Latest Posts Page

Burkina Faso. Alphonsine Yanogo. Sister and Mechanic.

Thursday, 1 November 2018 8:00
Written by: Fr.Carmine

She is the first female mechanic in the country. She runs the Garage Saint Michel de Sic with 22 employees. A Sister who understands engines.

From early morning, the traffic in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso with its 2.5 million inhabitants, is impressive. There is a concentration of vehicles including many motor cycles called ‘Ouaga-two-wheelers’ and a growing presence of used cars called ‘France-Aurevoir’. The use of so many motorcycle and used car taxis has created in the world of wheels and engines a business that varies from those who deal in second-hand parts to dozens and dozens of mechanical and tyre workshops.

At Tampouy, a quarter in the northern outskirts of the capital there is a workshop called Garage Saint Michel de SIC (acronym of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception). What is unusual about this workshop is that it is run by the only woman mechanic in the country. Sister Alphonsine is a native of Burkina Faso. She was born 41 years ago in Pabré, a small village in the province of Kadiogo in the centre of the country. She grew up in a Catholic family, together with her two brothers and three sisters. After completing primary school, she entered the Aspirat Saint Goretti di Tampouy, a Catholic school run by the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception with a High School course for girls lasting five years.

Sr. Alphonsine tells us: “At the Aspirat, scholastic education, discipline and ethics were carefully nurtured. The curriculum included almost all the main subjects (French, mathematics, history, geography, law and biology), but I preferred the more technical and practical subjects”. It was during those years of secondary school that her vocational journey began. She obtained her diploma and decided to go to Guilongou, also in Burkina Faso, for a vocational experience. She stayed there a year and then returned to Pabré to start the novitiate.
In 2001 Alphonsine took the vows of religion with the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception. She soon distinguished herself for her practical abilities, especially concerning motors. Sr. Alphonsine explains: “We needed to mill the cereals so one day I found parts of an old electric motor and succeeded in attaching it to our grinding mill. I was not afraid to get my hands dirty”. Michel Pillot, A French priest, the founder of several humanitarian associations in Burkina Faso, noticed her great talent and advised her to make good use of it. With his help, Sr. Alphonsine got a driving license and, once behind the wheel, her interest in mechanics grew even more.

Sr. Alphonsine understood that mechanics could be the ideal area for her to exercise her mission as a Sister and, at the same time, learn more about mechanics herself. Her superiors were interested and accepted her proposal. Sr. Alphonsine studied automobile mechanics for two years and obtained top marks with her diploma in automobile mechanics. She obtained practical experience in a garage to learn the trade.
Father Pillot then urged her to set up her own small business and so on 10 March 2009, the Garage Saint Michel de SIC was opened with Sr. Alphonsine and three workers. The garage run by a Sister mechanic made people curious and, as she herself relates, “They came, and still come today, to see if it is true”.
Besides the curious, the garage has also attracted so many young people in search of work that it now has 21 people involved: Sr. Alphonsine, seven mechanics, an electrician, four bodywork repairmen and eight painters, apart from a number of apprentices learning the trade. Sr. Alphonsine’s workers are paid regularly each month.

In a short time, the garage became one of the most respected and qualified in the capital. People even come from far away to have their cars repaired. “I think it is important – Sr. Alphonsine says – that people see in us a different way of working, with respect for people and material. The young men and women here learn first of all to believe in themselves and in their abilities and that they can be successful. This is also meant to be an answer for those thinking of emigrating. We have here in our country the potential to create work and a future”.
The work of Sr. Alphonsine today consists mostly in administering and coordinating the work. First a ‘diagnosis’ is made of the problems with any car to be repaired and the collaborators decide what is to be done. She herself can often be seen using a spanner as she stoops over the engine, or under the car to check the brakes. “The vocation is the union of love and passion, experience and talent. I feel as if I heard the call twice, both as a Sister and as a mechanic”, Sr. Alphonsine concludes.

Natascia Aquilano

Johannesburg. Refugees In The City Of Gold.

Thursday, 1 November 2018 8:00
Written by: Fr.Carmine

Every year, thousands of migrants and refugees arrive in Johannesburg from several African countries. The House of Mercy and the Jesuit Refugee Service have been committed to serving hundreds of marginalized people in the metropolis for two decades now.

Johannesburg is home to about half a million refugees and asylum seekers, one of the largest urban populations in the world. They arrive mainly from African countries with conflict situations, such as Eritrea, DR Congo, Nigeria, Somalia and Burundi.
Unlike many other countries, there are no refugee camps in South Africa, while there are four reception centres located in Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban and Messina; the latter is close to the border with Zimbabwe. Refugees arriving in South Africa must register as asylum seekers and apply for a refugee permit in order to get an asylum seeker card that allows them to study or work in the country.

