Members of the Yoruba community partaking in the street carnival in Accra
During his sermon on Eid-Ul-Fitr day last Sunday, the Imam of a mosque in Alajo, Accra, Sheikh Haruna Yahaya urged Muslims to treat women with respect because, according to him, they are God’s special creations.
Women, he said, bear children who are nurtured to grow into useful personalities for society. Such children, depending upon the prevailing circumstances where they grow, could become good or bad.
It behooves men to take good care of their wives so that they can perform their roles without let or hindrance, he stressed.
Imam Haruna added that all those who took part in the Ramadan fasting and ended it all with a feast should be especially grateful to God because others were not given such a privilege by their Maker.
This year’s Eid spanned over a period of two days for the first time since such occasions have been declared holidays.
In Accra Central, as has been the case for about a century, Muslims in Cowlane, Zongolane and Tudu converged at the area on the backside of the Accra Technical University to mount horses for a street carnival.
Sheikh Haruna in a handshake with some members of the community after the congregational prayers
It was a carnival of colours as each ethnic head or chief had following them members of their tribes.
The reenactment of a practice steeped in the city’s history had Chief Abdul Rashid Brimah leading the Yorubas, and a representative of the English family leading the Hausas, as was somebody at the head of the Fulanis from the Danbaki family.
Although the Main Eid congregational open space prayers were held at the Independence Square on Monday, others decided to pray on Sunday at various locations across the city and other parts of the country.