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Angie Torres. A refugee among refugees.

Forced to flee Colombia, she has managed to rebuild her life in Ecuador. Now she defends the human rights of migrants and in particular of women, who often suffer violence and have fewer opportunities.

Some stories keep hope alive, especially when, despite enormous initial difficulties, they reveal the possibility of significant changes that alter the lives of their protagonists forever. One of these stories is that
of Angie Torres Angulo.

She was only 15 years old when she was forced to leave her home in Colombia, due to the armed conflict that was spreading in the country: her city had been declared one of the most dangerous, and the only way to escape the violence was to leave. Having arrived in Ecuador with her family, she managed to find refuge and make a new start to her life, albeit with many difficulties. One meeting, in particular, represented the decisive turning point that moved the young woman to commit herself to help others and defending the human rights of the most vulnerable.

“I met a mother with her children, the father was not with them – says Angie -. They made the same journey as I did, crossing the border between Colombia and Ecuador. It was very difficult for her at the beginning: she had to find a job and, in the meantime, take care of her children, since they were still too young to go to school. She lived in an unsafe place, subject to violence and with poor sanitary conditions. Her house was flooded every time it rained. She needed help.”

It is therefore starting from the testimony of this mother that Torres felt for the first time the need to do something to support those who, like her, had lost their homes and had been forced to leave their homelands, facing an uncertain fate. “This situation moved me to want to fight for them. I wanted to help people move forward.”

Angie has lived in Ecuador with her family for eight years. For her too, it wasn’t easy at the beginning: it took two years before she was granted refugee status. “As an asylum seeker I didn’t have many rights, such as the right to education or a job that guaranteed an acceptable salary,”
she recalls.

For a year she tried to gain access to school, but it was only thanks to the help of some organizations that she managed to resume her studies and this year she graduated in Forestry Engineering. She is convinced that caring for the environment is also a fundamental element for migration issues: the impact of climate change has a great influence on migration both in the countries of origin and in those of arrival.

But education was not the only challenge he had to face: the relationship with the local community also proved to be rather difficult. Although the cultures of the two countries are very similar, discrimination against Colombians is very deep-rooted. “I have often been the victim of acts of violence, sometimes I had to imitate the local way of speaking to be treated fairly in public places,” said the young woman.

Ecuador is a country where a large number of immigrants periodically converge; in fact, many people from neighbouring states take refuge there due to conflicts and other situations of violence and suffering. For this reason, there are many NGOs present in the area, including the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) which plays a fundamental role. Precisely thanks to this organization and its courses in citizenship, Torres was able to inform herself about the conditions of refugees: “I learned a lot about issues such as discrimination, the culture of peace, interculturalism, new forms of machismo and more generally about human rights. With these tools and this awareness, I can mobilise on behalf of those in need.”

So, Angie today dedicates a lot of time to raising people’s awareness of the rights of migrants, especially those of women and girls, through specific campaigns and seminars in schools. She is also working to create support paths for women who have survived episodes of gender violence. All the activities she organizes are designed for both the Ecuadorian and refugee communities.

By working together, the relationship with the local population has also improved: “We have discovered that there are many more things that unite us than those that differentiate us.”

The focus on gender issues in the context of migration arises from a need that Torres has experienced firsthand: “As women, in my opinion, we are much more subject to the violation of our rights, both in the country of departure and in the country of arrival – explains Angie -. When we arrive in the host country, we often suffer double discrimination: as women and as foreigners.”

“I think we should first of all make our rights visible because even if they already exist, many of us are not aware of them. Then we should exercise them and strengthen them – insists Torres -. If we are aware of them and value them, we can fight for them and make sure they are observed. We can demand respect for them when we feel that they are being violated and be involved in the various decision-making processes to exercise them and make them visible.”

On the rights of migrant women, in particular, she maintains that “a principle of equality must be established, which guarantees equal conditions and job opportunities, and for this to happen gender stereotypes must be eradicated in many contexts and places. This fight becomes even more important given that, as refugees, the discrimination we suffer is greater.”

Angie concluded: “Let’s not give up, let’s keep fighting, and in small steps, we will achieve big changes. Revolutions are built by walking side by side.” (Rebecca Molteni/MM)

 

 

 

Mexico. New President, old president

Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo is the heir apparent of Amlo, the outgoing president. She will lead the second country in Latin America by population. Many challenges to face from corruption to violence.

From October 1st, Claudia Sheinbaum, will lead Mexico. In the elections of June 2nd, she clearly beat (36 million votes against 16.5, over 30 percentage points), the senator of indigenous origin Xóchitl Gálvez. Claudia Sheinbaum will take the place of her mentor Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Amlo), founder of Morena (now the country’s leading party) and a president as popular as he is controversial. Since his entry into the political arena, Amlo’s mission has been summed up in one phrase: “Por el bien de todos, primero los pobres” (For the good of all, first of all the poor), a praiseworthy statement, but a very demanding one. Certainly, after decades of domination by the two conservative parties (PAN and PRI), his presidency – perhaps classifiable as “centre-left populism” – was an absolute novelty.

Former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Amlo), founder of Morena. President Amlo had proposed a package of twenty constitutional reforms.

During his six years in office, public spending on social programs increased significantly, but the fundamental problems – insecurity and poverty above all – remained unsolved. Despite six increases in the minimum daily wage (from 88 pesos in 2018 to 249 currently, equivalent to about 13 euros), the level of poverty remained high. According to data from Coneval (an autonomous constitutional body), 46.8 million people live in poverty, equivalent to 36.3 percent of the country’s population. Of these, over nine million (7.1 percent) are affected by extreme poverty.
Due to the strange games of politics and economics, Mexican billionaires have seen their fortunes increase (significantly) during Amlo’s six-year term. Behind Carlos Slim (seventeenth in the Forbes world ranking), there are 13 other people: this very small group of privileged people – says a report by Oxfam Mexico – controls 8 percent of the country’s overall economy. Things didn’t go any better in terms of security. Amlo’s policy summarized in the slogan “abrazos, no balazos” (embraces, not bullets) has failed, judging by the number of murders and disappearances, which is always very high.

Photos of the missing 43 Mexican students from the town of Ayotzinapa. About 110,000 people have disappeared since 1964 and have never been found. File swm

In the first four months of 2024, the average was 81 murders per day. In the statistics of the last six years, two figures are also impressive: the killing of 9 Catholic priests and 44 journalists.
According to Article 19, an independent and non-partisan Mexican organization that promotes freedom of expression, in 2023 there were 561 attacks on journalists or media in the Latin American country, a higher number than in the governments that preceded Amlo.
This is Obrador’s heavy legacy. That said, we must ask ourselves whether Claudia will be a mere executor of the wishes of the outgoing president, her great sponsor and political father, or whether she will manage to be autonomous and choose her own path.

Claudia Sheinbaum’s curriculum vitae
Born into a family of non-practising Jews, a chemist father with parents from Lithuania, a biologist mother with parents from Bulgaria, a degree in physics from the Universidad Autónoma de México (Unam), a master’s degree from Berkeley and a doctorate, Claudia Sheinbaum is a former mayor of Mexico City.
For years, Amlo has been talking about a “fourth transformation” of Mexican life. In his intentions, it is an indispensable historical passage after the previous three phases: the war of independence (1810-1821), the period of reform (1858-1861) and the years of the revolution (1910-1917), culminating with the promulgation of the Mexican Constitution (5 February 1917).

About 46.8 million people live in poverty, equivalent to 36.3 percent of the country’s population. File swm

Claudia Sheinbaum has promised several times that she will continue on the path marked out by Amlo to follow up on the fourth transformation. It will then be interesting to see how the president will address the climate issue in a country that is already suffering the consequences with extraordinary peaks of heat and serious shortages of water.
Her resume speaks in her favour, as she has collaborated with United Nations scientists gathered in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). However, her choices before the election have been contradictory. She has in fact been accused of having supported the Tren Maya, the great work of AMLO contested by environmentalists. On the energy front, Claudia Sheinbaum has confirmed that she wants to increase renewable sources, without forgetting that Mexico is the eleventh world producer of oil through Pemex (Pétroleos mexicanos), a company entirely owned by the state. The president says that it will not be privatized, despite being burdened by a heavy debt.