However, finding a job is almost impossible, considering that the unemployment rate in South Africa is estimated at 35%. If one is lucky there are some opportunities in the informal sector of street vending. The permit must be renewed periodically until the refugee status is obtained. Those who are finally granted refugee status (it takes about ten years) have access to health care and retirement benefits, like all South African citizens. The Ministry of the Interior of South Africa, estimated, at the end of 2016, that 170,000 refugees and slightly less than one million asylum seekers were in the country, these data reflected how huge the scale of this phenomenon is.
The United Nations define as ‘refugee’ a person who has been forced to cross national boundaries due to war, violence or persecution because of their sexual orientation, or religious, political or ethnic affiliation. An ‘economic immigrant’, on the other hand, is a person who emigrates in search of a better future, because of lack of work or of prospects of a decent life in their place of origin.

There are some five million immigrants, mostly from Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Nigeria, in South Africa. Unlike the economic immigrant, the asylum seeker is allowed, temporarily, to study or work in the country. This is the reason why, according to the Government of South Africa, many immigrants request asylum without being truly refugees.South Africa plans to create a single refugee reception centre, next to the border with Mozambique, where the asylum seekers would remain confined until they are granted or denied refugee status.
Those who do not obtain refugee status would be very likely repatriated to Mozambique, the country from which the majority of them enter South Africa. Members of civil society consider this reform of the immigration law a way to limit the rights of refugees. In 2014, 15 percent of asylum applications were processed favorably. A year later, the percentage dropped to four percent. Luckily, there are those who are on the side of the most disadvantaged. Diana Bemish left her job as a teacher to dedicate her life to refugees. More than 20 years ago, she founded the House of Mercy, a home for 22 refugees in the northeast area of the city. “I was shocked by the images of the exodus from Rwanda in 1994 and I felt I had to do something. Everything started with the renting of a house for five refugees. People who are hosted at the Mercy House find a family who cares for them”. Diana says. “Although I left the House of Mercy three years ago, I still consider it my home”, says Donatus, a Burundian who fled his country in 2003 and who now works as a chief nurse in a public hospital in Johannesburg. His psychological wounds, due to the violence he had experienced and to the continuous fleeing from one place to another, were healed at the House of Mercy. After going through DR Congo and Tanzania, Donatus finally settled down in Johannesburg. He enrolled in the Bible School of Pretoria, then he studied nursing and even collaborated as a lay missionary in Malawi on projects for the promotion of women.

Mama Mi, is from Rwanda and prefers not to remember the travail she experienced before arriving in Johannesburg. Now, she cooks for and takes care of the children at the House of Mercy. She has become a member of the committee that coordinates the functioning of the house. “I, along with other people, started a new life here. That’s why I feel grateful to God”.
There are also other centres that focus on refugee needs in South Africa, such as the Jesuit Refugee Service. The JRS was established in 1998 and it was started as a spiritual and practical response to the plight of refugees. Its director, Johan Viljoen, recognizes that they must respond to countless challenges that refugees face: first of all accommodation and basic needs.

Dominican Sister Lidia Danyluk works as Community Outreach officer at JRS. She supports refugees psychologically. She is also committed to promoting a culture of hospitality, together with the local community. “When we explain the reality of refugees to locals, they understand and become bearers of a message of hospitality among their communities”, explains the Argentine religious. “At the same time”, she says, “refugees, for their part, should try to interact with locals; they tend to remain within their own communities instead. They feel safer with their compatriots. They happened to be attacked by locals and therefore they are scared, nevertheless, efforts for integration should be made by both sides”, says Sister Lidia. The diocese of Johannesburg also offers pastoral care to the refugees.

Sister Lidia tell us that the JRS South Africa also runs the Arrupe Center, a women’s skills training centre that provides women with English language training, followed by skills training courses in sewing, hairdressing, baking, cosmetology and computer literacy. Upon successful completion of their training, women are issued with start-up kits (for example a sewing machine and materials, if they have completed the sewing course). They then undergo a business training seminar, and are then supported and monitored to ensure that they can use their newly acquired skills to generate income for themselves and their children. The Congolese Henriette, is about to get a certification which is issued to all those who successfully completed their courses. Henriette is about to achieve her graduation in the course of sewing. Her dream is to set up a small sewing workshop and leave street vending. “Every day I find reasons to thank and glorify God because he has never abandoned me. I hope to be able to help other women at the Arrupe centre”, she says.

Rafael Armada

Uganda/Sudanese Refugees. Just A Drop In The Ocean.

Monday, 1 October 2018 8:00
Written by: Fr.Carmine

It consists in a microcredit project for women and grants for school fees for about fifty young people. This is the concrete contribution of the Comboni Sisters to those wishing to build a life for themselves. A Costa Rican Comboni Sister Lorena Ortiz puts us in the picture.

