Three PhD defences in one day on religious coexistence in Ghana
Last Tuesday was a special day: three researchers defended their PhD dissertations in succession as part of the same project. Martin Luther Darko, Kauthar Khamis and Rashida Adum-Atta investigated how people of different religions coexist in Madina in Ghana.
The PhDs are part of Madina Project: a collaboration between the African Studies Centre (ASC) in Leiden, Utrecht University and the Institute for African Studies at the University of Ghana.
The three PhDs mark an important milestone for the project, which explores how people of different faiths live alongside one another in Madina, a rapidly growing, multi-religious suburb of Accra in Ghana. The research is part of the wider Religious Matters in an Entangled World research project led by Professor Birgit Meyer from Utrecht University.
Religious coexistence
Founded in 1959, Madina has a population of more than 130,000. It is a multi-ethnic, multi-religious suburb where Christians, Muslims and followers of traditional religions live side by side. The Madina Project focuses on how these groups interact and coexist in peace. Each of the three PhD candidates approached this from a different perspective.
Healthcare
Martin Luther Darko’s research explores how medical care is provided by Muslims within a Christian-led healthcare institution, the Pentecost Hospital in Madina. ‘It appears that maintaining a certain distance and making compromises are key strategies for religious coexistence within the hospital environment. For instance, pregnant Muslim women feel uncomfortable and anxious about interactions with men during a caesarean section in the hospital. In such cases, they invoke the Islamic principle of necessity to justify limiting such encounters.’
Beauty salon as a meeting place
Kauthar Khamis focused on beauty practices among Christian and Muslim women in Madina Zongo, a multicultural community within Madina. Through research conducted in beauty salons, she explored how women adopt and adapt one another’s beauty ideals and practices.
Rashida Adum-Atta investigated the role of food in social relations between religious groups. She looked at the exchange of food among Muslims, Christians, and, to a lesser extent, followers of African Traditional Religion in Madina Zongo. Her findings show that food can contribute not only to inclusion and social cohesion, but also to exclusion, and highlight what this means for everyday life in a diverse community.
Proud of multidisciplinary research on Africa
For Rijk van Dijk, Professor of Religion in Contemporary Africa and its Diaspora, who was involved in the supervision of the PhD candidates through the ASC, these PhDs represent the successful culmination of long-standing international cooperation.
‘The research fits well within the multidisciplinary tradition of African Studies, in which economic, political, historical, religious and cultural issues are examined from a range of perspectives. The three PhD candidates show how different topics can shed light on the ways in which religious communities live alongside and coexist with one another.’
Part of a larger project
These three PhD defences follow an earlier PhD within the same project. Joseph Fosu-Ankrah obtained his doctorate last October for research also conducted within the Madina Project. This brings the total number of PhDs within the project to four.