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Sudan. The democratic transition in peril.

Wednesday, 1 July 2020 8:00

The economic crisis amplified by the coronavirus pandemics, ongoing unrest in the provinces and divisions in the ranks of the government are threatening the transition to democracy.

More than a year after the Khartoum spring of April 2019, that led the military to overthrow President Omar al-Bashir, crucial achievements have been made but progress is still fragile. The Sovereign Council, which began ruling in August and comprises five military and six civilian representatives and holds the role of head state is scheduled to lead the country through a transitional period to elections in November 2022. A transitional government was formed in September 2019. A peace process kicked off in Juba in October between the civil-military administration and the rebels to end the conflict in Darfur, in South Kordofan and in the Blue Nile.

The leader of Sudan’s transitional sovereign council, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Burhan, meets members of Sudan’s new ruling body after their swearing-in ceremony.

In January 2020, the Prime Minister, Abdalla Hamdok, made an historical visit to the headquarters of the rebels in South Kordofan. The image of the PM raising the hand of the rebel leader of the Sudan People Liberation Movement North, Abdel Aziz Al Hilu raised much hope throughout the country. The transitional government also made steps towards the signature of a peace agreement with the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) which groups several militias from Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan. Progress is also being made on building a justice system, basically from scratch.On the foreign front, the new authorities made also significant progress. In March, Sudan was excluded from the US Department of State’s list of countries which do not cooperate with America’s counter terrorism efforts. Germany France and the EU are supporting Sudan’s democratic transition, while the EU committed EUR 100 million to finance reforms, last February.

Nevertheless, the situation remains fragile. A combination of factors could put the transition in peril. In the first half of May, armed clashes at Kadugli, the capital of the South Kordofan province, at some 715 km from Khartoum, killed 26 people, including Rapid Support Forces paramilitary troops, which grew out of the Janjaweed militias. This outbreak of violence could challenge the transitional government’s efforts to end decades-long rebellions in several parts of the country. Beside these clashes which were caused by a dispute between the Arab Rizeigat tribe and the Falata, over livestock, there has been also tribal clashes in South Darfur and in the Kassala province, namely between members of the Bani Amer and Nuba tribes.
The UN and the African Union are concerned by the situation. In a joint report sent in March to the UN Security Council, they reminded of the looting in December of the Nyala internally displaced persons camp which is under the protection of the United Nations- African Union Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID). On April 24, UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix called on the Sudan Liberation Army/Abdul Wahid faction to join the Juba peace talks. In principle a final agreement should have been signed by the 20 June but this split of the Sudanes Revolutionary Front was made it difficult.

Deputy Chairman of the Sudanese Sovereign Council Lieutenant General Mohamed Dagalo.

According to regional experts, the upsurge of violence is owed to the fact that the transitional government is unable to exert political control and security presence all over the territory where nomadic tribes, who drive herds of cattle or camels over arid lands, fight over scarce grazing lands, water and livestock. Over the last decade, a culture of war and the trafficking of illegal arms have spread while the number of militias has increased.One of the ruling council members, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemeti, says that recent violence is part of a plan to foment instability. Accordingly, a “hidden hand” is planning to target the Rapid Support Forces and to destroy Sudan. Political analyst, Al-Nur Hamad blames rather for the destabilization, a “third party” linked to former Bashir supporters, while other analysts dismiss such accusations as “conspiracy theories” Tribal disputes which were restricted to remote rural areas during the Bashir period have now entered urban areas.

Despite this volatile context, the chairman of the Sovereign Council and Commander in Chief of the Sudanese army wants to put an end to the UNAMID Mission in October and wants to replace it by another which transfer the protection of civilians in Darfur to the Sudanese army and to the RSF. The number of UN troops would be downsized from 4,300 soldiers and 2,100 police officers to only 2,500 police officers and 800 troops. The new mandate would be restricted to a Chapter VI peace support and peace-building mission which should aim at supporting reform of the constitution, holding elections, strengthening human rights and rule of law institutions while supporting the implementation of peace agreements including ceasefire monitoring and disarmament, demobilization and reintegration operations
But on the 2 June, Ahmed Tugod Lissan the Chief Negotiator for the SRF rebel coalition said that UNAMID is needed to protect civilians due to the “fragile” security situation. Accordingly, a future peace agreement requires UNAMID’s presence to implementat the security arrangements.
Civil society groups are also urging the UN not to withdraw peacekeepers from Darfur, claiming that the move will put lives at risk. They remind that over 350,000 people have been killed and at least 2 million were displaced since 2003, in Darfur.

The head of the Sudanese National Umma Party, Sadiq al-Mahdi.

On the political front in Khartoum, the transitional government is facing a number of challenges. There are attempts to undermine democracy by the Islamists who want to return to power, especially those from the “Deep State” who are trying to manipulate popular discontent. On the 2 June 2020, former Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour said he would defy the law that bans former members of his National Congress Party from political activity and punishes them of imprisonment if they don’t respect the ban. There are also power struggles on the side of the new authorities, between the civilian Freeedom Forces of Change (FFC) the military council and the Rapid Support Forces.
Recent splits over the direction of Sudan’s transitional period have widened beyond the military army and civilians. The National Umma Party (NUP), led by former prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi, suspended in April 2020 its membership of the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC), the ruling coalition which agreed the transitional power-sharing agreement with the army. The withdrawal of the NUP is due to disputes with other parties over the management of the transitional period. The NUP, one of Sudan’s oldest and most popular parties has come up with its own plan of reforms called the “social contract” that includes the restructuring of the FFC in order to improve the management of the transitional period. It claims that the goals of the transition haven’t been implemented, like the formation of the transitional parliaments and commissions. The NUP is also keen to maintain a good relationship with the military unlike other parties or civil society organisations. There are fears among the civilians that the military may intervene and hijack the transitional period.
There have been also disputes in the ranks of the Sudanese Professional Association (SPA), which is also member of the FFC and which led the protests against Bashir. Some are accusing the communists and other leftist organisations which have some influence among the doctors, lawyers and journalists unions to attack the government because they want more power than they have in it and because they are frustrated that they did not control the 2019 Revolution.

Internally Displaced Persons in Darfur.

The SPA and other civil society organisations are fighting for a secular state while Sadiq Al Mahdi has rejected calls to link peace with such form of government. The SPA wants civilians to have more power in the peace process which is led by the High Peace Council, chaired by Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan, who, as leader of the Sovereign Council has a prominent say in the transition.
The dire economic situation is another threat for the transition. The International Monetary Fund has projected Sudan’s economy to shrink by 7.2 % in 2020 and highlights the 80% inflation rate and the “unsustainable” debt of $ 60 bn. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that 9.3 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, out of total population of over 42 million, including 1.9 million IDPs and 1.1 m. refugees. Food prices are soaring owing to local currency depreciation, high inflation and shortage of fuel and hard currency needed to import agricultural products.
The privatisation of major assets by Al Bashir’s regime over 30 years., and the insurgencies which prevent from reducing military spending have made it difficult for the transitional government to improve living conditions and may exposed it to internal shocks.