The next-door neighbour
The day after Claudia Sheinbaum’s election victory, US President Joe Biden called the elected official to congratulate her. It was predictable, considering that Mexico and the United States share many businesses and problems. The Latin American country is the second largest trading partner of the United States after Canada. Furthermore, 11 of the 12 million Mexicans born in their country but living abroad reside in the United States, generating a huge flow of remittances.
Finally, the majority of illegal migrants headed to the United States pass through the northern border of Mexico – 3,169 kilometres long – one of the most debated issues in the electoral contest between Biden and his challenger Trump.

The Mexican flag is superimposed on the American flag. Thousands of immigrants take part in a march to protest against the US Congress’s illegal immigration reform. 123rf

The scale of the problem is highlighted by one figure: in the month of December 2023 alone, the US border police stopped 250,000 migrants trying to cross the border between Mexico and the United States.
What will happen if the Republican candidate prevails in the November 5 elections? During the long election campaign, Trump has stated that, after his victory (which he takes for granted), he will deport millions of undocumented immigrants. According to the Pew Research Center, they number about 11 million. Of these, 4.1 million (40 per cent) are Mexicans, making them by far the largest group of undocumented (illegal) immigrants, preceding in order those from El Salvador, India, Guatemala and Honduras.

The new reform of the judiciary
The Mexican situation is complicated by another relevant issue, internal to the country. President Amlo had proposed a package of twenty constitutional reforms, on rights and the environment but also the controversial reform of the judicial system that was approved last September 4.To come into force, it will now also have to be approved by the majority of the individual state parliaments, but there is little doubt that this will happen: López Obrador’s party and his centre-left allies have a majority in 25 of the 32 state parliaments.
The discussion of the reform in the Senate had begun on Tuesday evening, and was interrupted after a group of protesters with megaphones and Mexican flags broke into the building asking the senators to block the vote. In the end, shortly after midnight local time, the reform was approved with 86 votes in favour and 41 against.

Mexico flag with statue of lady justice and judicial. The reform of the judicial system approved last September 4, highly contested. 123rf

The reform has been highly contested in recent weeks: at the end of August there was a large strike by judges and court workers, which the Mexican Supreme Court also decided to join. The most criticized point is the one that proposes to make the positions of federal judges, who are around 1,650, and of the judges of the Supreme Court itself elective.
Currently, the judges of the federal courts are appointed by the Court on the basis of qualifications, educational degrees and years of experience. The members of the Supreme Court are instead proposed by the president and appointed by the Senate for a renewable term of 15 years: López Obrador’s reform would reduce their number from 11 to nine, and shorten their term from 15 to 12 years.
The reform is one of the most significant changes to the Mexican judicial system in recent decades and should be seen as part of a progressive deterioration in relations between López Obrador and the judiciary, especially the Supreme Court, which in the last year has prevented the implementation of several of the president’s proposals. Mexico’s president-elect Claudia Sheinbaum is in favour of the reform.
Labor unions and trade associations, as well as some legal experts, say that moving to an elective system — in which judges must run and campaign, in a country with serious corruption problems — could politicize the judiciary and make it more dependent on the government. (Open Photo: Shutterstock/Octavio Hoyos)

Paolo Moiola/MC

 

Uganda. Ngabi Clan the King’s Massage Therapists and Herd’s men.

Buganda Kingdom is found in Central Uganda and it’s the largest and oldest traditional kingdom in Uganda today. This kingdom is made up of 52 clans that make up the tribe of the Baganda People. Each clan has roles and duties in the Kabaka’s Place. We look at the Ngabi clan.

The Ngabi (Antelope) Clan is one of the largest clans in the kingdom with 27 sigas (branches). The Ngabi clan is made up of both indigenous clans and clans that migrated to Buganda. The largest group was the Ngabi Nsamba. The myth surrounding the Ngabi Nsamba clan is that they were the lot who migrated from the Bunyoro kingdom. Their clan chief was a prince from the Bunyoro kingdom.
The Ngabi clan has many branches that became independent and some of them also came from Ankole and others from Busoga.
It’s believed that the Ngabi clan has a connection to the first king of Buganda Kintu, because Kimera was Kintu’s great-grandson. Kintu’s son Chwa succeeded him as a king and also got a son called Kalemera . It’s believed that King Chwa loved his son Kalemera so much and this always distracted him from his royal and official duties.

Flag of Kingdom of Buganda. Illustration: Mysid

Chwa was advised to send Kalemera away so that he could concentrate on his work. Indeed, Kalemera was sent away from the kingdom, he was accused of falling in love with one of the king’s wives and he was told to go to Bunyoro to work so that he could be able to pay up a fine or face the penalty. He left for Bunyoro where he stayed for a long time. While in Bunyoro, he fell in love with one of the wives of the Omukama (king) of Bunyoro known as Wanyana and Kimera was born. Meanwhile, Wanyana already had an elder son with the Omukama called Nsamba.
When Kimera decided to leave Bunyoro to return to Buganda he came with his half brother Nsamba Lubega Lunkonge. When Nsamba and Kimera and their entourage who by now belonged to the Ngabi clan arrived in Buganda from Bunyoro. Kimera was installed Kabaka (king) of Buganda, Kimera decided to install his half-brother Nsamba as the head of clan of the Ngabi clan ousting the Nansagwawo clan head Mutaawe who worked in the Kabaka’s palace was herding Kabaka Kintu’s cow Nsi go Nke (few seeds). So, the Ngabi Nsamba clan was created and it dominated all the other Ngabi clans forcing them to merge.
Kimera was the third kabaka (King) of Buganda. Being a member of the Ngabi clan makes members of the Ngabi clan royals (Balangira and Bambejja) because of their connection with King Kimera. Mutaawe remained the head of the Ngabi sub-clan.

Kabaka Ronald Edward Frederick Kimera Muwenda Mutebi II (born 13 April 1955) is King of the Kingdom of Buganda. He is the 36th Kabaka of Buganda. CC BY-SA 4.0/ Saidi Hussen

The lineage of the Ngabi clan was formed in such a way that Akasolya(top) is headed by Nsamba, Esiga (Branch) is headed by Mutaawe, omutuuba (a lower branch), then Lunyiriri (Lineage) and Lujja which is the compound or family of individuals of the Ngabi clan.
All these titles are hereditary in Buganda to date. All the other Ngabi clans found in Buganda joined Ngabi Nsamba through the lineage (Olunyiriri).
Another story also states that other clan members of Ngabi headed by Muntu came from Bwera Mawogola in Ankole.
When the Muntu group arrived in Buganda, they joined the Ngabi Nsamba. And other Ngabi members came with another group of people and their leader was Kasiita he was a mutaaka of Buyaaga Kyambalango, This group of Ngabi clan was called e’ngabi y’abasiita ( Ngabi of Basiita).
E’ngabi abeleki came from a man known as Lwekika Ngwando, Ngabi abakonga the founder of the abakongga county in Buddu
from a village called Banda.
There was also the branch of Ngabi that was called E’ngabi ennanzi ( Ngabi of Prophets) the people from this branch are referred to as abalanzi ( Prophets). They came from Bwamijja in Buddu, and another branch came from a man known as Kojja Mpiima he was the head of the clan of Ngabi in Kyagwe County, they were known as E’ngabi abagerere (Ngabi from Bugerere).The Ngabi people who came from the Eastern part of Buganda kingdom were known as  Abayise Musoko they came from Lutembe or Ntembe from Jinja in Busoga and unlike the others, these people’s totem is a female antelope, they are only found in Bugerere and Kyagwe they also belong to Nsamba’s clan now. It’s known that each clan has a main totem and the second totem and for Ngabi people, their second totem is Jerengesa a creeping plant which the antelope feeds on.
The motto (Omubaala) of the Ngabi people is “ Tade Kadu” literary meaning ‘Kadu will not return’, Another of their mottos is “Kalikutanda neka twala mube ngabi abalwanyi”. Meaning ‘One should avoid meeting with fighters from the Ngabi clan’.The head of the Ngabi clan is known as Nsamba Lukonge and he lives in Buwanda in Mawokota.

