At any time of the day and in all circumstances, ritual greetings help to weld ties and consolidate the sense of community. Third installment of Father Anand’s column from the Ivory Coast: «Akwaba! Welcome to Africa»
One of the most beautiful things that always strikes me here in the Ivory Coast is the way of greeting each other. Greetings are a sort of sacred rite. Every day begins and ends with greetings and every moment of the day is characterized by its own ways of greeting, as well as the salient events of life, such as birth or death.
In our mission in Ouassadougou, weekday Mass is celebrated at 6 in the morning. At the end, the faithful stop outside the church waiting for everyone to leave. One of them takes the floor, greets and asks for news of the village. Another, on behalf of all, gives the news, while the others listen, even if they all live in the same village and know the events.
The mission is located on the way to the fields. Some farmers cross it on foot, by bicycle or motorbike to go to work. Everyone greets us, asking us for news: how are you? Did you sleep well? And so on… Even when they come back they greet us with the same solemnity, asking the same questions. I often wondered why our people never get tired of greeting and asking for news…
As part of my mission, every 15 days, I visit the sick in our community. Through streets, houses, courtyards, always in the midst of a succession of greetings, which have their own rituals and always consist of the same questions and answers. Arriving at the sick man’s house, the first thing I have to do is give me news, otherwise I can’t begin the conversation and prayer.
And when death touches and saddens the simple life of our peasants, we visit the family for prayer and funeral arrangements. Even in these cases, the ritual of greetings is essential. Before and after the visit to the family, we stop in the public square, where the village chief is together with the notables and men. Here too, the greeting ceremony is an expression of closeness and accompanies condolences.
Our house is large and we welcome everyone: people from the community, from the village, people passing through… Some come to visit, others for the activities we have on a mission. In any case, at any moment, when someone arrives, the first thing is to offer them a place to sit down and ask for news. Only after that is the real reason for the visit told.
This way of doing has always questioned and struck me a lot. Now I think I have understood that the ritual of greetings and requests for news is a way of maintaining the bond between people and families, a sign of unity and reconciliation and a way of expressing the good that one wishes to others.