Ajisari

An ajisãrì is one who arouses others to pray and feast during

Ramadan , type = islam , longtype = Religious , image = Ramadan montage.jpg , caption=From top, left to right: A crescent moon over Sarıçam, Turkey, marking the beginning of the Islamic month of Ramadan. Ramadan Quran reading in Bandar Torkaman, Iran. ...

. He goes from house to house, as early as 2:00 AM, beating his

kettle drum Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally ...

with a stick and singing (screaming) at the top of his voice. This is purely a religious duty; it is voluntary. Although the ajisari does not expect to be compensated by his fellow believers, he believes that

Allah Allah (; ar, الله, translit=Allāh, ) is the common Arabic word for God. In the English language, the word generally refers to God in Islam. The word is thought to be derived by contraction from '' al- ilāh'', which means "the god", an ...

will reward him, in the hereafter, for forsaking his bed and discomforting himself during the month-long

fasting Fasting is the abstention from eating and sometimes drinking. From a purely physiological context, "fasting" may refer to the metabolic status of a person who has not eaten overnight (see " Breakfast"), or to the metabolic state achieved after ...

period. The name derives from the

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

word "Suhur," meaning early morning meals during the holy month of

; it's spelled and pronounced "sãrì" in

Yoruba The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...

. An ajisari is fearless because he believes

will protect him for doing HIS (

's) work. The ajisari practically works alone, which explains why he's sometimes been called "Lone Ranger." So, unlike

Were music Were music () is an indigenous Yoruba music, which, like ajisari, is a way of using music to arouse the Islamic faithful to pray and feast during Ramadan festival in Yorubaland. Ajiwere or oniwere means "one who performs were music." Unlike aji ...

, it's rare to see a group of ajisari. In the late 1970s, however, one group in

Ibadan Ibadan (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Oyo State, in Nigeria. It is the third-largest city by population in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano, with a total population of 3,649,000 as of 2021, and over 6 million people within its me ...

, Taiwo-Kehinde Ajisari, The Twin Brothers' Ajisari Group, violated that exclusivity when they suddenly emerged from nowhere. Nigerian music Islam in Nigeria {{islam-stub