Abdullah's Naming

Another unique opportunity for cross cultural exchange. Steve’s work partner Kasim recently became a father for a third time, a healthy baby boy being born during our trip. This meant the boy was going to have to be named, and thus a traditional Muslim baby naming would be held.

Held on a Saturday morning, we arrived at Kasim’s at 8.30am to find all the traditional trappings – rows of rented plastic chairs, oversized blown out speakers, cases of small sodas stacked in the corner and a gaggle of women at the edge of the yard cooking wildly.




What was different was that at one edge of the square there were long mats rolled out and a series of older village men and women were singing, chanting and, well, yodeling.



The ceremony itself was very short with the Imam chanting briefly, followed by several rounds of charity donations made to the villagers sitting on the mats. As Kasim explained to us, the Imam said a prayer in which he mentioned the boy’s name – Abdullah, btw – and the charity given in his name was in the spirit of Islam’s pillar of charity, setting him on the path for a devoted life.



And we ate, and drank, and ate some more. I mean, it was a Beninese party, it's what we do here.