There are signs of improvement in the refugee camp at Palorinya in the north of Uganda even though the refugees came here early in 2017 having suddenly had to abandon their homes in Kajo Keji (South Sudan) due to increasing violence and widespread insecurity. Now, at Palorinya, some families have succeeded in making bricks and building more dignified and secure dwellings. Others have opened small shops and in some areas potable water is more available since wells were dug with the help of some NGO’s.
Unfortunately, the weakest people and those with no families are now living in worse conditions than at the start: the walls are nearly gone and the plastic sheet that serves as a roof is full of holes and lets in the rain. With no protection from the weather, quite a few people became ill and some died. In general, families find it hard to improve their lives due to rising prices. They often have to sell some of their rations of food provided by the UN agencies.

We Comboni Sisters are carrying out our mission of witness, evangelisation and human promotion just as we were doing in Lomin, in South Sudan, from where we were forced to flee in February 2017 due to the war. Maria, from Portugal, works with groups of women in the microcredit project. The women have a very hard life and many of them are alone, abandoned by their partners or widowed. It is the women who usually bear the burden of the family and assume the roles of both father and mother.

The microcredit project is giving cause for hope: the women are given a small loan with which they buy what they want to sell and so make some profit. They then refund the money which is, in turn, given to other women as loans to begin their activities. This method has turned out well in promoting the women since it makes them independent and it gives them creative and dignified work. It motivates them and makes them feel no longer alone and helpless but able to do much for themselves and their families.

For my part, I run the Malala Project to finance secondary school for about fifty young people. We also provide them with breakfast and lunch. We also provide them with solar-powered lamps so they can study at home where they have no electricity. Many students have to walk two or three hours every day to and from school. They leave home around five in the morning, walk for several hours and then attend classes until five in the evening. They do this without having any breakfast as they cannot afford it. They reach home around seven or eight in the evening. It is obvious that such a routine will not produce the best results and so we started the Malala Project. The problem is that there are many students and we cannot help them all. I find the words of Mother Teresa who used to say: “What we are doing is but a drop in the ocean but if we didn’t do it, the ocean would have one drop less.”

South Sudan. Street Children in Juba. They Want To Live.

Monday, 1 October 2018 8:00
Written by: Fr.Carmine

Seventeen abandoned children have been rescued from wandering around the streets and started ‘the trip of their lives’. They are part of a long-awaited educational project, which hopefully will take them, and many others like them, into a different future.

Juba, the capital of the South Sudan, lays on the left bank of the White Nile, about a hundred kilometres from the Ugandan border. The city has been, since the eighteen hundreds, the principal city in the South of Sudan, a vast region of 619,745 square km. With a population of around 500,000. On 9 July, 2011 when South Sudan officially became the 54th African state and the 193rd state in the world, Juba became the newest capital in the world.

In December 2013, some Dinka militias loyal to President Salva Kiir began to clash with Nuer army soldiers, accusing them of planning a coup. The Nuer soldiers were led by Vice President Riek Machar who had been dismissed by Kiir a few days previously. The city became a battleground. Thousands of people took refuge in United Nations areas. Dead bodies lay in the streets. After talks and various negotiations, between President Salva Kiir and Riek Machar, a peace agreement was signed last July. Through the years, because of the war, many people had come to settle down in Juba. Many are children without parents. In the capital Juba, up to 3,000 children live on the street, and that number is increasing daily, said the Mind and Soul Institute, a local charity that works with street children. According to Bester Mulauzi, country director of programme development for Save the Children: “Children living on the streets face unimaginable dangers. They risk being forcibly recruited by armed groups and are more likely to be abused and exploited”.

School football team

Wearing the blue colours of London Chelsea soccer team, Johnson and his companion are sitting at the back of an open four-wheel-drive vehicle parked in one of Juba’s main streets. Anyone who sees these children dressed in blue has to pay attention to them. It is a weird sight in a country that has been ravaged by civil war and stricken by poverty for many years now. In fact, soon some people come near, “are you a school football team? Which school do you belong to? Have you come to challenge the team of a neighbouring school?” The answers to the questions are not simple, and go beyond the appearances. Fr Paolino tells the curious ones a very sad story: a story of abandonment, drug abuse, juvenile crime, poverty and a chain of unending sufferings.

It all started when Paolino Tipo Deng, a South Sudanese Comboni missionary priest, bumped into those children, who were living in appalling conditions. No sooner seen than done! He took upon himself the task of doing something to change their situation, and prayed that God could help him in his purpose. Today he oversees an educational project which, hopefully, will take at least a hundred children out of the streets of the capital and give back to them an opportunity to study and enjoy their childhood for the first time in their lives.