The Buganda monument in Kampala. 123rf

Some of the male names given to babies from the Ngabi clan are Bukenya, Kasozi, Jjengo, Kabitto, Kamoga, Lubega, and Lubinga and female names given to girls of Ngabi clan are Nabukeera, Nakanwagi, Namuyiga and Namirimu,The major role of the clan members of Ngabi in the palace was to give massage therapy to the Kabaka if he had gotten a fracture or dislocation on his bones. This can only be treated by the people from Ngabi. They are also called Bakyondwa because their indigenous clan head Mutaawe Sekyondwa was taking care of Kabaka’s cow. Mutaawe is a title given to the Kabaka’s herd’s men
Whenever a new Kabaka of Buganda is installed, Mutaawe comes in with a decorated calabash which contains milk and gives it to a man titled Mpindi this man should only belong to the Lugave clan. Mpindi will take the calabash to the Kabaka, and hand it over telling the king, “This is from the herd’s man who takes care of your grandfather’s cow Nsi go nke,” Mpindi will give the milk to the Kabaka who will drink it in turn. The offspring of Nsi go nke still exist today and this ritual is still performed after the Kabaka’s coronation. (Open Photo:The Kabaka Palace in Kampala. CC BY-SA 3.0/ NatureDan)

Irene Lumunu

Brazil. The violin’s sound.

There was a man who had an only son. When the man died, the son was left all alone in the world. There were not many possessions – just a cat and a dog, a small piece of land and some orange trees. The boy gave the dog to a neighbour and sold the land and orange trees. Any money he got from the sale he invested in a violin.

He had longed for a violin all his life and now he wanted one more than ever. While his father had lived, he could tell his thoughts to his father, but now there was none to tell them to except the violin. What his violin said back to him made the very sweetest music in the world.

The boy went to hire as shepherd to care for the sheep of the king, but he was told that the king already had plenty of shepherds and had no need of another. The boy took his violin which he had brought with him and hid himself in the deep forest.

There he made sweet music with the violin. The shepherds who were nearby guarding the king’s sheep heard the sweet strains, but they could not find out who was playing.

The sheep, too, heard the music. Several of them left the flock and followed the sound of the music into the forest. They followed it until they reached the boy and the cat and the violin.

The shepherds were greatly disturbed when they found out how their sheep were straying away into the forest. They went after them to bring them back, but they could find no trace of them. Sometimes it would seem that they were quite near to the place from which the music came, but when they hurried in that direction, they would hear the strains of music coming from a distant point in the opposite direction. They were afraid of getting lost themselves so they gave up in despair.

When the boy saw how the sheep came to hear his music he was very happy. His music was no longer the sad sweet sound it had been when he was lonely. It became gayer and gayer. After a while, it became so happy that the cat began to dance. When the sheep saw the cat dancing they began to dance, too.

Soon a company of monkeys passed that way and heard the sound of the music. They began dancing immediately. They made such a chattering that they almost drowned the music. The boy threatened to stop playing if they could not be happy without being so noisy. After that, the monkeys chattered less.

After a while, a tapir heard the jolly sound. Immediately his three-toed hind feet and four-toed front feet began to dance. He just couldn’t keep them from dancing; so, he, too, joined the procession of boy, cat,
sheep, and monkeys.

Next the armadillo heard the music. In spite of his heavy armour he had to dance too. Then a herd of small deer joined the company. Then the anteater danced along with them. The wild cat and the tiger came, too. The sheep and the deer were terribly frightened, but they kept
dancing on just the same.

The tiger and wild cat were so happy dancing that they never noticed them at all. The big snakes curled their huge bodies about the tree trunks and wished that they, too, had feet with which to dance. The birds tried to dance, but they could not use their feet well enough and had to give it up and keep flying. Every beast of the forests and jungles which had feet with which to dance came and joined the gay procession.

The jolly company wandered on and on until finally, they came to the high wall which surrounds the land of the giants. The enormous giant who stood on the wall as a guard laughed so hard that he almost fell off the wall. He took them to the king at once. The king laughed so hard that he almost fell off his throne. His laugh shook the earth. The earth had never before been shaken at the laugh of the king of the giants, though it had often heard his angry voice in the thunder. The people did not know what to make of it.

Now it happened that the king of the land of giants had a beautiful giantess daughter who never laughed. She remained sad all the time. The king had offered half his kingdom to the one who could make her laugh, and all the giants had done their very funniest tricks for her. Never once had they brought even a tiny little smile to her lovely face.

“If my daughter can keep from laughing when she sees this funny sight I’ll give up in despair and eat my hat,” said the king of the land of giants, as he saw the jolly little figure playing upon the violin and the assembly of cat, sheep, monkeys and everything else dancing to the gay music.

If the giant king had known how to dance, he would have danced himself, but it was fortunate for the people of the earth that he did not know how. If he had, there is no knowing what might have
happened to the earth.

As it was, he took the little band into his daughter’s palace where she sat surrounded by her servants. Her lovely face was as sad as sad could be. When she saw the funny sight, her expression changed. The happy smile that the king of the land of giants had always wanted to see played about her beautiful lips. A happy laugh was heard for the first time in all her life. The king of the land of giants was so happy that he grew a league in height and nobody knows how much he gained in weight. “You shall have half my kingdom,” he said to the boy, “just as I promised if anyone made my daughter laugh.”

The boy from that time on reigned over half of the kingdom of giants as prince of the land. He never had the least bit of difficulty in preserving his authority, for the biggest giants would at once obey his slightest request if he played on his violin to them. The beasts stayed in the land of the giants so long that they grew into giant beasts, but the boy and his violin always remained just as they were when they entered the land.

Brazilian folktale

 

DR Congo. On the verge of collapse.

Tshisekedi hires mercenaries, recruits militias, urges foreign armies to assist the Congolese troops to fight the rebel offensive but nothing seems to stop it.

Since the Rwandan-backed M23 rebels resumed the war in the eastern province of North Kivu in 2021, the DRC government has lost large swathes of territory. By September 2024, the rebels had also made progress on the political front. Born as a militia of disgruntled ex-soldiers, mainly Tutsis, of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC), the movement is now called the Congolese Revolutionary Army (ARC) and has become the armed wing of the coalition formed in December 2023 by the M23 and the Congo River Alliance, created by the former chairman of the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) between 2015 and 2021, Corneille Nangaa, a man from the province of Upper Uélé, who aims to overthrow the regime of President Felix Tshisekedi, which he considers corrupt and illegitimate, following the rigging of the 2023 elections. Today, the M23 and its allies can no longer be described as a Tutsi group.

President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Felix-Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo. Photo: Pres.Office

Moreover, in recent interviews, Felix Tshiskedi has accused his predecessor, Joseph Kabila, of complicity with the Nangaa, giving the impression that the rebels are broadening their base, since Kabila’s stronghold is indeed the Katanga region.
On 30 July 2024, a ceasefire was signed between the DRC and Rwanda, which was supporting the rebels. But on 16 August 2024, the deal’s mediator, Angolan President João Lourenço, admitted that negotiations had stalled. Kigali felt that the conditions for the withdrawal of the Rwandan Defence Forces (RDF) from the DRC had not been met. President Paul Kagame suggested on 19 August that the DRC should first “solve the FDLR problem” before asking Kigali to withdraw its troops from Congo. According to Kagame, the DRC should stop supporting the FDLR (the French acronym for the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda), which was formed in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis by former officers of the Hutu-led Rwandan army that perpetrated the massacres, and was supported by the FARDC after they fled to Congo.

Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda since 2000. CC BY 2.0/WT

The deal requires the DRC to commit to neutralising the FDLR’s 2,000 troops, while Rwanda is expected to withdraw its 4,000 soldiers, accused by the UN of systematic border incursions, supporting the M23 with drones and guided mortars, and controlling the operations of these rebels, who initially wanted to be integrated into the FARDC. By early September, the agreement had not been implemented. And neither the M23, whose leaders were sentenced by a military tribunal in Kinshasa on 9 August 2024, nor the Congo River Alliance (better known by its French acronym AFC) were concerned by the ceasefire.
On 2 August 2024, one of the founders of the AFC, Adam Chalwe, told the Brussels daily ‘La Libre Belgique’ that his group would continue its advance anyway.During August, the rebels continued to march north towards the town of Butembo and Lake Edward, gaining control of areas covered by oil blocks representing a potential bonanza of several billion barrels of crude oil. On 4 August, the M23 captured the town of Ishasha on the Ugandan border without resistance.
Then, on 7 August, the AFC took control of the town of Nyakakoma, home to an important fishing industry.

