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By Ejaz Khan<\/p>\n
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Zunaid Hoosen spoke to Yusuf Moosagie Live from Benin on Radio Islam this morning . Benin, on the western edge of Africa ,is bordered by Nigeria and Togo on the west and the east.
Zunaid and is wife are in the country soaking up the Ramadaan atmosphere and culture, (Minus the voodoo, we hope)<\/p>\n
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On How they ended up there:<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe\u2019ve been living for over a year now.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
We\u2019ve actual spent Eidul adha here so we\u2019ve been here while. My company transferred out here.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
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What are the fasting times in Benin?<\/p>\n
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\u201cFasting time in Benin is slightly longer than South Africa<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
It\u2019s the wet season currently which t is considered summer , suhoor ends at 5 am and iftaar is at 19:10 PM\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
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On What Makes Ramadaan in Benin Unique:<\/p>\n
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Benin itself is a unique country. The birthplace of Voodoo.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
It is the only country that recognizes Voodoo as a religion.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Christianity and Islam are the other major religions.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
During Ramadaan, you can\u2019t differentiate between Muslims Christians, Muslims, or Voodoers,everyone seems to be partaking of the Ramdaan spirit!<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
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On Muslim Places of Worship:<\/p>\n
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\u201cWith Benin being a very under developed country ,both in infrastructure and economy, We have lots of musallahs, so Every second or 3rd<\/sup>street cortner you will find these small musallahs with 3 or 4 musalleees<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n At All salaah times.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n About the People of Benin:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are extremely friendly, they are very open, to people of any background.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Humble, lots of poverty but that doesn\u2019t create barriers between tourist and locals.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n The only barrier is the language . Benin\u2019s official language is French.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n On Madrassahs and the Maktab system:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHere in<\/i><\/b>\u00a0Cottonou, Zongo , a predominantly Muslim area, has a Masjid and madressah, locals come there for Islamic studies.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Cottonou is on the south of the country. In the areas closer to Nigeria, there are Islamic universities, some of which are sponsored by the Libyan Government .\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n On Freedom of Movement :<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n \u201cWest Africa is diverse, one reason is because it is part of the Ecowas community<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Similar to EU , there is free entry between borders.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Mostly Senegalese, Nigerian and Malians but also other foreigners in Benin.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n On Size dimensions:<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a 15 minute drive \u00a0from end to end through the CBD.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n But it has many Foreign embassies.<\/i><\/b>\u00a0\u201c<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n On what makes it famous, natural resource-wise :<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBenin\u2019s natural resource is Cotton production, it Represents 80% of the GDP.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Economy still based on subsistence farming.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Benin is very reliant on Nigeria regards imports and exports.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Of the 8\u00a0000 km\u2019s of road in Benin, only 1000 is Tarred.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n R10 \u00a0gets you 600 francs, what can you buy with that in Benin?<\/p>\n \u201cNot much, things are very expensive.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Message to family?<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPeaceful Ramadaan, blessed Ramadaan, we pray Allah accepts all the sacrifices and insha Allah we will see our families in time for Eid.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Ejaz \u00a0Khan is International Content Producer for Radio Islam International \u00a0 By Ejaz Khan \u00a0\u00a0 Zunaid Hoosen spoke to Yusuf Moosagie Live from Benin on Radio Islam this morning . Benin, on the western edge of Africa ,is bordered by Nigeria and Togo on the west and the east.Zunaid and is wife are in the country soaking up the Ramadaan atmosphere and culture, (Minus the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc0QIf-3WG","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-30 11:07:22","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15170\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/i><\/b>Follow or interact with him on: @ejaz_k<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"