The building in which Fr Paulino had found the children was in a shambles. “An authentic rat’s nest, – remembers the father – it’s an old religious formation house, abandoned many years ago. You can imagine what it may look like now, after many years of war and strife. Everything is in ruins. It lacks even the most basic services. And yet, it was – and still is – the refuge of about one hundred street boys. That hovel was the only home they knew. They were sheltered by night, and also fed during the day. Somebody had carried out some works of maintenance, and so they could enjoy one decent shower cubicle”.One day with another two Comboni missionaries Fr Paulino went to see the place. They were struck by the look of it. They found the children kicking around a deflated soccer ball. When the children saw them, they all ran to greet the visitors. “What are you doing here?”, one of the fathers asked them. “Nothing”, was the answer of one of them, with a big smile on his face. An explanation followed: “This is the orphanage of the zone!”

New beginnings

One of the two missionaries who had visited the ‘orphanage’ wanted to accompany Fr Paulino in his trip to take the first group of those street children to their new destination. After a 40-minute drive, including a short stop to refresh the passengers with some soft drinks, the group arrived at the Good Shepherd Peace Centre in Kit Kolye village, south of Juba town. It is a beautiful centre for human, pastoral and spiritual formation, the first of its kind in the whole of South Sudan, opened in October 2016, furnished with a chapel, a refectory and accommodation for up to 35 retreatants, and cared for by a religious community under the umbrella of ‘Solidarity with South Sudan’, an inter-congregational initiative to foster peace and justice in the country.

No doubt, the children were impressed by the beauty of the compound. As they jumped off the pickup, one of the missionaries asked them: “Well, boys! What do you think?”, waiting for the reply. No one said a word: all were busy taking in through their eyes that new fantastic world they were in. Only one, the youngest, after a while, cried out: “This is our new home!”: “Not really, replied the father, yours is somewhere else, but not less beautiful”: The little boy looked at him, smiled, took his sunduk (a metal trunk) from the back of the car, and, like the others, received from Fr Paulino a padlock and a key: “You will keep your belongings in this metal box. From now on, you are responsible for all the toiletries and educational materials you will be given during the whole year. And do not lose the key”. I wish I was there to see their faces. Before this, they did not have anything; now all their hopes were kept and locked in that trunk.They spent some nights at the Centre. Then they were carried to their true ‘home’; at least for a year: ‘Brother Augusto Memorial’ Primary School, an educational boarding facility run by the Saint Martin de Porres Brothers, a local congregation founded by two Comboni Missionaries, Bishop Sixto Mazzoldi and Fr. Giovanni Marengoni. There, in few days, the brothers had prepared brand new huts for the 17 children just next to the school.

Fr Paolino gathered the children and said: “Listen carefully to me, and keep my words in your minds and hearts. Do not throw away this chance. Be brave. The road ahead will be challenging and difficult. Never get discouraged. Always keep up hope. And know that the success of this project we launch today is in your hands”.He paused for a moment, then added: “Among you I can see the new president of South Sudan and the future ministers of our country. Do not disappoint the great expectations we have put on you all”. He looked at them and studied their faces intently for long moments. He was absolutely sure that they had listened with much attention, and he could see their faces alight with great ideals, immense hope and a clear determination.

Fr Paolino’s dreams

Fr. Paolino talking with another missionary said. “When I first saw these children, forsaken and roaming around the streets of Juba town, I knew I could not witness their situation and do nothing about it. I am thinking about the rest of them still living in that hell-like ‘orphanage’: I want to do something also for the other orphans who do not have even that rat’s nest to spend the night and get some food. I want to work out some plans for all the street children and for all the many youngsters that still roam around the town”.He continued: “I know what I have to do. First, I will restore radically the orphanage and also I will build proper boarding accommodation for at least 100 children next to the Brother Augusto Memorial Primary School. I will need many resources, not only to put up structures, but also to run them. Gosh, without realising it, I have become their foster parent”. Actually, he is more than a foster parent. He is the true father for these children.

Roy Carlos Zaiga Paredes

World Mission Sunday. “Life Is A Mission”.

Monday, 1 October 2018 8:00
Written by: Fr.Carmine

The theme of this year: “Together with young people, let us bring the Gospel to all,” echoes the upcoming synod of bishops on Youth. “The Synod to be held in Rome this coming October, the month of the missions, offers us an opportunity to understand more fully, in the light of faith, what the Lord Jesus wants to say to you young people, and, through you, to all Christian communities”. World Mission Sunday is celebrated this year on October 21. A synthesis of his message.

Pope Francis said: “Every man and woman is a mission that is the reason for our life on this earth. To be attracted and to be sent are two movements that our hearts, especially when we are young, feel as interior forces of love; they hold out promise for our future and they give direction to our lives. More than anyone else, young people feel the power of life breaking in upon us and attracting us. To live out joyfully our responsibility for the world is a great challenge. I am well aware of lights and shadows of youth; when I think back to my youth and my family, I remember the strength of my hope for a better future. The fact that we are not in this world by our own choice makes us sense that there is an initiative that precedes us and makes us exist”.