Soldiers of the FARDC in Goma. MONUSCO/Clara Padovan

In Butembo, the capital of the Nande region, the AFC held talks with local authorities last August to allow their fighters to move freely to the gold-rich areas of Ituri province. The Nande have several reasons to accept such a deal. After years of terror by the Ugandan Salafists of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in 2019, Nande businessmen concluded that the AFC-M23 coalition would be more effective against the ADF than the undisciplined FARDC.
For the rebels, the capture of the Ishasha border post means gaining access to tens of millions of dollars a year in customs revenue, while the capture of Nyakokoma allows them to levy taxes on fishing to pay their soldiers and gain greater autonomy to finance the war and reduce their dependence on Kigali and Kampala.
The rebel offensive developed despite the involvement of many actors on the side of the Congolese government. In February, 1,000 men from a private military company called Congo Protection, founded by Horatius Potra, a Romanian ex-French Foreign Legion officer, were hired by Kinshasa to train the FARDC. A second Bulgarian-registered company called Agemira, run by French businessman Olivier Bazin, alias ‘Colonel Mario’, has been contracted to repair and maintain the DRC’s small fleet of warplanes and secure its airfields. It employs dozens of Bulgarians, Georgians and Belarusians.

City of Butembo. CC BY-SA 4.0/ Gavin Finnegan

The DRC government also armed local militias on the assumption that it could achieve peace through military force after failing to implement a peace agreement signed with the M23 in Nairobi in 2013, which in fact contributed to the resumption of fighting in 2021. Initially, the M23 agreed to disarm and transform itself into a political party, while a general amnesty was declared for its fighters, except for war crimes. The agreement also included a demobilisation programme, the integration of some fighters into the FARDC and the creation of a commission to settle land disputes. But in the end, the Congolese government preferred to recruit and arm these militias, called “Wazalendo” (patriots in Swahili), even though some of their warlords are under UN or EU sanctions.
The DRC also receives a great deal of foreign aid. In addition to the UN and the EU, which train infantry and artillery officers, the DRC army benefits from 14 bilateral military cooperation agreements. Angola, Belgium, France, South Africa and the US are training or have trained battalions. Belarus and the Ukraine have trained pilots.
The Czech Republic and Russia have provided T-55 tanks and trained officers to operate them. Serbia has sent instructors to military academies. Moroccan trainers are present in the Presidential Guard, which also benefits from the anti-riot and artillery skills of Egyptian experts. China is providing training in logistics and communications, while Russia signed an agreement in March that includes the possibility of joint exercises.

M23 rebels. CC BY-SA 2.0/ Al Jazeera

The mandate of the East African Mission, which expired in December 2023, had become a point of contention between the EAC and Kinshasa. According to the EAC, its force should monitor the withdrawal of armed groups from eastern DRC and ensure that a ceasefire negotiated in December 2022 was respected. But Kinshasa wanted the East African troops to carry out offensive operations. Tshisekedi even accused the EAC force of colluding with the rebels after Kenya refused to crack down on Nangaa, who was allowed to hold a press conference in Nairobi in December 2023. On 15 December 2023, the East African soldiers were replaced by the SADC Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (SAMIDRC), but the latter also failed to make significant gains against the rebels, despite Kinshasa’s claim that the Southern African troops had an “offensive mandate”. By September 2024, SAMIRDC troops remained around Goma, while AFC/M23 troops captured large swathes
of territory further north.

The population of Mutaho fled to Goma following fighting between M23 elements and FARDC soldiers. MONUSCO/Clara Padovan

The ANC’s partner in the new South African governing coalition, the Democratic Alliance, wants to repatriate the 2,900 South African National Defence Force (SANDF) soldiers. In July 2024, the DA’s defence spokesman, Chris Hattingh, said that his party had called for the withdrawal of South African soldiers from the DRC in light of the SANDF’s underfunding and the changing nature of warfare.
As a result, South African soldiers lack the necessary logistical, tactical and medical support and training for high-tech warfare. Moreover, Hattingh told the South African Parliament that the SANDF’s deployment in the DRC was not a peacekeeping mission but an involvement in an undeclared war in which no South African national interest was at stake.
While MONUSCO began withdrawing its 12,000 troops in April 2024, to be completed by the end of the year, the scenario of a third collapse (after 1996 and 1998) of the Congolese state in the face of a rebel army is becoming more likely. (Open Photo: File swm)

François Misser

A crucible of peoples.

Its geographical location, historical processes and economic and commercial developments have made Panama a true melting pot of cultures, in which the mestizo constitute over half of the population, while the Afro-descendants amount to around a fifth.

The latter arrived there to work on the sugar plantations and were subsequently also employed on the construction sites of the interoceanic railway and those of the canal and their rooting was such as to characterize Panamanian culture.
In the country there is also a large percentage of indigenous populations, divided into 7 different cultural groups, which make up approximately 12% of the population, who mainly dedicate themselves to agriculture and crafts and live in the “indigenous districts”:

kuna Indian women with a little girl .123rf

Emberà-Wounaan (Union Choco), Kuna Yala (El Porvenir), Ngöbe-Buglé (Chichica), to which are added the two sub-provincial indigenous autonomous areas of the comarcas of Kuna Yala, Kuna de Madugandí (Akua Yala) and Kuna de Wargandí (Nurra ).
These territories, where indigenous languages are spoken, have special jurisdiction and their own institutions.
Communities of recent immigrants have also taken root in Panama, arriving from all over the world and in particular from Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Nicaragua and China. This presence is reflected in the diversity of languages and in the multiple religious groups present in the country, even if Spanish is the official language and Catholicism the most practiced religion, followed by Protestantism.
The population is concentrated above all in the capital Panama City which has around three million inhabitants, including those who live in urban areas, which constitutes the only metropolis in the country. In the immediate vicinity of the city there are towns with between 100 and 200 thousand inhabitants and among these are La Chorrera, which has 206,000 inhabitants, Colón 159,000 inhabitants and Vista Alegre 129,000 inhabitants, while David, with its 104,000 inhabitants is located in the western area of the country.
Among these, the city of Colón is the most important because it hosts an important free trade zone, established in 1948, and widely used by the United States as a gateway to Latin America for its companies.

Panama City has around three million inhabitants. CC BY-SA 3.0/ Mariordo

At the social level, the plague of inequalities is very strong and remains one of the country’s main problems as it creates a clear divide between urban and rural areas, making indigenous communities and almost all citizens who live in rural areas increasingly vulnerable and destitute. To this we must also add the problem of infant malnutrition, which affects approximately 19% of Indian children under five years of age, a percentage which in some regions reaches peaks of 30% and 55% including that of Ngäbe Buglé and Guna Yala. The great inequality that characterizes the country can also be seen from an architectural point of view which produces a considerable visual impact that clearly highlights the great difference between the skyscrapers on the coast and the disadvantaged metropolitan areas.

Panama came to the attention of world news due to the explosion of one of the most sensational tax scandals following the publication of the so-called Panama Papers. 123rf

Furthermore, the country is gripped by problems not dissimilar to those that characterize other Latin American countries, among which corruption stands out. Panama, in particular, is considered the largest “tax haven” on a global scale, included in the EU black list reserved for those who have not only adopted favourable tax regimes with very low taxes, but who have not joined the tax data exchange system with other states. In 2016, in particular, the Republic of Panama came to the attention of world news due to the explosion of one of the most sensational tax scandals following the publication of the so-called Panama Papers in the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. This is an enormous amount of encrypted documents, equal to 11.5 million files, owned by the Mossack Fonseca law firm, containing information on Mossack Fonseca’s work and on the companies in tax havens that it manages, thus revealing the tax secrets of numerous wealthy people, including politicians from around the world, heads of state and a member of the FIFA ethics commission.

