AT A MOSLEM SCHOOL

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 628, 3 April 1929, Page 6

AT A MOSLEM SCHOOL

The other day a British doctor walked up to a mud-built bouse in Nigeria, drawn to it by the sing-song of children’s voices. Evidently it was a school, though it looked more like a cart-shed. He went to the door, and saw that the teacher was an old negro wearing a long robe and a sort of turban. The old man was willing to let the stranger come in. “What do you teach?” asked the doctor. “I teach the children to say parts of the Koran by heart,” replied the priest-teacher, or the Imam. “They spend nine hours a day like this.” The visitor pointed out that the Koran is in Arabic, and these children were . speaking another language, whereupon the Imam explained: “Yes; they do not understand what they learn by heart, but when they have learned much we explain it to them.’* We cannot imagine British children learning passages in Turkish by heart for nine hours a day! The Nigerian schoolboys must be particularly good! “I also teach them not to steal, or disobey their parents, or forget to wash,** said the Imam. The doctor said this was excellent, and asked if he taught them anything else about health. “Yes,” said the Imam. “The teachers know how to cure the sick. They write a passage from the Koran on a tablet, wash it off with water, and give it to the sick person to drink. Or, if he has a wound, they wash it with the water.*’ Then the doctor took his leave, pondering over the fact that this was a missionary school. We are apt to think that only Christian churches send teachers to the pagans, but the Moslems are just as anxious to make converts. Arabic Korans, prayerbeads, and mud-walled mosques with thatched roofs are appearing in native villages, where little boys spend hours learning to say: “There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is the prophet of Allah.” Where else, we wonder, could such patient teachers and such willing pupils be found, or such queer firstaid methods be taught?