Pope Francis continued: “The Church, by proclaiming what she freely received (cf. Mt 10:8; Acts 3:6), can share with you young people the way and truth which give meaning to our life on this earth… Dear young people, do not be afraid of Christ and his Church! For there we find the treasure that fills life with joy. I can tell you this from my own experience: thanks to faith, I found the sure foundation of my dreams and the strength to realize them. I have seen great suffering and poverty mar the faces of so many of our brothers and sisters. And yet, for those who stand by Jesus, evil is an incentive to ever greater love. Many men and women, and many young people, have generously sacrificed themselves, even at times to martyrdom, out of love for the Gospel and service to their brothers and sisters.”

Taking directly to young people, Pope Francis said: “You too, young friends, by your baptism have become living members of the Church; together we have received the mission to bring the Gospel to everyone. You are at the threshold of life. To grow in the grace of the faith bestowed on us by the Church’s sacraments plunges us into that great stream of witnesses who, generation after generation, enable the wisdom and experience of older persons to become testimony and encouragement for those looking to the future. And the freshness and enthusiasm of the young makes them a source of support and hope for those nearing the end of their journey. In this blend of different stages in life, the mission of the Church bridges the generations; our faith in God and our love of neighbour are a source of profound unity.”
“This transmission of the faith, the heart of the Church’s mission, comes about by the infectiousness of love, where joy and enthusiasm become the expression of a newfound meaning and fulfilment in life. The spread of the faith “by attraction” calls for hearts that are open and expanded by love. It is not possible to place limits on love, for love is strong as death (cf. Song 8:6). And that expansion generates encounter, witness, proclamation; it generates sharing in charity with all those far from the faith, indifferent to it and perhaps even hostile and opposed to it. Human, cultural and religious settings still foreign to the Gospel of Jesus and to the sacramental presence of the Church represent the extreme peripheries, the “ends of the earth”, to which, ever since the first Easter, Jesus’ missionary disciples have been sent, with the certainty that their Lord is always with them (cf. Mt 28:20; Acts 1:8). This is what we call the missio ad gentes. The most desolate periphery of all is where mankind, in need of Christ, remains indifferent to the faith or shows hatred for the fullness of life in God. All material and spiritual poverty, every form of discrimination against our brothers and sisters, is always a consequence of the rejection of God and his love”.

Pope Francis concluded: “The ends of the earth, dear young people, nowadays are quite relative and always easily “navigable”. The digital world – the social networks that are so pervasive and readily available – dissolves borders, eliminates distances and reduces differences. Everything appears within reach, so close and immediate. And yet lacking the sincere gift of our lives, we could well have countless contacts but never share in a true communion of life. To share in the mission to the ends of the earth demands the gift of oneself in the vocation that God, who has placed us on this earth, chooses to give us (cf. Lk 9:23-25). I dare say that, for a young man or woman who wants to follow Christ, what is most essential is to seek, to discover and to persevere in his or her vocation.”

DR Congo. Kabila likely to remain in control after the elections date.

Monday, 1 October 2018 8:00
Written by: Fr.Carmine

Either the elections are rigged or they cannot take place for logistical and financial reasons. In both cases, directely or indirectly, Kabila is likely to remain in control, anticipate observers in Kinshasa.

A growing number of players and observers inside and outside the DRC are convinced that President Joseph Kabila is likely to remain in office or at least in control of power after the date of the scheduled presidential and parliament elections on the next 23 December.

One of these pundits is the former Prime Minister between 2008 and 2012, Adolphe Muzito who was barred from running for the presidency by Constitutional Court in early September. The alleged reason for eliminating him was reportedly an obscure ‘conflict of interest’ with the Lumumbist Unified Party (PALU) from which he was excluded.
Another former Prime Minister, the 94 year old ‘patriarch’ Antoine Gizenga, the founder of PALU was also banned, allegedly on a accusation of forgery after his son signed a document on his behalf to register him as a candidate. The Court also barred from running the former Congolese vice-president and Kabila’s rival at the 2006 presidential election, Jean-Pierre Bemba. The decision is motivated by Bemba’s condemnation for the bribery of witnesses by the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) Remarkably, however, the Congolese court did not bar from running for a provincial parliament election, Frederic Batumike, a militiamen who was sentenced for the rape of young girls.
Kabila has taken no prisoners. His handpicked Independent National Electoral Commission has banned all the main opposition candidates, except for Félix Tshisekedi, son of the late founder of the Union for Democracy Social Progress and Vital Kamerhe. “The Electoral Commission is under Kabila’s heel “, says Muzito. Some of the eliminated candidates are indeed heavy weights, as showed the important crowd that welcomed in Kinshasa Bemba when he returned from his ten year imprisonmnet, after he was acquitted by the ICC at the beginning of August. Bemba scored an impressive 41,95% at the 2006 presidential election against Joseph Kabila while Gizenga scored 13,06% of the votes at the first round of the presidential election in 2006.

