Tamale

Julia Littmann expected many things in Tamale – but not a bar with an Israeli name or the "Jesus Never Fails Boutique".

On Sunday, when the fervent churchgoers among the approximately 15 percent Christians in Tamale head to services, one could forget that the capital of the Northern Region is a largely Muslim city. So many of them crowd avidly into church that the number of visitors to regular Sunday services in Germany seems feeble by contrast. Yet, next to the handsome churches here in Tamale, the city’s religious countenance is marked primarily by two magnificent mosques and about 500 sometimes only garage-sized mosque additions to small private homes.

Despite all modesty, this city likes to boast of its tolerance. There’s no question about it and it is easily accepted as true. Here, fanaticism is chiefly a wrought up state reserved for life’s more pleasant pastimes, above all football. Apart from that, the mood is dominated by tranquillity to an extent that the respectfully observing visitor hardly anticipated in this country. For instance, when the trendy bar at the popular Giddipass pub is named, of all things, "The Kibbutz Bar."

None of my colleagues knows how it came to be called that, although none of them knows what this kibbutzim actually is either. I did not need to puzzle for very long over how the word for an Israeli, more-or-less socialistically organized agricultural settlement came to be emblazoned in neon letters above a hip bar here in a Muslim city. Coincidentally, the owner, an enchantingly friendly and elegant woman, spoke with me at a press conference in a quite different context and explained casually: "My son was in Israel for some courses and when he returned, we happened to be looking for an extra name for the bar. He suggested Kibbutz Bar and we just liked it." She listens with great interest as I explain that the idea of the Kibbutz is associated with solidarity and with sharing: "That’s a good thing to know. It’s a congenial idea behind such a nice-sounding word!"

Just as a Kibbutz Bar stands out in a Muslim city, it was similarly unexpected to see the capitals letters above a tiny kiosk containing a quaint hodgepodge of apparel. "JESUS NEVER FAILS BOUTIQUE" is the name of the two-square-metre fashion shop between the mobile phone card stand and the green banana seller on the street to Bolgatanga. No one here thinks that a distinctly Christian headline above a mini-business could affront anyone. There are often Christians and Muslims living together in one family and all family members observe Ramadan together just as they all celebrate Christmas a few weeks later. "Anything else would be absurd," says Zak, "tolerance benefits everyone!"