The Muslims period of fasting was always a great moment for me. As a resident of Madina in Accra, which has a large Muslim population, everyone tried to have a bit of the fasting when it was that time of the month.
Ramadan, as it is usually referred to, was always greeted with cautious optimism. While some people saw it as a month full of blessings and opportunity to fast and pray for forgiveness of their sins, others too saw it as a form of punishment or torture and would always come up with various flimsy excuses not to observe the fast.
My parents are devout Muslims and would ensure that every member of the family observed this holy month of fasting. However, since I was only eight years, they didn’t make it mandatory for me and I somewhat liked it.
But upon a deeper thought, I felt I was being cheated. At every evening when it was time to break the fast, my father ensured that the dining table was stocked with all kinds of mouth-watering dishes. There were all kinds of food, milk, koko, koose, fura, and fruits such as dates, banana, watermelon and oranges.
My father will however, insist that only those who completed the day’s fasting enjoyed all these goodies. Those of us who couldn’t fast had to wait for the leftovers, and sometimes, they ate everything.
To ensure that I was not left out of this daily merry making ritual in the month of fasting, I insisted I would fast even though my mother insisted at my age, I should not. But to me, it was a nice time to enjoy all the salivating dishes that I have always longed for.
My father would often insult my elder sister who always came up with one reason or the other not to observe the fast. My father would often say, ‘good for nothing girl, all your age mates are observing the fast but as big as you are, you cannot observe the fast. Look at your kid brother, as young as he is, he has never missed observing the fast’.
I was always swollen-headed each time my father came strongly at my sister. To make matters worse, I will try and poke fun at her by holding her dress and teasing along.
Unknown to my parents, unlike my elder brother who genuinely observed the fast, I never did. Each time I pretended I was observing the fast, I would sneak into the kitchen and eat some food and quickly clean my mouth. Sometimes, I even feign to be weakened by the fast by pouring cold water on my head or lying down in the sofa.
I knew what I was doing was unacceptable but very often I would mischievously console myself that, ‘After all, God cannot see me in my hideout, I am cheating on Him’.
At a point, my sister began to suspect me. She told my parents she suspected I usually secretly ate before the time to break the fast was due. But any time she raised such allegation, I would swear heaven and earth to deny it. Any time she alleged that, my mother would rather rain insults on her and tell her she was jealous of the fact that at her age she couldn’t observe the fast while I did. This really got my sister furious and she cried with bitterness.
Unknown to me, my sister decided that she would keep an eye on me and expose me some day. I suspected she was hatching such a ploy so I cleverly outwitted her every occasion.
However, one day, luck eluded me. As I sneaked into the kitchen, my sister closely followed meAs soon as I had filled my mouth full with food, she appeared on the scene.
At a spot, she screamed as if something bad was happening to her. All of a sudden, everybody in the house rushed into the kitchen and there I was unable to open my mouth. Everybody got to know my tricks from that day and even at age 15 when I begun to observe the fast genuinely, everybody still doubted me.
I became deeply hurt and vowed never to lie nor steal again.