Beyond that, the most popular Congolese politician, according to nationwide opinion polls carried out by the Berci and Congo Research Group, Moise Katumbi, the former governor of Katanga has not been allowed to register as a presidential candidate. On the last 3 August, Katumbi was banned to enter the Congolese territory at the Zambian border. The Bishops National Conference of the Congo (CENCO) considered that the incident was inacceptable while Renaud Girard, columnist of the Paris-based Figaro daily concluded that the DRC was heading towards a non credible election.
It is not sure that the elections will even take place, considers Muzito. In his opinion, it is quite likely that at some point, the authorities will declare that there are not in a position to organise the elections for logistical and financial reasons. The government claims that it wants to finance them without foreign support but it lacks the means to finance the cost of the elections estimated at one billion dollars, says Thierry Vircoulon from the French Institute of International Relations IFRI.

According to Vircoulon, the Kinshasa regime has no interest to organize elections since very few will vote for Kabila’s dauphin, the former permanent secretary of the ruling People’s Party for Reconstruction and Development (PPRD), Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary who was anointed presidential candidate on the last 8 August. All observers coincide that the man lacks charisma. Beyond that, they stress that he is extremely unpopular after the violent repression against the supporters of the Bundia dia Kongo religious movement in the Kongo central region, of demonstrators in Kinshasa in early 2017 and of a rebel movement in the Kasai province. In addition, Ramazani Shadary is a disastrous candidate on the diplomatic scene since he was put in May 2017 on the European Union sanctions list for its alleged role in the planification and the execution of serious human rights violations.
If nevertheless the election do take place anyway, a massive rigging can be expected, warns Adolphe Muzito. There are growing signs that it will be the case. By end August, the Congolese roman Catholics bishops expressed concern about the lack of clarity in the vote registry. In May, the International Organization of Francophony revealed that the fingerprints of 16.6% of the registered voters, about 10 million citizens, were missing, which makes it impossible to check their identities. In addition, the Electoral Commission is adamant to use controversial electronic voting machines.

These devices designed by a South Korean company called Miru Systems have been dismissed by the Congolese opposition as ‘cheating machines’, whereas the United States said that they could undermine the credibility of the forthcoming polls. Moreover, last March, the South Korea’s government officially distanced itself from the company and warned that the use of these machines « could give the Congolese government a pretext for undesirable results related to the elections ». Besides, in a country where the majority of the people lives in rural areas, the use of touch screen voting machines is a serious challenge. Another problem is the one month delay in the supply of the first batch of 35,000 machines (out of a total of 110,000) which was observed in early September.

In such context, Adolphe Muzito has called the opposition to unite, to campaign for the organisation of free and fair elections and to come up with a joint programme. But the lack of trust in the transparency of the entire electoral process does not make this challenge an easy one. Muzito’s prediction that Kabila is likely to remain in control of power after the 23 December deadline set for the election, seems realistic. Opposition, civil society and church circles are extremely concerned about the risk that this could trigger new cycle of protest and violence, if the Congolese people react in a desperate way.

François Misser

Africa Youth. To be protagonists in the church and in the society.

In the view of the Synod on youth which will take place in Rome this month, Tendai Karombo, chairperson of the National Catholic Youth Council in Zimbabwe, explains what are the challenges that face young people in the society and in the church in Africa.

Zimbabwe just like any other African country, young people are facing many situations in their day to day lives and also hope for the best from both the Church and Society.
The change in times has never made it easy for us young people to have a steady life and also the rise of many challenges
In most of African countries economic crisis has brought about many challenges and problems. Poor economies, largely due to mismanagement of resources (especially natural resources) has led to poor performance of economies resulting in: High levels of unemployment (e.g. in Zimbabwe it is estimated to be between 80%-95%) therefore it means there is no stable source of income. Young people have developed dependency syndrome on parents, politicians and donor aid stalling youths’ active and meaning participation in societal transformation. Young people are now failing to live a dream of their own, their dreams and aspirations are controlled by the one who has an upper hand in their knives or based on how much the family can earn to make their dreams come true.
Another challenge is the child labour. The concept of child labour is becoming a common practice in Africa. Young people are being used to provide cheap labour. Many of them, especially girls, still have challenges to access basic education, many fail to get specialised trainings. Instead of one help young ones earn and further their education, young boys and girls are ‘employed’ as house helpers and in some production companies and are then deprived their chance to develop their future.

Family disintegration and society chaos

The effects of destabilised families are detrimental to the growth and success of young people and leads to society chaos. Family members especially parents leave families for greener pasture or for safety and better living conditions which affect the psychological and even physical wellness of youths. Technology coming in between families not as a strength but being a threat to the communion of a family, taking the place where attention is now shifted more to technical gadgets and less to the behavioural changes of young people in families.

