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From Our Own Correspondent: Sierra Leone and Croatia

Sierra Leone and Croatia

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, Sierra Leone and Croatia

Pascale Harter presents insights from Tamasin Ford in Makeni and Mary Novakovich in Lika.

Personal stories from around the world, with Pascale Harter. Tamasin Ford finds some in Sierra Leone choose to follow Islam AND Christianity; Mary Novakovich sees Croatia's countryside emptying out.

Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers from around the world. Presented by Pascale Harter. In this edition:

Two religions, one God - and one devotee

Some people argue that the world today is living through 'a clash of civilisations' - between Islam and Christianity. You only have to tune into the news from time to time to see that there are people all over the world who believe these two religions to be utterly opposed. Look at the stories of inter-communal friction – and sometimes violence - between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria, Pakistan and Indonesia. 

But in Sierra Leone, a country which has seen more than its fair share of war and devastation, Tamasin Ford has met some people who feel that not only are Islam and Christianity utterly compatible, they can even be seen as complementary. So: what is a "Chris-Mus" exactly, and what does he or she believe?


The days of plums and city visitors

Int he 1950s, Mary Novakavich's mother left her home, in what was then called Yugoslavia. She left behind a large and beautiful house, with acres of land - and had to find relatives to occupy it. Since then, the same rural spot has seen civil war, and wholesale political and economic reforms - and fewer and fewer young people willing to stay in the villages and work the fields.

The house is now inside the borders of Croatia - but it's missed the tide of tourism which has swept through the country's Adriatic coastal towns. On a recent visit back, Mary Novakovich found the area around it full of trees groaning with fruit and the houses hosting plenty of family guests, down from the city for the summer. But was all this activity  really just a seasonal stop gap on the road to the slow extinction of rural life?

(Image: A view of the central mosque in Koidu in eastern Sierra Leone. Credit: AFP / Getty Images)

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