François Misser

Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Fragile countries.

Wednesday, 1 July 2020 8:00

Serbian demography is also following the trend of the other surrounding countries, registering a considerable decline in population, something that involves especially the citizens belonging to the Serbian ethnic group.

Demographic studies inform us that, in the period from 1991 to 2011, the population changed from 8,010,000 to 7,186,000, while the population of autochthonous citizens recorded a sharp decline from 6,616,000 to 5,988,000. In Serbia, too, the Roma are moving in the opposite direction; during the same period they increased from 90,000 to 147,000. However, the true figures may be much higher. In fact, data elaborated in 2012 by the Roma and Nomads Division of the Council of Europe, indicate numbers that oscillate between 400,000 and 800,000. The birth rate among Roma Serbs, elaborated by an independent researcher, is also remarkable, with figures of 5.32 children per woman as well as 7.9% of Roma families with more than 11 children.
These data show a substantial disproportion in the birth rate among ethnic Serbs which the World Bank certifies to be 1.44 children per woman in the year 2017.

According to a report elaborated by the Council of Europe, for the protection of national minorities, Serbia has a sound legal framework for their protection and the Serbian authorities are making laudable efforts to improve the situation of the Roma communities, regularise the situation of the stateless and develop cultural initiatives. The opposite view is held by the NGO Civil Rights Defenders, which in May 2018 presented a report on the situation of the Roma in the country entitled ‘The Hoop of Anti-Gypsyism: Roma in Serbia’, from which it emerged that, in the past twenty years, the national authorities did nothing to improve the living conditions of the Serb Roma, who it says are still suffering discrimination in the work market and to be victims of hate crimes that never lead to prosecution. It adds that a significant number of Roma are left stateless without the authorities doing anything to provide them with the documents necessary for regularisation, a requirement in order to live legally, avail of services, request social housing and to enter the world of work.

In seeking to understand the precarious conditions in which the Serb Roma are forced to live, it is very useful to examine the data elaborated by the Scholars Strategy Network, within the report ‘The Hard Life of Roma People in Serbia’, put together in 2015, which states that 60% of those people live in ethnic ghettos deprived of essential services such as electricity and potable water.
Other meaningful figures regard illiteracy which amounts to 80%; 60% unemployed; 20% of children never continue going to school after nursery school; 70% of children fail to complete primary school, and only an average of 8% of Roma finish secondary school.
The living conditions of Bosnian Roma are no better; they are forced to live in periphery settlements, deprived of contacts and relations with the rest of the population. In Bosnia too, there is a high rate of unemployment and school drop-outs among the Roma even though school attendance is obligatory, by law, in the country. Just as in many other countries, here too, the Roma have a bad reputation and are the victims of prejudice.

Bosnia-Herzegovina
Even though the civil registration of the Roma is still incomplete, the Roma in Bosnia-Herzegovina are estimated to be a minority of around 50-80,000 people. The data they possess regarding the demographic situation of the Bosnian ethnic group, according to studies the trend is similar to that of the Roma present in other countries of the Balkan Peninsula and, going by demographic data, it is foreseen that they will become the ethnic majority.

The population, in fact, is rapidly declining with the birth rate as low as 1.26 children per woman, the lowest in the area, and the eleventh worst in the world. As has happened in the other Baltic States, Bosnia-Herzegovina, between 1991 and today, has suffered the loss of more than a million people, declining from around 4,400,000 inhabitants to 3,300,000. The causes of depopulation, also in this case, can be traced to the high level of emigration among the younger generations and in the inability of governments to prepare plans for demographic improvement since they are obliged to work with continually decreasing public funds and mounting social and economic pressures.
Meanwhile, in Serbia and in Bosnia-Herzegovina, just as in the rest of the Balkan Peninsula, the failed integration of the Roma could become a real social threat for the entire European Union, as well as a territory to be conquered by those actors who, taking advantage of the fragility of these countries, intend to broaden their range of action.

Filippo Romeo

Time for Africa to rid itself of racist colonial relics.

Wednesday, 1 July 2020 8:00

Anti-racism protests and the removal of colonial-era statues are signs of dealing with historical injustices. Africa must decide whether to retain names of colonial times or scrap them.

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human to step on the moon. Armstrong would later utter the now famous quote: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” The American astronaut and his compatriot Buzz Aldrin then firmly placed an American flag on the moon. The flag, visible to this day, was not only a symbol of pride for the US but also of conquest.

By that date in 1969, many African countries had unshackled themselves from colonial rule. But more than five decades later, the African continent is still peppered with colonial relics. African countries still have landmarks, streets, health and educational institutions and, in some cases, even military barracks named after colonial governments. Though all African countries can now proudly claim to be independent with their flags hoisted up, the “colonial flags” remain firmly rooted in the continent albeit not as visible as before.

How else can one explain why Africa’s largest freshwater lake is still named after the British monarch Queen Victoria? The irony is that the local people in East Africa who guided English explorer John Hanning Speke to the lake referred to it as Lake Nyanza. Nevertheless, Speke, the first European to set eyes on the lake, decided to rename it Victoria. He either didn’t understand the language or he just didn’t bother because he was on “her majesty’s mission of conquest” – in this case, finding the source of the river Nile.

Speke even has a street named after him in Uganda but that could soon change as the East African nation is reportedly considering removing road names with links to the colonial era – these include streets honouring the explorer Sir Henry Johnston, commissioner Henry Edward Colvile, King’s Africa Rifle, Princess Anne, Prince Charles and the current British monarch Queen Elizabeth II.

It is encouraging to see the UK at least having a debate about its imperialist and colonialist past in Africa. But it didn’t come easy. For the UK to start reckoning with its past, it took the #BlackLivesMatter protests which started when George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man died after a police officer choked him with his knee during an arrest for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 note. A college in Oxford has announced that it wants to take down the statue of Cecil Rhodes – the man who called what is now present day Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia) and Zambia (Northern Rhodesia) after his own name. Another statue of Edward Colston, who built a fortune from the transatlantic slave trade, was pulled down by protesters and thrown into a river. It has since been recovered and will be preserved in a museum.

In Africa, statues of Queen Victoria, Cecil Rhodes, King Leopold of Belgium and several others have been taken down over the years. Some statues or monuments such as the Vasco da Gama pillar erected by the Portuguese in 1498 in Malindi, Kenya, to guide ships following the sea route to India, have become part of the town’s history.
Since the pillar is now a tourist attraction, people have to pay to see it, it would probably make no sense to destroy it, even though Vasco da Gama’s discovery sea route to India later enabled the Portuguese to establish a colonial empire in India.

Africans must decide what colonial or slavery era relic they want to keep and what they want to discard. The Iguazu Falls found on the border of Argentina and Brazil got its name from the Tupi-Guarani indigenous languages which means “big waters”. In Africa, a similar magnificent waterfall found between the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia bears the name Victoria Falls. Why Victoria again? In my school history class in Kenya, I was taught that David Livingstone, the famed Scottish missionary and explorer, the first white man to view this majestic wonder of nature, named it after Queen Victoria.

