Religion in Malawi

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Here are some of my thoughts on a rather unique and refreshing aspect of Malawi culture.  Although the country seems rather evenly divided between Christians and Muslims, there seems to be absolutely no animosity, strife, or mistrust between these two groups. I would have expected that there would be a lot of self-grouping based on religious affiliation, but in fact, Christian and Muslim children play together quite happily.

They seem equally curious about the religious beliefs of the volunteers as well.  After “What is your name?”, the next most common question is “belief?”, or “Islam?”  A volunteer from Florida is here, and he is a Muslim, so now the children think that people from America are all Muslims.  When they ask me if I am “Islam”, it is only out of idle curiosity, which is quite encouraging.  Either that, or they just like to say “Salam aleikum” (then again, who doesn’t?).  Today I had a nice conversation with a Muslim boy who asked me if I knew who Mohammad was.  I told him that he was “God’s prophet”, and the boy smiled.  He then asked me if I knew any other men of God from Islam, so I said “Ibrahim”, and the boy gave me a fist bump.

On a continent filled with strife along tribal lines (for example, Rwanda) and religious lines (for example, North and South Sudan), it is nice to see that it is possible for different groups of people to coexist peacefully.  In this respect, Malawi seems more progressive than the United States and other industrialized “Western” countries, which still have some problems with tensions among these two religious groups.

Below you can find a picture of snack time at the Nursery School.  It has nothing to do with religion in Malawi, but it's just so darn cute I couldn't resist.