Members of the Naval Service of Panama patrolling the coast. Panama is also a transit territory for drugs which flow from the South towards the United States and the rest of the Western countries. Shutterstock/ Gualberto Becerra

This scandal deeply affected the country’s international image and has pushed successive governments over the years to launch legal reforms and establish prison sentences for tax evasion crimes, even if only for amounts exceeding 300 thousand dollars. These reforms allowed the country to exit, in 2023, from the “grey list” of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), but not from that of the European Union.
However, after much media hype, the Panama Papers case ended, after about 8 years of trial, with the Panamanian court’s acquittal due to insufficient evidence for the 28 defendants for whom the prosecutor’s office had requested severe sentences.
Panama, like the other Central American countries, is also a transit territory for drugs which flow from the South towards the United States and the rest of the Western countries, despite the intensification of the fight against drug smuggling, under agreements with the United States government. Despite the intensification of controls, the results obtained were quite modest also due to the large coastal area on which to land the cargo and from which to start the overland transport. Furthermore, as demonstrated by the numerous seizures, the Gulf of Urabà also constitutes the access area for a large part of the chemical precursors for the refining of cocaine, while the consumption of crack has become widespread among the local population. The country is under the strong influence of Colombian crime, in addition to the presence on its territory of the Calabrian Ndrangheta, and the numerous murders and criminal episodes that have occurred in recent years are also linked to drug trafficking. (Open Photo: Young Ladies dancing at 1000 Polleras Parade, known as the ‘Desfile De Las Mill Polleras’ in Las Tablas, Panama. Shutterstock/Marek Poplawski)
(F.R.)

 

Republic of Panama. The Hub of the Americas.

The geographical location gives the country considerable strategic importance. The Panama Canal. The migration crisis. The challenges of the new president

The Republic of Panama constitutes the last section of the isthmus of Central America, as well as a link between different realities and geographical areas. In fact, it is bordered to the north by the Antilles Sea and to the south by the Pacific Ocean, while to the east it borders with Colombia, and therefore with the area of the South Latin American cone, and to the west with Costa Rica.
Its territory, with a rather small size of 75,517 km², is fragmented and predominantly mountainous criss-crossed by chains of volcanic origin which are the continuation of the Costa Rican cordillera with altitudes above 3,000 meters in the western part and around 2,000 meters in the east. There are also flat areas of modest extension, which open both to the Pacific and the Atlantic. The country has a considerable coastline of 2,988 km, rich in inlets, gulfs, peninsulas and islands. Regarding the latter, among the largest we have Coiba, Isla del Rey and Cébaco located in the Pacific Ocean, while on the Atlantic side we find the archipelago of Bocas del Toro. In addition, the country is rich in rivers, but lacks lake basins of natural origin, while the equatorial climate is characterized by high rainfall, particularly on the Caribbean side.

Map of Panama. Illustration: Peter Hermes Furian. 123rf

Its geographical location gives the country considerable strategic importance, but also a mix of cultures and ethnic groups that had already formed before the arrival of the conquistadors who, understanding the value of its position, made Portobelo one of the major commercial ports. This importance grew immeasurably with the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914, which generated a real revolution in global traffic and which still today constitutes one of the major choke points at an international level. The changes produced by the Canal were such that, in the world of logistics, the Panamax unit of measurement was introduced indicating the classes of ships whose dimensions were compatible with those of the canal (295 m long, 32.2 m wide and 13, 5 m draught) and, therefore, able to cross it. The early twentieth century, in which this important infrastructure was created, were the years in which President Roosevelt was experimenting with his imperialistic projection into the area of Central America through the installation of a naval base in Cuba, which occurred following the Spanish defeat, and the establishment of the State of Panama which separated from Colombia precisely for issues relating to the Canal the strategic importance of which Roosevelt himself understood, also in light of the very rapid development experienced by California during those years.

Excavation and removal of dirt at the Culebra Cut, Panama Canal, 1907. Archive

At first, Colombia started the construction by entrusting the work to a French company which, due to technical difficulties, was unable to proceed with the work and went bankrupt. From the ashes of this company a new one was born, which was also doomed to failure. It was at this juncture that the United States took over the operation by stipulating with the Colombian diplomatic representative in Washington, in January 1903, a rental contract for a strip of territory between the two oceans which would have allowed them to build the Canal and some fortifications. But in August of the same year the Colombian Senate refused to ratify this contract, thus pushing the White House to support, even militarily, the Panamanian independence oligarchy that led the country to independence, achieved on 4 November 1903. The construction of the new state took place in a climate of peace between the conservative and liberal parties, a harmony symbolized in the national flag which surrounds the blue of the conservatives and the red of the liberals in white. As soon as it took office, the government of the Republic of Panama proceeded with the signing of the contract to lease the territory to the United States – the famous Hay – Bunau-Varilla Treaty – which, in exchange, gave the newly formed Republic 10 million dollars, plus an annual subsidy of 250 thousand dollars, and guaranteed independence from possible Colombian attacks.
Thus, in 1904, the US military engineers undertook the work of the Canal and concluded it ten years later. The new infrastructure ensured Washington a hegemonic position in Latin America, but also control of the interoceanic mercantile routes, allowing it to establish itself as a guarantor of trade between the great powers.

US President Jimmy Carter shakes hands with General Omar Torrijos after signing the Panama Canal Treaties (September 7, 1977). Photo: White House

During the following decades, however, this condition aroused ire and hatred on the part of the local population to the point of causing the outbreak, in 1964, of a bloody revolt organized by activists who, in the wake of what had already happened in Egypt, were pushing for the nationalization of the Canal. The level of the protests was such that it pushed the United States to start negotiations to redefine the status of the infrastructure even if internal and regional events slowed down the course of the negotiations which reached a conclusion after a decade, with the signing of the Torrijos-Carter treaty of 1977 signed, in fact, by the presidents of Panama and the United States. Therefore, Washington committed to abandoning control of the Canal in 1979, while remaining the guarantor of defence and non-interference in the neutrality of the management of the infrastructure. Another crucial episode in the history of the country was the coming to power in 1983 of General Noriega, former head of Panamanian intelligence.

Buildings engulfed in flames following the U.S. invasion of Panama, December 1989. US. National Archives.

The General was a corrupt character involved in drug trafficking, but at that moment he was useful to the US cause in terms of supporting the Nicaraguan Contras fighting against the Sandinista government. But in 1989, following his non-reconfirmation in the presidential elections, he decided to cancel the elections and still maintain power. At that point the United States, which was nevertheless projecting itself towards a new geopolitical era following the fall of the Soviet Union, intervened by force to depose the inconvenient ally, replacing him with the winning candidate Guillermo Endara. In the opinion of authoritative analysts “the invasion of Panama was a true ad personam invasion, in the sense that the declared and official objective was not so much the overthrow of the regime, but rather the neutralization of its dictator, Manuel Noriega”. The Operation, called Just Cause, caused hundreds of victims – according to some sources up to 3000 – and led to the abolition of the Panamanian army while, in 1999, as foreseen by the 1977 agreements, the canal zone returned to Panamanian control and US troops withdrew from the territory. (Open Photo: Skyline of Panama City skyscrapers with the flag of Panama in the foreground. Shutterstock/Walter Otto).
(F.R.)

Towards a Christianity with an African face.

Economic autonomy and autonomy of thought. These are the prerequisites for facing the great challenges that the Church of Africa is experiencing today. The Vice-rector of the Catholic University of West Africa, Father Benjamin Akotia, talks to us about it.