What I didn’t learn however, was that Zimbabweans have always had a name for the falls, it’s called: “Mosi -Oa-Tunya” which means “the smoke that thunders”. Queen Victoria who reigned over the British Empire passed away in 1901. Why should Kenyans, Ugandans, Tanzanians, Zimbabweans and Zambians use her name more than a century later as reference to major Africa landmarks which previously had their local African names? Africa is still home to cities that still hold on to names given by colonial administrations. Take Nigeria’s Port Harcourt for example – the city of more than 3 million people got its current name in 1913 from Frederick Lugard — Lugard just felt like honouring Lewis Vernon Harcourt who was then secretary of state for the colonies by naming a whole Nigerian city after this one man.

Bear in mind, prior to the British imperial government, the city was known as “Iguocha” in the Ikwerre language, the Igbo people called their port city “Ugwu Ocha”, which means bright skyline. Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial city, was formerly known as Eko until the Portuguese arrived and changed it. Same can be said of Johannesburg in South Africa, Rabat in Morocco, Walvis Bay in Namibia, Winneba and Cape Coast in Ghana.

Even the West African nation of Sierra Leone owes its name to Portuguese explorer Pedro de Sintra – who called it “Serra Lyoa” which means Lion Mountains — as the story goes, de Sintra heard lions roaring in the hills surrounding the harbour. As creative and poetic as that might sound, (I must admit I too like the sound of Sierra Leone), the local people would have had their own name for their land. It is up to them to decide if they want it back or stick with Sierra Leone. Changing colonial names back to the original African names is in no way an attempt to rewrite history, that’s already been done by those who invaded Africa to enslave and colonize the continent.

Bringing back old African names is only a part of reclaiming what was taken away. And after that has happened, maybe then we can start talking about the artificial boundaries drawn up by western powers in the Berlin conference of 1884 where no African was present.

Chrispin Mwakideu.
Editor at the Africa desk
of the international German broadcaster
Deutsche Welle.

Photo. The statue of Cecil Rhodes sits on the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Africa’s eyes are still set on its future.

Wednesday, 1 July 2020 8:00

Africa is suffering a double whammy after many years of success. The Coronavirus, while not taking down great numbers of people like in Europe, Asia and the Americas, has had a severe impact by curbing its exports in the face of the formers’ severe economic depression.

For example, flowers grown in Kenya and Ethiopia have been particularly hit. Kenya’s flower industry employs up to 70,00 people. Ethiopia’s horticulture provides 180,00 jobs. Kenya’s overnight exports of cut flowers to Europe have been worth almost 770,000 US dollars a year, up from 134 million in 2000. Now sales are on their way to rock-bottom.At the same time parts of East Africa have been hit by plagues of locusts, the likes of which have not been seen for over 70 years. They eat everything that comes their way.

For the first time in a decade in Africa many people are going hungry in countries that had had no trouble feeding all. Young, newly unemployed, people in the cities have been pushed to return home to their family villages and take up the hoe. Many are trying to migrate into Europe, although it is not in the numbers that the over-reacting media suggest. Only 2.5% of Africans living abroad compared with the global average of migrants living abroad, 3.5%.

Even so there are many reasons for hope. Before these calamities struck Africa was beginning to bounce. Africa had six of the world’s ten fastest-growing economies. Over the past decade, half of sub-Saharan Africa has grown at 5-6% a year. Some, such as Ethiopia, have seen a growth of 10% a year, the highest in the world.

There is no good reason why Africa should not return to that benign state once the northern part of the world gets on top of the Coronavirus. A silver lining is that the Coronavirus has been well contained in Africa. This is partly because Africa had time to see it coming and got itself well organized to test and trace. Second, densely populated West Africa had experienced Ebola and had learnt from that. When Ebola raged, Nigeria, Africa’s most populated country, managed to keep deaths down to seven. It was well organised- in a way that shames Europe’s and North America’s response today.

Africa’s eyes are still set on its future. In August last year, African leaders announced the creation of a continent-wide free trade area. If successful over the next decade it will bring together 1.3 billion people in a 3.4 billion US dollar economic zone. Already the “young continent”, with 60% of its population below the age of 25, has the highest rate of private entrepreneurship in the world. 22% of working age-Africans have launched new businesses. This compares with 13% in Asia
and 19% in Latin America.

More than 400 African companies already take in at least 1 billion dollars in annual revenue. BBC World runs a weekly program on African business. New viewers will be struck by how much the African economy has going for it. Mobile phone ownership has grown at a faster rate than anywhere else. 20% are smartphones enabling users to leapfrog
into the modern age.

In some parts of Africa, one can visit villages buried in the countryside which are using smartphones to transfer money and to get advice from doctors and nurses living in the big city. This is a fast-growing phenomenon. The Chinese are making great inroads into Africa- although not as much as is often reported. It makes about 20% of total outside investment. It has been estimated that the Chinese have created 10,000 businesses in Africa. India, Turkey, the UK and the European Union invest more. Regrettably, US investment, trade and aid have fallen. The EU has announced that it will give €40 billion in grants from 2021 to 2027, building on Germany’s “Marshall Plan for Africa”, launched in 2017.

Political interest and diplomacy are responding to this economic advance. According to a study made by the University of Denver more than 320 embassies and consulates were opened in Africa between 2010 and 2016. Turkey alone opened 26. The Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has paid more than 30 visits to the continent. Emmanuel Macron of France has made 10 visits; Narendra Modi of India 8 times. But Barack Obama only visited three times during his presidency despite having a Kenyan father. Donald Trump has not visited once.

Turkish Airlines now flies to 50 African destinations, nearly every country. Ethiopian Airlines, Africa’s premier airline, which has a low accident rate, comparable to European airlines, has rapidly added to its world-wide destinations. (Sometimes its planes are staffed by all-female Ethiopian crews.) Over the last decade, Africa has seen a return to democracy, (admittedly some countries have gone backwards). The democracies have higher rates of national income growth. Wars have decreased. Even the Congo after decades of conflict has gone almost quiet. Increasingly, countries have sounder economic policies- although it is tragic that Nigeria is not one of them after the sensible and effective years of President Olusegun Obasanjo when all looked possible. Three presidents later, present-day economic and financial policy is a mess.

Primary education has grown fast. Girls are being educated at a steady pace. This should bring down the birth rate, forestalling those prophets of doom who predict an over-fast population growth that swamps economies. A former president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, spoke of the present being “the African century”. There is no good reason why it shouldn’t be, despite the present-day double whammy.

Jonathan Power

Sudan. Mission among the Nuer.

