By Umaru Fofana
Believers of religion, and I am one of them, will tell you that praying is good. Praying communally is even better. But such is the reality these days that praying communally is ill-advised and dangerous because it can be a potential vector of the new coronavirus.
It is with that in mind that houses of worship around the world – including those in holy places like Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Vatican – have been closed for weeks and months now. I am not sure the world has collectively ever seen anything like this.
Not surprisingly, when President Julius Maada Bio met with the Inter-Religious Council of Sierra Leone (IRC-SL) last week at State House, the issue featured. Among other things the faith leaders asked for the easing of restrictions on worship in churches and mosques.
Referring to the head of the IRC-SL, Sheik Abu Bakar Conteh, a press release from State House reads: “He…mentioned that they were meeting to appeal to government to consider reviewing the sanction on the closure of Churches and Mosques, so as to help them overcome the great challenge of meeting their people and for ease of sensitization and education”.
I have great respect for the sheik and many other religious leaders across faiths. And I know Sheikh Abu Bakar is not alone in his call for houses of worship to be reopened. As head of the IRC-SL, he must have spoken for the religious community in general when he said the above words.
I have spoken to some leaders of the Christian faith who have argued that the people should be allowed to go back to their mosques and churches to worship. But some of them have been honest enough to admit that the financial contributions from worshippers are what keep them going; and they have not been forthcoming with the restrictions. I feel sorry for the priests, pastors and imams whose livelihood depends on contributions from worshippers during service, and I appeal to followers of the various faiths to remember their religious leaders in these times of dire need. So I agreed with them as far as the economics was concerned. I, however, disagreed with them on the reopening of faith houses and we agreed to disagree even if they also said that they were concerned about the risk of the spread of the tiny monster called corona.
There is no logic or rationale for lifting the ban on going to church or mosque at this material time, even if some have been sneaking to attend communal prayer sessions which I will come to in a moment. Otherwise why did we shut them in the first place? These houses were closed at a time when we were recording single digit cases in between days. Now we are recording double digit cases EVERY BLESSED DAY. So what is the argument for easing restrictions when the situation has become far worse? At a time like this and for that reason I would even expect tighter restrictions and sterner enforcements of such.
It is exactly two months since the first case of COVID-19 was announced in Sierra Leone (31 March 2020). As I write this article (on Saturday 30 May), we have recorded nearly 900 cases. That gives us a daily infection rate of 14. All, but one, of the country’s 16 districts have recorded cases – Karena being the only exception. The only good news is that the recovery numbers are pretty encouraging with nearly half of those infected having tested negative and left the treatment or isolation centres. That is remarkable!
Sierra Leone’s infection numbers must start reducing considerably before any easing of restrictions should be considered. Even that must be carefully thought out. There are still many things to learn about the coronavirus. One of the countries to have handled their outbreak of the pandemic admirably is Germany. Recently, owing to the dwindling numbers and the containment of the virus, the European country eased some of its restrictions, chiefly church attendance. But that was too soon! What happened should serve as a cautionary tale for any country wishing to reopen its churches and mosques, not least one that is struggling with rising numbers like Sierra Leone is.
In a new outbreak of the new coronavirus in the country in early May, more than 100 people were infected most of them having attended Sunday service at a Frankfurt church. The local residents of Germany’s financial centre and surrounding communities “became infected during religious services held by the Evangelical Christian Baptist”, according to a story in the World Street Journal.
Another outbreak last week also infected dozens of people who attended a church service. All these infections happened despite the fact that social distancing measures were put in place and there was no singing of hymns or administering of communion. Singing can spread the virus through respiratory droplets.
The measures placed by the German authorities ahead of the easing of the restrictions included that parishioners must wear a face mask and keep a distance of six feet, sitting on pews that were disinfected. Worshippers were required to register their names and make available their telephone numbers. In Germany – especially what used to be East Germany – taking someone’s details is a very big deal bearing in mind how the former secret service – the Stasi – used such information to surveillance citizens and eliminate them.
Such strict social distancing measures will be hard to implement in Sierra Leonean churches and even more difficult in our mosques. The stubbornness of many of the worshippers is shocking. Unbelievably I have been to far-flung communities where I have seen Muslim worshippers praying communally in makeshift mosques. And they think it is normal. I have also been told – and I saw it at least once myself – of some makeshift churches holding Sunday service. The other day I saw a group of people – some carrying their children – mostly in uniform, walking from a makeshift structure I later learned was a church. It reinforces the need for community focus in this fight where local authorities will enforce measures. For now they see these breaches and they are cavalier about it.
I want to be able to perform communal prayer sessions again especially Jummah (Friday) prayers. But for the general good of all we should wait. We must wait until such a time when we have the virus under control. That time is NOT now. Let us pray in our homes and let the religious leaders use new media to preach and mobilise their flocks in the fight against COVID-19, such as was mentioned by Sheik Conteh. This is a disease whose debilitating effect many do not seem to appreciate. I understand the threat to our daily survival that is threatened by these restrictions. But doing others will be far more disastrous!
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