that were ubiquitous in Togolese mosques, folks were Middle Eastern and Eastern European instead of African, and the sermon, that spoke to God's view on interest or making money off money, made reference to the Western cultural context of being Muslim in the US, to the credit crisis, Plato, and the Catholic church. Not only did I agree with the sermon's message, that we must refuse to make money our first priority, but, as speaking Kotokoli did, the sermon and the prayer that followed rendered the memory of life in Togo full and rich.

Living in the US, It is easy for my life in Togo to be drained of its meaning and utility like a motor of its oil. Moments of cultural continuity put oil back in my motor.