Wednesday, 1 July 2020 8:00

Comboni Missionaries have been living with the Nuer people for almost twenty five years. They have been entrusted with the pastoral care of Saint Joseph the Worker’s Parish in Leer, which is under the Diocese of Malakal. This parish comprises four counties: Leer, Mayiendit, Panyijiar and Koch all within Unity State. Their pastoral priorities: formation of leaders, education, youth and women.

The Nuer or Ney ti Naath, which is translated as ‘the people among peoples’, number approximately two million, spread out in a federation of sections and clans in Unity State (Bentiu), in Jongley State (Fangak and Akobo) and in Upper Nile (Nassir).
Their lifestyle has been adapted to the periodic flooding and dryness of the land. The permanent villages and settlements of the rural Nuer have mud and thatched huts with larger buildings housing the cattle and other livestock, located above the maximum flood level, to which the Nuer return during the rainy season and where they plant their crops.
A typical settlement includes several extended families and other compounds. Bricks or any other permanent material buildings are
rarely to be found.

The Nuer way of life is based on the extended family in which a man is the head of the family. Their political organization is based on kinship, which consists of families and further sub-divisions by lineage and has no central form of government. At times the tribes organize themselves into loose federations. The lineages are a major structural factor for political order. The territorial groupings and lineage groupings are more closely aligned for some particular purposes.
Nuer mostly live in the swampy areas of the former Upper Nile Provincial region. The influence of the environment on the lifestyle of the Nuer is obvious. They are sedentary (although individual families live in solitary settlements) and agro-pastoralists who manage to balance subsistence agriculture with cattle herding and fishing. Their economy is based on livestock and crops production such as sorghum and few other crops. However, some few people have recently started doing business as merchants in the local markets.

Ecclesial context
The first Catholic attempt towards the evangelisation of the Nuer had been made back in 1925 with the foundation of the mission of Yoinyang, now Rubkona, on the northern part of the Bahr El Ghazal River. It was.an important logistic station for the mission of Bahr El Ghazal and a link towards the Nuer.
The presence of the Catholic Church in Leer dates back to the eighties.
Prior to that time, the whole area had been entrusted by the British colonisers to the Protestants (American Protestant Mission) through the ‘Missionary Act’ that created the Mission Spheres (1905).
This allowed the Presbyterians to be established all over and to form the Protestant mission territory until the establishment of the Catholic mission. In this context their Protestant/Presbyterian background still affects their life style a lot.

The beginning of the Catholic Christian Movement amongst the western Nuer took place in the eighties and was led by young Nuer common lay people, later on called catechists. It developed during the time of the war when these catechists founded many Christian communities around and baptised many people. Amongst these catechists was James Duol Kai, considered to be the founder of the Catholic Church in Unity State. Their work (1984-1993) was fundamental in the establishment of the Catholic Church amongst the Nuer. As far as we know, these inspired leaders became the first group in South Sudan that took up the work of evangelisation as we understand it in the Catholic Church.
In 1993 the catechists who worked hard for the establishment of the Catholic Church in the Nuerland felt it was important to ask for the presence of priests among them. A representative of two of them went to Nairobi to ask for ordained ministers. As a result, in 1996 a first group of Comboni Missionaries (MCCJ) came to Leer and established the mission. Since then, this young Church has developed much and grown stronger in faith and understanding of the Christian ethics. Some values were already part of the Nuer culture. Some social institution such as family life and marriage have still to mature a new understanding: polygamy is still widespread and appreciated in this culture.

The area has suffered during time of conflict and people had to move away to seek for safety. In 1998, missionaries had to abandon Leer and move with the people to Nyal after the attacks perpetuated by the the militia of late general Paolino Matip. Missionaries moved back to Leer in 2007. In 2014, Leer was attacked by government troops in the attempt to disperse opposition forces loyal to the opposition leaders Riek Machar. Missionaries were caught by surprise. They were attacked and had to run for their life.
They remained for weeks hidden in the swamps with the people before being evacuated by the UN.
Then, the missionaries moved to Nyal where they continued to offer pastoral care to the population which was victim once again of the conflict and violence.

Formation of leaders & Education
Formation of the pastoral agents is a priority of our missionary endeavour among the Nuer. In 2004 the parish catechetical centre ‘James Duol Kai’ was inaugurated in Nyal with a nine-month programme for the preparation of new catechists. James Duol Kai is a pioneer Nuer catechist who died in a crossfire in 1994 during the war. The formative programme continued in Leer up to 2014. The parish counts over three hundred catechists and lay pastoral agents. In May 2020, the missionaries plan to resume the programme in Leer to bring together the catechists in the main centre of the parish to witness the commitment of the Church for peace and reconciliation. Much violence occurred here in Leer during the latest conflict.

The ‘formation of the catechists’ is the approach and apply the see-judge-act methodology. In communion with the objectives of the parish pastoral plan, the teaching programme covers the Bible, Liturgy, Sacraments, Catechesis, Church History, the Social Teaching of the Church and other relevant areas and topics according to specific needs.
Missionaries are mostly engaged in pastoral work as the vastness of the parish demands a lot of commitment to visit all centres covering long distances on foot.
In Nyal missionaries collaborated with the local community primary school and also promoted the first classes of the secondary school. The Catholic Church was running a nursery school in Leer and supporting other village kindergartens. In Leer missionaries also promoted a Vocational Training Centre (VTC). The VTC offered technical skills on agriculture and animal management. Besides this, the students also acquired a basic knowledge in Mathematics, English, CRE and Entrepreneurship. The centre was plundered and was closed in 2014. During its three years of activities, it contributed to the formation of hundreds of students. There is hope that the project will be taken up again once there is peace and security in the country

Youth & Women ministry
The majority of people in our parish are youth. We are trying to offer pastoral accompaniment to teenagers through a systematic formative programme which includes the Bible, JPIC and other relevant youth issues. The women’s ministry deals with the organised and non-organised women groups of the parish.

It fosters women’s promotion through Christian formation (e.g. Bible study, shared prayer, etc.), education (basic literacy) and better sharing in the decision making process, considering their marginalization in the Nuer society. It aims also at helping the women to improve the quality of their life in some practical skills (e.g. sewing and agriculture). The main challenges faced are illiteracy and the lack of constancy of the of the women due to their many commitments in the family.

Christian Carlassare

Romania. Failure to integrate.

Wednesday, 1 July 2020 8:00

Romania, with its 19.6 million inhabitants, is going through a shocking demographic depopulation crisis. If the present pace were to continue, according to calculations made by the Romanian National Statistics Institute, the population would be reduced by around eight million in a matter of forty years, to below eleven million by 2060.

According to experts, this imbalance is due to the fact that families in Romania have an average of 1.6 children per couple and, in order to maintain present levels, this indicator would have to be increased to 2.1 children per couple.
Almost all ethnic groups in the country have shown a numerical reduction with the exception of the Romani who have registered a considerable increase and, according to Vasile Gheţău, Director of the CRD, the Romani will amount to 40% of the total population, becoming the most numerous ethnic group in the following twenty years.