Father Akotia is originally from Togo, but he is used to discussing and exchanging views between two continents: his homeland, Africa, and Europe, the continent where he studied and where he often returns. Dean of the Faculty of Theology at the Catholic University of West Africa (UCAO), based in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, he became Vice-rector in February 2023. With him we discuss some of the themes and challenges that the African church is experiencing today, such as inculturation, identity, autonomy, young people, synodality, homosexuality…

Father Benjamin Akotia / D.R

Speaking of inculturation, Father Akotia sees a return to traditionalism and a lack of interest among young African priests: “When I was a young student and then a priest, there was a lot of talk about inculturation and a lot of effort was also made to introduce new elements into the liturgy. Inculturation was also experienced as a search for identity. Today I see a movement in reverse. Paradoxically, we are trying to be more like the West. I have the impression that we are more concerned with doing what everyone else does: in the new generations of priests, even in Africa, I see a return to traditionalism or perhaps even a certain superficiality. There is no longer any drive, not even in claiming to be ourselves.”The Vice-rector continues: “I notice a strong anti-Western feeling. Sometimes it is a way to express the fact that we no longer want to feel inferior, that we no longer accept the lessons of others. But not in the right way. We think we are equal because we know how to do what Europeans do. It is a problem of reflection on ourselves. Who are we really? What are we capable of? What can we bring
that is authentically ours?”

DR. Congo. A priest giving communion in a parish in Kinshasa. File swm

From a theological point of view, Father Benjamin recognizes that it is difficult to see figures or schools emerging as there have been in the past. He comments: “In universities, even some great theologians of the past such as Jean Marc Ela or Engelbert Mveng and others are barely mentioned. Also, because it is believed that in their theological reflection, they used the categories of Western thought. It was a cycle that had closed. Now, the new cycle that is timidly opening up is that of a theology that starts from African traditions, for example by rereading the Bible in the way in which we pass on our stories. The attitude is no longer to “purify” African culture, but to understand it and use it to reinterpret Christ, the sacraments, God, and our way of life”.

Angola. During a lesson at the seminary in Huambo. “Even some great theologians of the past, such as Jean Marc Ela or Engelbert Mveng and others, are hardly mentioned in the universities.” Photo: José Luis Silván Sen.

But what are the great themes and challenges of the Church in Africa today? “The first, it may seem banal,” says Father Benjamin, “but perhaps it is the most important, is the economic challenge. We appreciate the generosity of a mother who has nourished us, but the time has come for weaning. It is a delicate phase both for the “child” and for the “mother”. But this process must take place in peace to avoid unnecessary trauma. Personally, I am optimistic. I see many things being born, I see that we are becoming very inventive. And I see that the African Church is growing quickly, not only in numbers. And in any case, I believe that we have no choice. Only if we do not depend on others, only if we are autonomous, do we also become capable of producing our own thoughts”.At the same time, Father Benjamin emphasizes: “I think that Africa can finally say how it wants to live Christianity. There are signs. For example, we have not yet dealt with the issues of witchcraft or polygamy in depth in an African Christian spirit, using our own schemes, and our own categories. As well as, the question of the blessing of homosexual couples, which in Africa is experienced as a marginal issue, or worse, as something imposed from elsewhere. Only if the Church of Africa is able to face challenges and priorities that it feels are more its own and more urgent, African Christianity will finally have its own face and make its contribution to the heritage of universal Christianity”.

Mozambique. Pastoral centre in Anchilo. “There’s already a strong sense of synodality in our communities”. File swm

Looking at the Synod on Synodality that is being celebrated this month in Rome. Father Benjamin says: “Africa is the continent that has probably lived this synodal journey most intensely: it believes in it very much, also because it corresponds to the ways of functioning of our societies, which have the word at their centre. We talk and move forward slowly. Everyone talks. And the leader never speaks only in his own name. When he does, it’s because everyone else has already spoken. There’s already a strong sense of synodality in our communities.”

Uganda. Young people during the procession of Palm Sunday in Kampala. “We see many young people who discover the Christian faith when they come from the villages to the city or to the university, where they meet someone who is Christian”. File swm

Speaking of young Africans who represent 70% of the African population. Father Benjamin says: “We see many young people who discover the Christian faith when they come from the villages to the city or to the university, where they meet someone who is Christian. For some, the Church is synonymous with “modernity” and everything that the Western world represents. But we do not “sell” modernity, we announce Jesus Christ, an announcement of salvation. On the other hand, we also see many young people who spend their days on social media that today have the effect of prolonging and amplifying the epochal cultural changes that our societies have gone through, even in their encounter with the West. They appear standardized to us, but it is only a superficial impression. The “stuff” they are made of, that which the screen or the cell phone shapes is not the same as that of a young Westerner. And even the answers of faith must take into account that “stuff” and everything it is made of in terms of culture, traditions, and categories of thought. And also ways of living the faith.”
Anna Pozzi/MM

 

Herbs & Plants. Combretum molle. A source of medicinal mumuye gum.

It has been used in traditional medicine since time immemorial for the treatment of a wide range of diseases. Indeed, almost every part of this plant (roots, leaves, seeds, twigs, and stem bark) has been
used in African traditional medicine for the treatment
of  various ailments  and diseases.

Combretum molle is commonly referred to as velvet bush willow is a medium-sized evergreen deciduous tree with a larger, straight trunk, rough bark and dense crown. It’s an extremely variable shrub or small tree, usually growing to an average of 13m in height.
The leaves are simple, opposite, densely covered by velvety hairs when immature and smoother when mature. Young leaves are attractive with light pink or orange colour. The flowers are in dense axillary spikes with greenish yellow colour, strongly scented.
The fruit is four-winged, about 20mm in diameter, light green with reddish shade which turns red-brown when dry.
Combretum molle (Family Combretaceae), occurs throughout savanna regions of Africa and it’s harvested from the wild for a mumuye gum which is traded locally. The plant also has traditional medicinal uses
and is a valuable timber.

Combretum molle has been used in traditional medicine since time immemorial for the treatment of a wide range of diseases. CC BY-SA 4.0/JMK

Combretum molle has been used in traditional medicine since time immemorial for the treatment of a wide range of diseases. Indeed, almost every part of this plant (roots, leaves, seeds, twigs, and stem bark) has been used in African traditional medicine for the treatment of various ailments and diseases. An infusion or decoction of the roots, stem bark or leaves is taken to treat a large variety of health complications including abdominal pain, colic, constipation, intestinal worms, dysentery, fever, malaria, oedema, headache, backache, leprosy, HIV infections, cough, angina, tuberculosis and other chest complaints. The plant is used for treating jaundice and yellow fever, diarrhoea, blennorrhoea, anuria, and sometimes administered to women in childbirth to hasten the expulsion of the after-birth. It is also taken to induce abortion and to treat post-partum bleeding.

The young leaves are chewed or soaked in water and the juice drunk for treatment of chest complaints. CC BY-SA 3.0/JMK

The bark is used medicinally in many parts of Africa. Combined with cereal foods, the bark is administered for the treatment of dysentery, and is used in ceremonial preparation for young children to prevent sickness and other troubles. An infusion of the inner bark is taken orally or as an enema to relieve various stomach ailments. The bark exudes a mumuye gum that can be used to treat wounds. An aqueous suspension of the powdered bark together with the mumuye gum obtained from its bark is used as a gargle and in draught for treating sore-throat. The powdered bark is applied to body sores. In some communities, the stem bark of Combretum molle have a long-standing reputation for the treatment of liver diseases, malaria and tuberculosis.
The roots of Combretum molle is believed to have a variety of uses against myriads of disease conditions. The boiled root decoction of Combretum molle is administered for the treatment of constipation, headaches, leprosy, stomach pains, fever, dysentery, body swellings, snake bite, and as an anthelmintic for hookworm. The breasts are washed with a root extract as a galactagogue. A decoction of the roots, mixed with roots of several other plant species is drunk to treat impotence, syphilis and female sterility and also as an aphrodisiac.

The root and leaf are used in combination as an antidote for snake bite. CC BY-SA 4.0/JMK

The young leaves are chewed or soaked in water and the juice drunk for treatment of chest complaints. The leaves can also be used as an inhalant in a hot steam bath to relieve chest pains. Whitlows are treated by steeping the affected part in a leaf-decoction. The crushed dried or fresh leaves of Combretum molle can be applied directly to the wounds to enhance quick healing. The leaves are prepared as a decoction for baths and draughts or powdered and added to food in the treatment of dropsy, ascites and oedemas. A leaf decoction is used to treat itch and skin infections. The crushed fresh roots or leaves, alone or mixed with other plants are applied to snakebites. The infusion of the pounded root or stem bark can also be administered for the treatment of the snakebites. The leafy twigs in draughts and baths are used in the treatment of bronchial affections.