Challenges facing the young people in the Church

The Church as a body of Christ plays a very important role in the formation, growth and development of young people. In my time being involved in the process of coming up with the Pastoral Plan for the Archdiocese I come from, I realized that there are certain areas that young people would wish to be addressed.

Formation. From the time one gets baptised (most of young people gets to be baptised just a few months after being born) to the time one receives the sacrament of confirmation, there seems to be lack of proper and continuous formation in spiritual and other human development matters after receiving the sacrament of confirmation. There is little or no sustainable and comprehensive faith formation programmes for the youth. I appreciate the various youth guild we have but in some areas youth groups are not so common especially when they do not receive support from the parish councils and the Parish Priest hence no substantive platforms for youth formation. This often leads to youths being lured to new mushrooming churches (and the question is there Faith or Fiction in these new churches).
Lack of space and engagement. Due to generational differences the older generation of believers have failed to create sustainable dialogues with young people hence no space for youths to grow. Youths are often side lined to minor responsibilities and duties in Catholic institutions.
Lack of proper platforms for youths to exercise and utilise their talents and gifts to minister to other youths and the universal Church. In many cases the Church in Africa is led and run by the ‘seasoned Catholics’ who have all sacraments, all the experience and know it all.
Not much trust is given to young people in terms of involving then in decision making process and roles of leading in the Church.
Lack of human development formation. Socio economic conditions in Africa have led to youths lacking creativity, not fully utilising their potential and less is being done on a long term bases to help the youths. There is little effects to get support from the Church in dealing with social challenges like addiction, homosexuality, pornography, alcohol and child abuse. Most young people who are affected by the social challenges I have just mentioned above have seized to attend and join other youths in parishes, leaving no option but for the Church to go and reach to the society.
Many things are happening in the world and time spent at the church grants the young people an opportunity to realise what Gods wants for them to do. Also helping the young people to discern on their vocations as a process not an event means the religious, clergy and members of the Church needs to intervene a lot.

Hopes and expectations of young people from the Society

Young people in this generation lives with hope for a better future. As much as there are challenges faced but platforms like this Synod that we gather here today to plan and discuss gives more hope and shades more light. There are a number of expectations I have highlighted that the young expect from the Society and the Church

Expectations from the Society and Church

The society to support young people and give them platform to show their strength, and learn from their mistakes. To acknowledge and appreciate responsibilities that some young people are carrying. To assist young people discern carefully about their vocations, their career and their aspirations. To constantly revise and improve the education system to prepare the young in dealing with potential challenges of the Church, society and the respective countries /regions. To give full moral and social support. To advance evidence based policy making in order to address the needs of the young people. The society should embrace the generation and find ways to address to the generational gap so as to develop an understanding of our needs. To understand that being young is a transitional period and it will not remain permanent so there is great need for the society to help in preparing the young be responsible adults especially during this transitional period. Every being to feel partly responsible in the lives of young people. An African proverb says ‘’It takes an entire village to educate a child”.

Young people hope for: An inclusive society; A Church that is ready and willing to transform itself and its youths; Peaceful and conflict free societies; To have access to basic and advanced education and to live in developed communities. The Church to be always be vocal in raising these critical issues and advice the society on better alternatives. A chance to be able to contribute and engage meaningfully in the growth and development of the local Church in Africa.

Mandela. Above All Humanity.

There are all sorts of reasons for celebrating Nelson Mandela in this centenary year of his birth.

We recall the way he worked incessantly to overcome racial domination and achieve freedom for both the oppressed and their oppressors. We marvelled at how he could emerge from 27 years in prison without rancour or bitterness, even without regret, and sit across the table to negotiate with those who had kept him there.

When he became President he did his best to create an inclusive government, going well beyond the constitutional stipulation that the leader of the second- biggest party should be a Deputy-President. Mandela brought into his cabinet various Inkatha Freedom Party leaders, and offered posts to the leaders of the Pan Africanist Congress and the then Democratic Party.

Perhaps, though, his greatest political legacy was the simple fact that he left before his time. He was fully entitled to stay on for a second term in 1999, and there would have been nothing unusual about it had he done so. Indeed, it is a challenge to think of any other African liberation leader who willingly stepped aside at the first opportunity.

Beyond just the politics, we can surely never forget the many gestures of reconciliation, the way that he – who had been so deeply wronged – openly embraced so many people who had spent their sad lives fearing him and hating what he stood for: non-racialism, peaceful co-existence, a shared nationhood. He was criticised for his visit to Orania (and the criticism has recently been re-asserted) but when he took tea with Betsy Verwoerd, he showed us that true liberation is something that goes much deeper than mere politics. It is at root a spiritual thing and when it flowers it presents us with a glimpse of perfect humanity.

