Faith & Community
Landmark
Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu
born 1919
National Chief Imam, and Ghana's most persistent peacemaker
Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the Ghana Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
Chief Imam since 1993 and past a hundred years old. His standing rests less on the office than on decades of ending quarrels — between Muslim sects, and between Muslims and Christians — before they became violence.
Sheikh Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu was born on 23 April 1919 at Old Fadama in Accra, and was appointed National Chief Imam of Ghana in 1993.
His reputation rests on peacemaking: mediating intra-Muslim disputes that had recurred for decades, and sustaining the interfaith relations that make Ghana unusual in the region. He sits on Ghana's National Peace Council, and his practice of attending Christian services and of Christian leaders attending his birthdays has become one of the country's more striking public habits.
His reputation rests on peacemaking: mediating intra-Muslim disputes that had recurred for decades, and sustaining the interfaith relations that make Ghana unusual in the region. He sits on Ghana's National Peace Council, and his practice of attending Christian services and of Christian leaders attending his birthdays has become one of the country's more striking public habits.
- Wikipedia — Osman Nuhu Sharubutu
- The Africa Report — Nine things about Ghana's 104-year-old chief imam Sharubutu
- Springer — The ambivalence of religious leadership and peacebuilding in Africa's consolidated democracy: the National Chief Imam of Ghana
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