This increase is believed to be due to the large and constant gap, noted also in Romania, between the fertility rate of Romanian women, stabilised at 1.6 children for each woman, and that of the Romani, which stands at 3.0 children per woman. The gap is also found in the threshold of the aged. That is, before 2030, 31% of Romanians would be made up of people above the age of 65, while among the Romani, only 3% of the Romani community will be over 65, with 47.3% of its people below the age of twenty.
This phenomenon is constantly being underestimated by political decision-makers, despite its effects being so clearly evidenced in the social fabric of the country. A closer look reveals a proliferation of quarters and villages inhabited by Romani but, despite this fact, there is no sign of integration with any of the other ethnic groups. Among these quarters, Fernentari, situated in the south west of Bucharest, is the most striking example: they are real ghettos with very precarious conditions of hygiene and a high level of crime and drug addiction proliferation.

In the view of most experts, it is precisely the precarious condition of hygiene of those places, together with the fact that the inhabitants, who do not follow the laws of the state, have not respected the rule of social distancing and so facilitated the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic more than in other Eastern European and Balkan countries. To understand how much of a threat that could be created by the failure of these populations to integrate, we only have to remember the matter of the violent protests which broke out in Rahova, a quarter of Bucharest, actually during the period of quarantine on Orthodox Easter Sunday. On that occasion, one of the Romani leaders, known as ‘Spartacus’ encouraged his fellow nationals, by means of social media announcements, to violate the quarantine and rise up against forces of order. The revolt which followed, lasting more than 24 hours, caused many injuries and 11 arrests. What happened was no isolated incident. In Romania, to be exact, episodes of violence between Romani communities and the forces of order are becoming ever more frequent and so render relations between the Romani community and the rest of the population increasingly conflictual.

However, in the country as a whole, the situation of the Romani is not made up exclusively of people who live in ghettos, but there are also families that have become well off with their various businesses and live a dignified life. One example of this is the community living in Buzescu, a city commune with a population of just under five thousand and located in the district of Teleorman in the historical region of Muntenia. There Romani families of the Calderash group, who, over the years, made their fortunes by trading in metal, live in sumptuous villas.
The Romani community in Romania is represented in parliament by the Romani Party led by Nicolae Păun which has a reserved seat in the House of Representatives and is the only political power dedicated exclusively to Romani questions. However, it is the National Agency for the Romani which is concerned with their inclusion, with poor results.

It is an organisation which is directly dependent upon the government of Bucharest, which represents the ethnic group and promotes, together with other authorities such as the National Council for the Struggle against Discrimination, projects aimed at improving the conditions of the Romani, with hitherto disappointing results.
It is evident that if the social condition of these populations were not to improve, ethnic transition could become a very serious matter since the majority of the population would find itself living in conditions of illegality, social exclusion and a high level of conflict. This would create nothing less than a social time bomb ready to undermine the integrity of the state. (F.R.)

The Catholic Church in Kazakhstan. Testifying through friendship and dialogue.

Wednesday, 1 July 2020 8:00

Kazakhstan is the country of Central Asia with the largest number of Catholics. Small communities scattered throughout a vast territory. The commitment of the Church to human development and social promotion.

Kazakhstan is located in Central Asia. It is the ninth-largest country in the world, with an area of 2,724,900 square kilometres. Its territory is characterized by the plains of Western Siberia and the oases and deserts of Central Asia. Before independence, during the Soviet Union period, the Kazakh population was less than 50%, the other half was composed of Russians, Ukrainians, Polish people and other immigrants of other nationalities. After the immigrants left, the situation changed and the Kazakhs now make up 63% of the population with 17.5 million inhabitants. The capital of the country is Nur-Sultan (formerly Astana).

The semi-arid steppes characterized by freezing temperatures in winter, turn into endless meadows ideal for pasture in spring, an essential resource for the Kazakh people who are also skilled horse riders since horses have always been essential for their nomadic lifestyle. The Kazakhs are said to have been the inventors of stirrups. They are also very skilled at shooting arrows while riding a galloping horse. Still today they perform their particular skills during parties and events. Their handicrafts made of felt, or wool are lavishly decorated. Headdresses, dresses, bags and saddle-cloths are beautifully embroidered. They use traditional designs and carvings to make and decorate the wooden cups, large bowls and ladles used to serve kumis (fermented mare’s milk). The foundation of Kazakh culture is hospitality, which always starts with a cup of tea. The host offers tea to any person who comes to their yurt. The yurt is a dome-shaped felt tent, a sort of elaboration of the Mongolian tent. It is a movable, comfortable and practical home, ideally suited to local conditions. The main material in yurt construction has always been willow wood. Once the framework is constructed, a felt cover provides protection from wind, rain, and snow in winter, and the scorching sun and dust of summer.

The Kazakh culture has its roots in the nomadic nature of the people and in Islam, which is the religion professed by the majority (70%) of the inhabitants of Kazakhstan. The Kazakhs embraced Islam during the sixteenth century and still consider themselves Muslim today. Changes in Kazakh society (mainly from a nomadic to a settled lifestyle) and an attempt by the Soviets to suppress religious freedoms, have led the people to adopt Islam more closely. However, their Islamic practices have been combined with traditional folk traditions such as shamanic practices, ancestor worship, etc. At the basis of the Kazakh social organization there is the extended patrilocal family. One of the most ancient forms of marriage among the Kazakhs was abduction, in which, under certain circumstances, the young man abducted his future wife either with her agreement or without it.
Marriage through abduction is still rather widespread, especially in rural areas. This is today only an imitation of abduction, however, since the girl, as a rule, willingly goes to the groom’s home ‘surreptitiously’. In such instances, the wedding is arranged immediately. The groom’s parents ask forgiveness from the bride’s parents, who give it. After the wedding the bride’s dowry is brought.
As a rule, patrilocal marriage predominates among the Kazakhs. However, levirate marriages are also common in Kazakhstan. In accord with the custom of levirate, after the death of her husband, the widow, together with the children and all the property of the deceased, is inherited by his brother (i.e., she becomes his wife). In accord with custom, Kazakh men can have several wives.
As for poetry, the Kazakh poetic styles reflect the Kazakh lifestyle, views, and ideals. The main styles of verbal-poetical art are: epic poems, social-domestic poetry, lyric-dramatic epos and lyric poetry, historical songs, shepherd’s lays, magical chants, wedding and funeral songs, fairy-tales and legends.

The Catholic Church
Kazakhstan is now the Central Asian country with the largest number of Catholics. It can be said that the history of the Catholic Church in Kazakhstan resumed in the 20th century when Stalin ordered the deportation to Central Asia of whole peoples of the Catholic tradition. From 1930 onwards, many priests were deported and sent to concentration camps in Kazakhstan. Having been released, they settled among the people and began clandestine ministry.

Msgr. José Luis Mumbiela Sierra, president of the Episcopal Conference of Kazakhstan.

