ABSTRACT
Each day of my childhood in the late 1930s and early 1940s, through the half-light of daybreak in the northern part of the coastal town of Winneba, Ghana, the cool morning air would vibrate to a call in a very strong voice from a tower close by. A muezzin, in long and melodious verses, was inviting Muslims in the neighbourhood to pray. Over the next little while, the muezzin’s voice would dissolve and groups of rising voices could be heard reciting from the scriptures as the congregation formed in the town’s little mosque for morning prayers. Eventually the heterophony would grow thinner as the muezzin’s voice would rise again in an animated closing paean to Allah while the congregation filtered back out to return to its daily chores. The first prayer session of the day had ended. The next three would be observed, more quietly but no less piously, in smaller groups or in privacy before the group evening worship just before dusk.
