Christmas in African: A Community Peace Experience

Production Benjamin Bissan Shekari Lives on Foundation (BBSLOF) ©BBSLOF 2015. This Story is posted here with Express permission of BBSLOF -NigeriaThis is a product of the peace initiative of BBSLOF. We believe world peace can be achieved one community at a time.

Table of Contents

Introduction………..……………….........................................................……………………….4

Chapter 1The Early Days…………………......................................................…………....…….5

Chapter 2  The Preparations.……………………….......................................................……......7

Chapter 3  The Christmas Eve…….......................................................……………………......17

Chapter 4  The Christmas Day……………….....................................................……….......…22

Chapter 5  The Boxing Day…….......................................................……………………..…...31

Chapter 6 Christmas in my Teenage………......................................................……….............36

Epilogue………………………………………........................................................…………39

Other African Peace Books…………........................................................………...…………40

Glossary……………………………………......................................................……………..42

Introduction

My name is John. I grew up in a community called Chikaji in Sabon Gari Zaria. Zaria is part of Kaduna State in Northern Nigeria of West Africa. We came to Zaria in 1973 then I was in class three in the primary School. We were a family of six but one of my sisters, comfort died. We however with time grew to become a family of eight. It was made of three boys and five girls.

The chikaji community was a mixture of Hausa Muslims and Christians, although there were more Muslims that Christians. However we all lived in peace. These books are real life stories of my childhood experiences that are told in a fictituos form.

The stories that are told in these series are meant to give someone a glimpse of how we lived in peace in those days.

They are particularly aimed at young minds in order to encourage them to change the future. They are a cry for us to return to the old peaceful days that existed in Northern Nigeria and Africa in general. They are lessons for religious tolerance and co-existence particularly between Muslims and Christians.

The introduction and chapter one of all the books in the series are almost the same. There are only a few changes in order to emphasize the story in each particular book.

This book in the series is a description of how we celebrate Christmas. It however emphasizes how we co-exist as a community that is mixed; One that was made of Christians and Muslims. It begins with our early days in the Chikaji Community, then the preparation for Christmas, the Christmas Eve, the Christmas day, the Boxing Day and the final chapter is a look at Christmas in my teenage. This last chapter is important because it describes some development that took place in the community. It shows how this resulted in a negative impact on the peaceful co-existence of the Community.