An infusion of the inner bark is taken orally or as an enema to relieve various stomach ailments.
CC BY-SA 4.0/JMK

The seeds of Combretum molle plant are widely used by traditional medicine practitioners for treatment of malaria, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), and other diseases. Sometimes a fruit decoction is taken by women after a difficult delivery. The root and leaf are used in combination as an antidote for snake bite. The peeled twigs are used as chewing sticks in order to clean the teeth and maintain oral hygiene. Apart from its uses in African Traditional Medicine to treat and manage human diseases, Combretum molle is also used in veterinary medicine where the leaves are fed to sheep to treat intestinal worms. The leaves are browsed by cattle. The timber/polls from Combretum molle are termite-proof and can be used to make fence posts, and implement handles. The bark exudes a gum known as mumuye gum which at times is used as a substitute for gum-arabic which is obtained from Acacia senegal (L.) Willd. tree. A black/red dye is obtained from the leaves. A yellow dye is obtained from the roots. (Open Photo: CC BY-SA 3.0/JMK)

Richard Komakech

Sudan. Art against war.

Marked by decades of political instability and conflict, Sudanese artists narrate the complex reality of their country through works that reflect their identity, originality and resilience.

Riahiem Shadad is an art curator. He owned an art gallery in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, called Downtown Gallery, where nine artists from his country were represented. However, the civil war that began in 2023 destroyed the gallery. Providentially, Rahiem had started preparing a travelling exhibition a year earlier, with the intention of taking it to several European countries. “I wanted this exhibition to show Sudanese art and give it a face… This was the idea before the war, luckily because we sent the works on Thursday, April 12, 2023, and the war started the following Saturday. It was a coincidence that we left in the last hours when the airport was working because it was the first target to be attacked,” Shadad tells us.

Riahiem Shadad is an art curator. He owned an art gallery in Khartoum. Photo: Laura M. Lombardía

And suddenly the exhibition that Shadad had titled “Troubles on the Nile” took on a whole new meaning. “We had not planned to defend the Sudanese people and tell their story, but suddenly we felt responsible. It was our duty,” the Sudanese curator explained. Rahiem Shadad explains that the name “Troubles on the Nile” “is not about the war, but about the turmoil that Sudan has experienced over the past thirty years and how it has affected art.”
“The exhibition spans several generations of artists and each of the works has experienced its own war. With the current war, we have added two videos and there is an additional painting, by Bakri Moaz, done later, of a woman walking next to a tank. At the moment, the paintings by Waleed Mohammed on display are the only three that remain from his studio. The same goes for Rashid Diab. That the collection in his house in Sudan was lost is absurd. I have been there several times and there were hundreds of paintings and works. God only knows what happened to them”, Rahiem said.

Art is a relationship with influence
Of the nine artists represented by Downtown Gallery and with works in the travelling exhibition “Troubles on the Nile,” three have lived outside of Sudan and have been influenced by the diaspora. Rahiem Shadad continues, “I think anyone who sees the paintings will immediately see who has lived outside of Sudan and who has always stayed in Sudan.”

Works by Sudanese artists on display in Madrid. Photo: Gonzalo Gómez

“Rashid Diab, Eltayeb Dawelbait, and Miska Mohmmed have all lived abroad. Sudanese artists are, for the most part, quite classical. If they use oil, they paint everything in oil. They don’t do a lot of collage or mixing. It’s something to do with school in Sudan and art education. However, with the three artists I mentioned, you can immediately see that they break the rules. Dawelbait paints on wood and then scrapes it off. This is an unusual practice, especially for artists his age. Rashid uses monochrome to create colour transitions and then paints over them, accentuating the impression of depth and movement. Miska paints landscapes. His subjects are classical, but he draws with horizontal lines and uses green and blue colours that are not the usual yellows and browns, more common in nature in Sudan. He learned this in Kenya from the artists who attend the Makerere School in Uganda”.

The Sudanese artist reflects experience
The older artists of the group of nine works in this travelling exhibition—which has been shown in Paris, Madrid, and Lisbon—represent a generation that lived through the Arabization of the regime of al-Bashir, president of Sudan from 1993 to 2019. At the time, everyone had to obey a model that greatly limited expression and individuality. “If you look at the artists of that period, they deal with themes related to the community as a whole, they rarely talk about themselves. Mohammed A. Otaybi, for example, paints African faces as masks with Arabic calligraphy. It is a statement against the government, a denunciation of what it was trying to do by forcing Sudanese people to be Arabs and Muslims. His paintings say that there is an African identity mixed with an Arab one. We accept both identities and embrace them…”,
explains Rahiem Shadad.

A woman walks towards a tank  by artist Bakri Moaz. Photo: Gonzalo Gómez

The art curator goes on to explain the differences they perceive in the group: “But if you look at Yasmeen Abdullah, she paints what she feels, it’s not about what her community is experiencing. Reem Aljeally also paints her bedroom, she reflects on the limits of women, their participation in society and the invasion of women’s privacy in modern Sudan. Her work is located between the public and the private and is very personal.” In this context, Rahiem highlights “Waleed Mohammed, whose origin is an African tribe from Darfur, but whose family moved to the Arab state of Al-Jazeera, dominated by Sudan since 1930. In his paintings, there is a personal search, but relevant to many individuals who are going through the same identity issues.”

The impact expected from the exhibition
Rahiem Shadad hopes the exhibition will help people understand what Sudan is and see it differently, humanising its history and the numbers, such as the twenty million deaths the war has already caused, while also identifying those who are struggling to survive. He says: “The World Food Programme says there are 18.6 million people in Sudan at risk of famine. Our fellow artist Waleed Mohammed is one of them. This is a humanising story. We cannot communicate with him. I am sure he has lost half his weight because there is no food. There is nothing in Khartoum. The 18.6 million Sudanese with food shortages is nine times the population of Gaza. So, I hope that if something can be done, it will be done. In addition to the exhibition, we provide information and there is a lot of documentation on the Internet about how to help.” Art lives in exile and Rahiem Shadad regrets that the travelling exhibition is living in exile: “These works of art should return to Sudan, but they can’t because of the war. The nine artists are scattered across six countries.”

Rashid Diab, artist and researcher. Photo: Gonzalo Gómez

Rashid Diab is one of them. He lives in Spain. An affable character, he says he is sad. The war in his country made him lose everything: work, home, the gallery… According to the news, everything has been destroyed.” Rashid had already lived in Spain in the 1980s and 1990s. He earned a doctorate in Fine Arts on the philosophy of Sudanese art and returned to his country in 1999 because, in his opinion, “If we all leave and don’t come back, we are not helping our people.” Upon his return, he opened an art gallery and founded a cultural centre … which was destroyed by the war in 2023. He explains that, for him, “The root of wars is the lack of understanding between peoples and the best way to understand each other is through the appreciation of art. We must realize that the artist does not paint a picture for his own people but for all of humanity”. (Open Photo: A group of Sudanese women talk and walk in this work by Rashid Diab. Photo: Gonzalo Gómez)

Gonzalo Gómez

Egypt. The long night of the Egyptian economy.

Economic crisis. The burden of foreign debt. Education in collapse. Episodes of xenophobia. The conflict in Gaza aggravates the situation.

Since taking power in 2013, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has focused on major infrastructure projects to establish his power. Over the last decade, Egyptian governments have spent tens of billions of dollars on megaprojects and international events, including the creation of a new capital and the organization of Cop27 in Sharm el-Sheikh in 2022. Although Cairo’s politics had as its first objective the reconstruction of Egypt’s image abroad, with mixed results, the enormous expenditures have had a profound impact on the reality of the country.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. CC BY 4.0/Min. of Communications and Information Technology.

