Ghana #8: The Sanneh Institute
by Jeff Ritchie, for the team
Saturday, February 29 has arrived. The original reason we had come to Ghana was about to take place, namely the launching of The Sanneh Institute at the University of Ghana. We had been hearing about this new institute for advanced studies in Islam and Christianity since Professor John Azumah had visited Palms Presbyterian Church in Jacksonville Beach, Florida almost a year ago. It is an initiative that builds on the life-long work of the late Professor Lamin Sanneh of Yale University.
Lamin Sanneh was originally from Gambia in West Africa. Like our friends, John Azumah and Solomon Sule-Saa, Sanneh was a convert to Christianity from Islam. His Christian experience occurred in a West African context where relationships among Christians and Muslims were largely peaceful. This context in turn informed his thirty years at Yale University where he taught on Islam and World Christianity in a manner that promoted respectful Christian-Muslim conversation in the classroom and around the globe.
John Azumah’s life and ministry also occurred at the intersection of Christianity and Islam in a West African context. He ministered among Muslims in the Northern Outreach Program of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana. Following his PhD studies on the Arab slave trade across North Africa, he taught Islam at Akrofi-Christaller Institute in Ghana and later at Columbia Theological Seminary in the U.S.A. In 2008 he developed the Interfaith Research and Resource Center of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana which was later to move into the Akrofi-Christaller Institute as the Center for Interfaith Studies and Engagement in Africa (see Ghana #7 blog).
In all his work and study, Professor Azumah had been influenced by the writings of Professor Sanneh, and the two had developed a relationship over time. Thus when Azumah began to dream about a regional center for the study of Islam and Christianity in West Africa, he thought of honoring the legacy of Professor Sanneh by naming the proposed institute after him.
After a year and a half of preparations, the Lamin Sanneh Institute was ready to be launched. Hundreds of people were in attendance—Christians from various communions, Muslims from different expressions of Islam, and adherents of traditional African religions were present on the campus of the University of Ghana for the event. The Rev. Dr. Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, and Dr. Farid Esaek, a Muslim from South Africa, gave the inaugural lectures on the subject of “Territoriality and Hospitality.”
In his opening remarks, Dr. John Azumah declared his hope that the Institute would be a space where church, mosque, and the academy could meet to explore how each could contribute to the common good and the transformation of society. The vision of The Sanneh Institute and its motto reveal the “head” and the “heart” of this ambitious project and are worth quoting in full.
Vision: Offering scholarship as a tribute to God, with the religious and non-religious other within hearing distance, for the transformation of society.
Motto: Our roots are deep as is our love of neighbor.
Our Outreach team of Rona Burgin, Ingram Caswell, Carolyn Ueber, Caryl Weinberg and myself were among the first to arrive at this moving event. We saw among the attendees Peter Ziame and Roger Wegurih, friends whom we had met in the north and who considered themselves disciples of John Azumah. Many of our friends from Akrofi-Christaller Institute, including Solomon Sule-Saa, were present as well. It was as if our whole trip was summed up that morning as we rejoiced together in the launching of The Sanneh Institute.
Our hearts were full to overflowing as the conference ended. We congratulated John and expressed our on-going prayers for The Sanneh Institute. We were deeply humbled when he responded by telling us how much it meant to him that we would come all the way from the U.S. to witness this event with him.
As we prepared to leave Ghana, we realized we were experiencing what mission at its most authentic is like: as we work together in God’s mission, the “deep roots” of love we develop over time transform us and, by God’s grace, make a difference in the neighbors we serve. Thank you, Ghana and friends in Ghana, for helping us see God’s mission with new clarity. We continue our journey with great gratitude and great joy.