The Greater Accra Multi-Faith in Action Ghana hosted Prof. Paul W. Speer and Prof. Brian D. Christens of Vanderbilt University, USA, for a day of conversation on community organising and social change.
Christians, Muslims and traditional leaders sat in one circle with organisers from across the region and talked about the work: how people come together around what troubles them, how a shared complaint becomes a demand, and what it takes to move an institution that would rather not move.
The scholars came to listen. Their questions were the ones organisers ask themselves:
What brings people to the first meeting – and what brings them back to the tenth? How does a community turn a private frustration into a public issue? Where does collective power actually come from, and how is it held? What stops us when we push against a system?This is part of a wider research initiative by Vanderbilt University with Faith in Action, USA, studying how communities organise and build power. The Greater Accra team offered what no journal article can: the texture of the work as it is actually done in Accra.
Our visitors left wearing Akwaaba stoles. We hope they also left with a clearer picture of what faith looks like when it organises.
Research that listens to communities is research that can serve them.