The brand-new road networks south of the capital open onto the suburbs of the Zahraa Al Maadi area. Far from the typical aggregation centres of Cairo, a new and different urban planning model is developing. Under the viaducts, and in the pedestrian areas, cafes and restaurants attract wealthy citizens. But although the new system appears clean, organized and impeccable, it hides the chronic difficulties of the city, and more generally of the country. Some causes of the crisis, not directly attributable to the al-Sisi cycle, date back decades. The lack of industrial development due to poor planning and burdensome bureaucracy, and the export policies that have created a persistent trade deficit, are heavy burdens to carry. Added to these are other chronic problems that Egypt has been with for decades. Corruption, property rights and weak institutions, as well as an overbearing state and military that continue to discourage investment and competition.

The burden of the debt
But al-Sisi’s administration is not entirely free of direct responsibility. The borrowing frenzy that characterized his government, in addition to having left a country with a heavy foreign debt, which grew from around 70% in 2010 to 96% in 2023, pushed the Central Bank to increase interest rates in an attempt to attract new investors and refinance loans, thus generating ever larger deficits.

Around 10% of the country’s population has fallen into poverty since 2010. File swm

The result of all this translates into ten million Egyptians – approximately 10% of the country’s population – who have fallen into poverty from 2010 up to today. And while unemployment fell to around 7% in 2024, participation in the labour market also decreased steadily in the decade up to 2020. The litmus test of these phenomena can be seen in the high rate of emigration from the North African country. According to Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli, in 2023 the number of Egyptians abroad has reached 12 million. Closing the vicious circle is the state of public education – close to collapse. A dynamic that pushes many graduates to look for work outside Egypt.
In an already complicated context, the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have further fuelled inflation. The North African country has therefore turned increasingly eastward, to the other side of the Red Sea. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have become fundamental partners for the stability of Egypt.

Central business district (CPD) in the New administrative capital of Egypt. CC BY-SA 4.0/Mahan84848.

But if on the one hand, loans and guarantees helped the Cairo government avoid default, on the other, great discontent was generated over what it all cost. In the beginning, it was the islands of Tiran and Sanafir, located in the Red Sea and sold to Riyadh in 2016 for 20 billion dollars in investments. Today, at the centre of the Egyptians’ silent murmurings is the 35-billion-dollar agreement between Egypt and the United Arab Emirates for the Ras Al-Hekma area, 200 kilometres east of Alexandria. The project involves the construction of a new city on the Mediterranean coast, a possible tourist centre, in which Abu Dhabi will hold 65% of the property.

Scapegoats
And while the militarization of the Egyptian economy is a long-standing problem that is plaguing the country, on the streets we can see the clear symptoms of a suffering society, while the tensions of those who see no future ahead are projected outward. The main signals come from episodes of racism and xenophobia towards migrants. According to data from the World Organization for Migration (IOM), in addition to the almost 500 thousand asylum seekers, around 9 million people of different nationalities live in Egypt. Sudanese, Yemeni and Syrian passports are the most numerous. As reported by several NGOs and think tanks, cases of violence against these communities are commonplace, while the authorities prefer not to intervene.

Displaced Palestinians set up their tents next to the Egyptian border. Shutterstock/Anas-Mohammed

Episodes of xenophobia are also recorded against Egyptian populations. The Nubians, an ethnic group from the south of the country, endure a fate similar to that of migrants. Considered second-class citizens, they have been denouncing the brutality and repression of the authorities for years. In this context, the Gaza crisis risks triggering a social bomb. Egypt’s dependence on revenue from remittances, tourism and taxes from trade passing through the Suez Canal makes its economy particularly vulnerable to external shocks. The conflict in the Strip is weighing on all three of these revenue streams, making the issue of displaced Gazans in the North African country even more sensitive. But if Egypt’s situation has the typical features of a countdown, there are still those who think that the country, thanks to its position and its assets, has the typical characteristics of being “too big to fail”.
A vision which on the one hand gives a glimmer of hope to the Egyptian government, but on the other hand does not take into account the possible consequences of a further authoritarian spiral and the impact in economic terms on the lives of Egyptians and non-Egyptians alike. (Open Photo: A great pyramid at Giza. 123rf)

Davide Lemmi

 

A Priest for the World.

Giuseppe Allamano, founder of the Consolata Missionaries will be canonized on October 20th. Mission must be given the best.

He was born on January 21, 1851, in Castelnuovo d’Asti (now Castelnuovo Don Bosco), in Northern Italy. Educated in solid Christian virtues by his mother, the sister of Saint Joseph Cafasso, he then went to the school of Don Bosco, another illustrious fellow countryman. With firm intent, he responded to the call of the Lord and, having become a priest on September 20, 1873, he would have liked to devote himself to pastoral ministry but his archbishop assigned him to the formation of seminarians at the major seminary of the diocese of Turin.

Giuseppe Allamano, founder of the Consolata Missionaries

He distinguished himself for his firmness in principles and his gentleness in asking for their implementation. In this task, as later in the formation of priests, he demonstrated excellent qualities, for which he was recognized as a true “master in the formation of the clergy”, “a truly perfect copy of his great predecessor and uncle”, Saint Joseph Cafasso.
At the same time, he continued his studies, obtaining a degree in theology from the Theological Faculty of Turin, and a qualification for university teaching. He was later appointed an adjunct member of the Faculty of Canon and Civil Law and also held the position of Dean in both Faculties. In 1880, he was appointed Rector of the sanctuary and the Ecclesiastical Convitto della Consolata. From then until his death, his activity always took place in the shadow of the Marian sanctuary of the diocese. He found it physically dilapidated and spiritually decayed. He took care of its restoration, expansion and embellishment, and increased its pastoral, liturgical and associative activity.

Consolata missionaries in the mission of Catrimani, in the land of the indigenous Yanomami people, in Amazonia. Photo MC

It became a centre of Marian spirituality and pastoral initiatives. He also contributed with the charisma with which he was endowed by God to advise, comfort and direct. People of all walks of life experienced the secrets of his enlightened mind and his great heart. The laity found in him support for new initiatives, required by the times: the press, Catholic Action and workers’ associations.
He reopened and directed the Ecclesiastical Convitto for the preparation of young priests for the apostolate. He took their spiritual, intellectual and pastoral priestly formation very seriously, updating it to new situations and needs. To give them a model, he undertook the Cause of Canonization of Cafasso, whose Beatification he had the joy of seeing on May 3, 1925.
He gave new vigour to the house for spiritual exercises annexed to the sanctuary. Driven by powerful zeal for the good of his brothers and by a lively sense of the universal Mission of the Church, he broadened his horizons to the entire world.

Cardinal Giorgio Marengo of the Consolata baptises a little girl during the Easter Vigil in Arvaiheer, Mongolia. Photo MC

He felt the urgency of Christ’s mandate to bring the Gospel to everyone. He found it unnatural that in his Church, fruitful with so many charitable institutions, there was not one dedicated solely to the missions. He decided to remedy this and to help those who were animated by the missionary ideal to realize their vocation. In 1901 he founded the Institute of Missionaries and in 1910 that of the Consolata Missionaries Sisters. While continuing his numerous commitments in the diocese, he devoted his main care to them, forming them in the spirit that he believed he had received from the Lord. Convinced that the Mission must be given the best, he aimed at quality rather than number. He wanted prepared evangelizers, “superlatively holy”, “zealous to the point of giving their lives”. On May 8, 1902, the first four missionaries, two priests and two lay brothers left for Kenya, soon followed by others. Giuseppe Allamano died on February 16, 1926, in Turin at the Consolata sanctuary. By proclaiming him Blessed on October 7, 1990, Pope John Paul II sealed the recognition that the people of God have paid him with various expressions: “the saint of the Consolata”, “provident and compassionate Father, educator and teacher of the clergy”, “priest for the world”. He will be canonized on October 20, World Mission Day.

Lay Missionaries of the Consolata (LMC) from Portugal celebrating their 25th anniversary of life and mission. Photo MC

In recent decades, inspired by the missionary spirit of the Founder and by missionary spirituality and testimony, communities of Consolata Lay Missionaries (LMC) and Young Consolata Missionaries (JMC) have also sprung up. Starting from their lay state of life, they feel called to evangelisation and take on the lifestyle and spirituality of the Consolata, departing and committing themselves for a considerable period of time to a missionary project. Currently, the missionaries (fathers and brothers) are almost 1000 and the missionary sisters are almost 600. They are present in 33 countries. (C.C.)

 

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