In September 2001, Pope John Paul II visited the small Catholic community which had gained new vigour after independence. In 2003 the Episcopal Conference of Kazakhstan was created. This is composed of the dioceses of Nur-Sultan, Karaganda (led by Msgr. Adelio Dell’Oro) and of the Holy Trinity of Almaty (led by Msgr. Jose Luis Mumbiela Sierra); in addition, there are the apostolic administrations of Atyrau (governed by Fr Dariusz Buras) and that of the Byzantine rite Catholics in Kazakhstan and Central Asia (led by Fr Vasyl Hovera).The Catholics are around 1.14% of the population (about 112 thousand). There are currently 70 parishes in the country. Religious of 20 different nationalities reside in the area, for a total of 120 priests and 130 nuns. At present, there are 80 Roman Catholic religious associations in Kazakhstan. All of them have passed the procedure of re-registration and are among the 18 denominations officially registered in Kazakhstan.
Msgr. José Luis Mumbiela Sierra is also president of the Episcopal Conference of Kazakhstan. “The Catholic Church is going through a process of transformation. Initially most of the faithful were descendants of Polish people, Germans, Ukrainians and Baltic people, who had been deported during Stalin’s rule in the past century. Many of them have emigrated to other countries, but at the same time, people of other nationalities who ‘traditionally’ were not Catholics and not even Christians are now joining the Catholic faith. This constitutes a challenge for evangelization and inculturation. The migration phenomenon affects us closely, but we do not consider it a problem”, says the bishop.

“There is an atmosphere of dialogue and friendship in Kazakhstan. The government itself, ever since independence in 1991, has endeavoured to promote a society based on good relations between the different religious faiths. Peace and harmony are everyone’s goal and joint meetings are organized for this purpose. In this context, rather than institutional relations, personal relationships are important, relationships of closeness and friendship between believers of different religions or even non-believers”, says the bishop.
Msgr. Mumbiela recalls Pope John Paul II’s visit in 2001. “It was an unforgettable moment of grace and blessing. I believe that for Catholics who lived through the difficult years of the Soviet era, it was like seeing the light at last after going out of the catacombs. There were also many non-Christians who recognized that a ‘holy man’ had come among them. To us he was, and still is, a strong call to holiness. Missionaries are responsible for the image of the faith they profess. The Gospel must be made credible, acceptable and desirable for its beauty that missionaries should transmit through the testimony of their life “.

The Catholic Church, which is a minority community in Kazakhstan, has strengthened its presence in social works. Caritas in the country is very committed to human development and promotion. Two projects have recently been launched. One project is designed to provide training for staff working with adults and children with disabilities. Caritas director Don Guido Trezzani says, “We are creating two greenhouses, one in Talgar and the other in Almaty, which will also give the opportunity to teach disabled children a possible occupation by learning how to cultivate agricultural products”.
The other project involves women. It is a micro credit project, “We have purchased sewing machines to produce eco-bags which, as Caritas, we are already selling and distributing. With the help of potential partners or sponsors, we plan to buy more sewing machines to make bags and involve other women. Once the participants have returned the credit, they will decide whether to continue working with us or to start their own business”.
Archbishop Dariusz Buras Apostolic Administrator of Atyrau, says, “Over the last twenty years we have experienced very important events: the opening of churches and pastoral centres in cities such as Atyrau, Kulsary, Uralsk, Aktobe and Khromtau. Other occasions of joy were the two priestly ordinations of 2017 and 2019: Father Ruslan Mursaitov was the first local priest of the Apostolic Administration of Atyrau. Last year God gave us a second priest, the Philippine Father Patrick Napal”.
The Apostolic Administration of Atyrau is currently composed of six parishes located in four regions of western Kazakhstan and it is run by 15 priests and seven nuns: “The number of parishioners is constantly increasing. There are about 500 local Catholics in western Kazakhstan, to whom are added the many foreigners who come to work in this area and participate in the life of the Church”. (C.C.)

Music. Mory Kanté. The Electric Griot.

Wednesday, 1 July 2020 8:00

His eighties hit Yeke Yeke made him one of the prime artists of nascent world music.

The singer and musician Mory Kanté has died aged seventy after a long illness. Originally from Guinea, he was known all over the world especially for his hit, Yeke Yeke, launched in 1987. That piece of music, containing ethnic elements together with the electronic acceleration typical of the music of the eighties, became a reference point in the context of the birth of world music. It was no mere coincidence that he became known to all as the ‘Electric Griot’.

Kanté began as a griot, playing the kora (a traditional sort of harp found in West Africa) that he had learned as a child when his parents suggested he study the instrument in Mali. His whole family was devoted to the musical art of storytelling which, in African culture, goes beyond the confines of the music and becomes a historical account of one’s own family and one’s ethnic group and then part of the collective memory.
Born in 1951 in Kissidougou, in Guinea, at fifteen he moved to Bamako and there, in the Malian capital, he joined the most famous group in the country, ‘Rail Band’. In 1975, during a tour of West Africa with Rail Band, he won the Voix d’Or (Golden Voice) prize in Nigeria.

Having left Rail Band, Kanté began to create his own music, grafting Anglo-Saxon elements onto traditional music, especially soul music. In 1981, he began his solo career. A meeting with Abdoulaye Soumare, a producer who had worked together for years with Stevie Wonder, brought success with his album Courougnegne.
From that moment, Kanté began to be seen as the founder of modern Mandinga music, that special mixture of ethnic, western and electronic music that established him first in Africa and later in Europe, eventually bringing him to France in 1982.
In Paris, Kanté recorded the album A Paris containing a much more acoustic version of Yeke Yeke.
This album of only six tracks, established him as one of the avant-garde artists of the African scene. However, it was in 1987, with a much more rhythmic version using sounds similar to house music, that Yeke Yeke became an international success. Kanté became famous all over the world: the single sold more than a million copies and the album featuring it, Akwaba Beach, reached sales of over half a million.

With Touma, his album released in 1990, Kanté confirmed his style as an electric griot, making further use of electronic components sustained by his deep explosive voice; in the same vein we find his works of the decade: Nongo Village (1994), and Tatebola (1996). He delayed until the start of the new millennium to return to acoustic and ethnic sounds with Sabou, released in 2004 and Tamala in 2009.
In 2012, with La Guinéenne, the electric griot returned to the balaphone and the Fulani flute to honour African women whom he saw as still at a disadvantage despite the progress made. His last publication was issued in 2017. In his musical career, the artist created a total of 13 albums.
Kanté was also a social activist. On 16 October 2001, he became UN Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). “I will work with people of different cultures and I will travel to many countries to give people the chance to help each other. The whole world must unite to combat hunger and poverty”, he declared.

After becoming FAO Ambassador, Mory took part in many TV and radio programmes to promote the aims of the FAO.
In 2002 he took part in the World Food Summit and, in 2003, he held a concert on behalf of the FAO in Helsinki, Finland.
He had been ill for many years when, on 22 May, in Guinea, Mory Kanté died in a Conakry hospital.
Speaking during an interview he had said of himself: “I would like to be remembered as a man of culture, a citizen of the world who gets his message across through music and as a tireless traveller seeking to meet and get to know the people of this world”. (R.M.)

