Accra,
Ghana, 10 February 2020 – An independent research institute is set to be
inaugurated at the University of Ghana as a tribute to the late Professor Lamin
Sanneh for his distinguished contribution to scholarship in the study of Islam
and Christianity.
Professor
Lamin Sanneh, a native of The Gambia, was a D. Willis James Professor of
Missions and World Christianity at Yale Divinity School and a professor of
History at Yale University. He also taught at the University of Ghana in the
mid-70’s. Prof. Sanneh who passed away in January 2019 started his academic
career as a lecturer in the mid-1970s at the University of Ghana in Accra and
went on to win several distinguished academic and meritorious awards.
The
Sanneh Institute, as it is known, is dedicated to equipping and resourcing
Muslim and Christian religious leaders, theological students, young academics,
academic institutions, policy makers and the wider African society through
advanced research into, and engagement with, issues at the intersections of
religion and society in Africa.
The
Institute will work in close collaboration with the Department for the Study of
Religions (University of Ghana) and in partnership with Yale University.
As
part of the inaugural celebrations, the institute will host Christian and
Muslim scholars from Africa, Asia, and the West in series of academic lectures
from the 26th-28th of February 2020 on the theme, “Territoriality and
Hospitality: Christians and Muslims Sharing Common Space”. The climax of the
week-long inaugural activities will be a public lecture on Saturday, 29th
February2020 at 8.30am at the University of Ghana, Legon-Accra. The inaugural
lecturers are Dr. Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury and Professor
Farid Esack, a leading Muslim scholar and professor at the University of
Johannesburg.
The
event will be chaired by the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana,
Professor Ebenezer Oduro Owusu, with His Excellency the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu
Sanusi II; and the Gambian High Commissioner to Ghana, His Excellency Amadou
Sheikh Oman Taal, as Special Guests. The inaugural lecture will share insights
on the significance of peaceful coexistence in our societies especially among
Christians and Muslims in Ghana and Africa as a whole. Borne out of a
longstanding vision to establish an African Centre for the advanced study of
Islam and Christianity, The Sanneh Institute seeks to provide academic
leadership in raising a new generation of religious figures with theological
humility and intellectual curiosity in the other, under the leadership of Prof.
John Azumah, the Founding Executive Director.