Sudan. St Mary’s Hospital in Khartoum. At the service of Life.

Wednesday, 1 July 2020 8:00

St. Mary’s Hospital is located in the Arab market district of Khartoum. More than 300 children are born in this structure every month. We visited the Centre.

Six Comboni missionaries of five different nationalities work there full time. The nuns are supported by a large team of 132 people, including seven doctors, 22 midwives, 23 nurses, 12 specialized caregivers, four anesthetists, three hematologists and several other people assigned to different services. The medical staff is composed mainly of women, as seems logical in a maternity hospital in an Islamic country.We went to visit the hospital and the Mozambican sister Albertina Marcelino, who is the staff coordinator, accompanied us.
First we visited the pharmacy, which is open 24 hours a day. The sister assured us that fortunately the hospital does not suffer from lack of medicines, and that, although it is a maternity hospital, people also go to the structure to buy medicines. Nearby the pharmacy there is the laboratory, whose main function is to provide the results of clinical tests as quickly as possible, and is also provided with a blood bank in order to deal with emergencies.

Upon leaving the inner courtyard, we found a group of mothers with their babies. They were there for periodic checks and for the vaccination program for mothers and children, which are provided every Tuesday and Saturday. Sister Albertina greets them in Arabic, caresses some of the babies and then confirms that, “All these children were born
in this hospital”.

The prenatal reception room is on the first floor. There we met Sister Erminiade of Italian origin, who is in charge of filling in the registration form of mothers-to-be. The St. Mary’s Maternity Hospital has never made a distinction between Muslim or Christian, Sudanese, South Sudanese, Ethiopian or Eritrean women. All of them are welcome and receive equal service at the centre. Sister Albertina told us that the sisters of the hospital offer particular help to women from poor families who cannot afford to give birth to their baby in a hospital. Therefore, approximately 30% of women enjoy partial or total assistance, depending on their economic situation. The sister, who is in charge of being in touch with the families of these women to know their real situation, decides about the level of support to offer them.
Those women who can afford to pay for the services of the St. Mary’s Hospital represent the remaining 70%, and their contribution is essential for the maintenance of the hospital. Many of these women get prenatal check-ups in the St.Mary’s Maternity Hospital, while others are followed in health centres located in the city and only go to St. Mary’s to give birth to their baby. They generally register themselves in advance, although some may arrive without prior notice.

The delivery rooms are the heart of the St Mary Hospital. We met, in the adjoining waiting room, a young woman of Eritrean origin who was very close to giving birth for the first time. You could see the joy in her eyes for her future motherhood and at the same time a shadow of fear for the pain she knew she would suffer during childbirth. We were also able to talk, thanks to the simultaneous translation of Sister Albertina, with two Sudanese women, a mother-to-be and her aunt, who were in another waiting room of the hospital. The hospital has three perfectly equipped delivery rooms and an operating room for caesarean sections or for complicated deliveries.
There are also intensive care rooms equipped with incubators. One of the rooms is antiseptic and only nurses have access to it.

In the case of premature births, or when babies have a particular problem, at least two nurses attend to them 24 hours a day. The sterilization rooms and the laundry, which are kept running at full capacity, are in the basement. The clothes arriving from the delivery room are subjected to particular sterilization. The sisters are aware that hygiene is essential, in fact 33 people are assigned to this service. In addition to the daily cleaning and systematic sterilization of medical equipment, a sterilization protocol is followed once a month for the sensitive places in the hospital. Sister Albertina talked to us about her work and that of the Comboni missionaries at the hospital: “I happened to observe that in many places the poor are often ignored or neglected. As a missionary and nurse I try to show with my work that there are no differences between people. Our hospital welcomes and serves all the mothers and new born babies with equal human and professional dedication regardless of their ethnic, social, economical or religious diversities, because the mere fact of being people already gives them full dignity”.Just before leaving the hospital, we met a young paediatrician, Adiba, who had just finished tending to a new-born baby girl. Another ‘daughter’ of St Mary´s Hospital.
Enrique Bayo

Herbs & Plants. Aspalathus linearis. The medicinal Tea Plant.

Wednesday, 1 July 2020 8:00

It is used to treat different allergies and help various antioxidant-associated health benefits.

Globally, a number of plants are used as tea with lots of nutritional and health benefits. One of such plants is Aspalathus linearis (Brum f) Dahlg which belongs to the plant family Fabaceae. It is an erect to spreading, highly variable, shrub that grows between 1.5 to 2 m in plant height. Its young branches are often reddish. The leaves are green and needle-shaped, 15-60 mm long and up to about 1 mm thick. They are without stalks and stipples and may be densely clustered.
The small yellow flowers are solitary or arranged in dense groups at the tips of branches. The fruit is a small lance-shaped pod usually containing one or two hard seeds.

Aspalathus linearis which is commonly known as rooibos is a shrub native to the Cederberg region in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The genus name Aspalathus is derived from the Greek aspalathos,which was the name of a scented bush that grew in Greece. This medicinally and economically useful shrub is endemic to the Mediterranean west coast region of South Africa and the rooibos tea is made from selected forms of the species found mainly on the Cederberg Mountains. Rooibos has been used by many communities within its distribution range since time immemorial and is becoming increasingly popular globally as a pleasant tasting tea with enormous health benefits. It is is known as the long-life tea in Africa.
In fact, rooibos has been consumed by locals for over 300 years, but it was not yet known outside South Africa. A tea made from the leaves and stems of rooibos is generally beneficial to the digestive system and relaxes spasms. It is also claimed to cure insomnia, allergies, and nervous breakdown as well as improve one’s appetite.

The infusion of rooibos leaves is usually added to milk and administered to babies as a cure for chronic restlessness, vomiting, and stomach cramps. The leaf infusion is also known to be effective in the treatment of diarrhoea, vomiting, and other mild gastric complications. Furthermore, Aspalathus linearis is considered to be beneficial when used internally and externally in the treatment of a wide range of allergies especially milk allergy, eczema, hay fever and asthma in infants. In some communities, women take rooibos during pregnancy to relieve heartburn, nausea, and for its iron. Also, it’s given to babies to relieve them from colic condition.
This plant can also be consumed in ‘fermented’ form and as such, it is also used traditionally as a refreshment drink and as a healthy tea beverage. In fact, recent scientific studies suggest that rooibos may confer various antioxidant-associated health benefits including antimutagenic, anticarcinogenic, anti-inflammatory, and antiviral properties and antiatherosclerotic effects.

As already mentioned above, Aspalathus linearis is a source of rooibos tea and is one of the most popular drinks for health-conscious people and it is also free of caffeine.
Of interest to note is that this plant is not only enjoyed as herbal tea but used as an ingredient in cosmetics, in slimming products, and as a flavoring agent in baking, cooking and cocktails.
The medicinal potential of this plant may be attributed to the numerous phytochemicals in it including flavanols, flavones, flavanones, dihydrochalcones, aspalathin and nothofagin. The processed leaves and stems are known to contain benzoic and cinnamic acids. In fact, Rooibos’ antioxidants ability is associated with the presence of aspalathin and quercetin in it.

Richard Komakech

Ethnic Groups and Religions.

Monday, 1 June 2020 8:00

A country of striking and changing landscapes, extremes of climate and environment, in tourism, Mongolia has an important source of income which threatens and simultaneously assists the permanence of traditions and ways of living that are threatened anyway.

The first threat is that of the population gradually becoming sedentary. Among these are many ethnic groups, one of which is the Kazakh with 114,000 members. The others are of Mongolian stock. Most of the Kazakh and Turkophone groups are Moslems (3 per cent in all), while 53 per cent of the population, according to the most recent census (2015), follow the Lama Buddhist faith. Animists and Christians make up 2.9 per cent and 2.1 per cent are Mongols, with 38.6 per cent who
do not profess any religion.

Animism and Buddhism of the Lama form are the dominant religions today in Mongolia, where there are small numbers of Moslems and Christians. Nevertheless, evangelisation in the country has roots going back to the VI century. Christianity even dominated from the XII century also due to the missionary and diplomatic activities of high-quality ecclesiastics such as Guglielmo di Robruk and Giovanni da Montecorvino who were able to cooperate with the various Mongol khans, also with an anti-Moslem aim. The subjection of Mongolia to the Chinese Ming Empire led to the gradual marginalisation of local Christianity and finally to the substantial elimination of Christianity to the benefit of Buddhism at the end of the XIV century.

In the nineteen twenties, Sovietisation made the profession of all religion illegal. This situation changed radically in recent times when, 28 years ago, the new constitution granted freedom of religion. Contemporaneously with the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Holy See, in 1992, three Scheut missionaries (one of whom was Father Wenceslao Padilla who would become the first bishop in 2003) arrived in the new missio sui iuris, initially at the service of communities of foreigners. An Apostolic Prefecture since 2002, the Mongol Catholic community has a cathedral church in Ulaanbaatar and a further five parishes that serve a total of about one thousand baptised people. A considerable amount of help comes from around seventy missionaries of various institutes and congregations, including 45 Sisters as well as a number of lay volunteers.

The new bishop elect of Ulaanbaatar, Father Giorgio Marengo.

In this religious context, there are some Italian Catholic missions that are working in relative tranquillity, and provide a valuable presence, such as that of the Consolata in the central province of Arvaikheer. There is also the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Auxiliatrix who run a school they built to assist education in the more economically challenged provinces.
It was one of the Consolata missionaries working in Arvaikheer, Father Giorgio Marengo, who, last April, was placed in charge of the Apostolic Prefecture of Ulaanbaatar, with jurisdiction over the whole of Mongolia. The 45-year-old missionary, originally from Cuneo, Italy, has been in the country since 2003 and, as the first European to head the Local Church, succeeded Mons. Wenceslao Padilla, a Filipino and Scheut missionary who died in September the year before last.
His is a determining presence for the rebirth of the Mongolian Church through a missionary presence.

Stefano Vecchia

Music. Manu Dibango. The Poet with the Saxophone.

Monday, 1 June 2020 8:00

A victim of the Coronavirus, in Paris, on 24 March 2020. The Cameroonian saxophonist and composer, best known for his soul/funk single, ‘Soul Makossa’, Manu Dibango left his mark on a long period of Afro Music.

On his arrival in Marseilles in 1949 as a sixteen-year-old, the new music of the African continent was still in its infancy. For that matter, the young Cameroonian, sent by his parents to study in France, knew nothing of the African music of which he would eventually become a symbol. It happened that he listened to a Bach cantata and immediately began to feel homesick for faraway Cameroon; he mistook it for a tune from his native country.

A chorister at a protestant church, from his childhood, Manu – born in Douala on 12 December 1933 – had become familiar with European music: surprisingly, it would be in Europe that Manu would discover African music. Not real African music, as it did not as yet exist in Europe, but American jazz which, in the fifties, was spreading in France; music that owed much to Africa, but that was not African music as such, but something else, an original sort of music created beyond the Atlantic and containing African and European elements, music that reflected a new era, expressing the modern times more than any other. The person who invented African jazz was Manu’s compatriot Francis Bebey, who later became a musician and musicologist of international fame.

It was his passion for jazz that led the young Dibango to leave aside his studies and learn the saxophone. In Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet and Duke Ellington, the Cameroonian found not only extraordinary artistic examples but also figures that corresponded to his need to take pride in heroes whose skin colour matched his own. It was a happy paradox that African music was not a starting point for Dibango but a point of arrival, lived with creative freedom, and in which there was no room for the ambiguity of African music as ‘ethnic’ music: Bach in Africa and black jazz in France were the premises that launched Dibango towards poetry that was cosmopolitan and metropolitan, in harmony with Africa that was emerging from colonialism and had to invent a new identity for itself and not remain a prisoner of tradition. Dibango’s encounter with African music took place in a year that was a turning point in the era of African independence.
In 1960 Dibango was in Brussels where negotiations were taking place for the independence of the Belgian Congo. In support of the delegation from his country, Joseph Kabasele came with his African Jazz, the first Congolese band to perform in Europe.

Kabasele, who in 1960 found success with his Indépendance Cha Cha, liked how Dibango played the sax and made him part of his orchestra, taking him to an Africa about which Dibango knew little or nothing. Visiting the Congo, Cameroon and Ivory Coast, the discovery of the black continent was no easy matter, and not without its disappointments for Dibango. His popularity in France began with his return from Africa and his collaboration, in the latter half of the sixties, with Nino Ferrer; the black saxophonist was perfect for the singer of Je Voudrais Être Noir, a big hit. The turning point that brought international fame took place in 1972 when Dibango issued a single with the B side featuring Soul Makossa, a piece that fuses soul/funk and Africa; Soul Makossa was a hit in France but in the United States its discovery had a great impact on the African American public. Today, still the best-known Afro piece in the world, Soul Makossa was Dibango’s passport to worldwide success, and with it the Cameroonian saxophonist became one of the most sought-after African musicians at international level.

Also successful, together with him, were a few others such as the South Africans Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela, who achieved success in the United States in the sixties, and the Nigerian Fela Kuti: all this was an anticipation of the tide of new African music that reached its peak in the eighties together with the more general phenomenon of world music, of which Dibango was a precursor. However, with his identity straddling black Africa and Europe, the ties with his origins and his love for France, Dibango, with his style and pleasing presence, was an emblematic public figure in announcing and representing the multicultural society that has been emerging during recent decades. Capable of renewing himself while still being himself, with elegance, melodic taste, unmistakeable affability and often great poetry, Dibango continued his career brilliantly until he was struck down last March by the Coronavirus.

Marcello Lorrai

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