This is the Mandela legacy that we must treasure most. His deep, abiding, well-tested, indefatigable humanity. It is a rare quality among politicians, and it is sometimes assumed that Mandela acquired it during his imprisonment; that he went to prison as some kind of fire-breathing revolutionary, and came out all those years later as a man of peace.

This was not the case. In his famous speech from the dock during the Rivonia trial in 1964, he addressed the Court about his decision to embark on violent struggle with Umkhonto we Sizwe: “Four forms of violence were possible. There is sabotage, there is guerrilla warfare, there is terrorism, and there is open revolution. We chose to adopt the first method and to exhaust it before taking any other decision. In the light of our political background the choice was a logical one. Sabotage did not involve loss of life, and it offered the best hope for future race relations. Bitterness would be kept to a minimum and, if the policy bore fruit, democratic government could become a reality”.

Note the reasoning: apart from avoiding loss of life (in itself a humane consideration) sabotage would also “offer the best hope for future race relations”, and minimise bitterness. How many liberation Leaders, having reached the stage where they feel compelled to take up arms, would factor in as a guiding principle, their future relationship with their oppressors? How many would prioritise the avoidance of bitterness on the part of their enemies? Only someone with a special sense of humanity would think that way.

When he emerged from prison in 1990, and took up leadership of the liberation struggle once again, Mandela’s message was exactly the same. Speaking on the day of his release from prison, he made it clear that the freedom for which he had sacrificed so much of his life was meant for the oppressors as much as for the oppressed: “We call on our white compatriots to join us in the shaping of a new South Africa. The freedom movement is the political home for you, too.”

This characteristic of Nelson Mandela’s – his unshakeable humanity – goes well beyond the realm of politics, even the often noble and sacrificial politics of a liberation struggle. It is what made him the moral giant that he was, and what gave him the capacity to give all the diverse people of South Africa an equal place in his heart. It is what made him a leader, but first and foremost a servant leader. As we commemorate Nelson Mandela, and give thanks for the vital gift that he was to our country and our world, we should see him as a benchmark. It would have been unfair to expect those who followed him as leaders of a free and democratic South Africa to be able to fill his shoes; but let us hope that in the current generation there are some who will at least try to do so.

Mike Pothier
Programme Manager,
SACBC Parliamentary Liaison Office

Republic of Central Africa. A Church With Open Arms.

Monday, 1 October 2018 8:00
Written by: Fr.Carmine

Some dioceses have had their priests killed and churches destroyed but nevertheless they take in the homeless and the needy. The Episcopal Conference promotes interreligious dialogue and seeks to get internal and international political institutions moving. The testimony of Mons. Juan José Aguirre, Bishop of Bangassou.

On 29 November 2015, Pope Francis visited Central Africa and declared Bangui: ‘The Spiritual Capital of the World’. That visit created a peaceful interlude lasting four months. First there was the blind violence of the Seleka militias followed by another dark period lasting until today, under President Touadéra.

During this phase, the human rights of the Central Africans have been and continue to be trodden underfoot with impunity by militias who call themselves Christian and are known as anti-Balakas. The visit of the Pope brought a time of peace and quiet that made us hope. We thought we had left the labyrinth of violence. After some time, those responsible for the UN mission turned a deaf ear to the message of the Central Africa Episcopal Conference. Despite the little good they undoubtedly did do, their overall mandate to defend the civil population seems to have been ineffective, unprofessional and, at times, due to its failure to react to war crimes, even complicit in them.

Welcome one and all

In 2013 and 2014, the churches of Bangui were filled with homeless: many found refuge there for more than three years. Some of the Muslims of the capital fled to Chad, others barricaded themselves in the PK5 quarter, the economic centre of Bangui. Yet, there are still homeless people in 80% of the territory not controlled by the government. The bishop of Alindao (in the south of the country), Mons. Cyr-Nestor Yapaupa, has 20,000 people camped at his residence. Catholics, Protestants and people of traditional religion sleep in makeshift tents supplied by UN organisations and suffer hunger and misery due to the insecurity created by the UPC (Unity for Central Africa, one of the many Seleka groups, led by Ali Darassa), which controls the city.

This is just an example: according to UNICEF, food insecurity affects four million Central Africans, 80% of the population. At the entrance to Alindao there are UPC mercenaries mixed with paramilitaries of the Peul ethnic group. At the exit there are anti-Balaka militias, poorly armed and composed mainly of young men. They say they want to liberate the country from the Seleka and they do this with unheard-of violence. Greeted first as ‘liberators’, they soon became fanatics and and even insane criminals seeking revenge. Alindao is between the hammer and the anvil. The Bishop of Kaga-Bandoro (central north), Mons. Taddhée Kusy is in a similar situation. However, there the militias have a different name and their sponsors are neither from Chad or the Gulf States.

We in the Catholic Church are aware of our vocation to lend a hand to all the despised, abused or massacred peoples. In Bangassou, in the south-west, the refugee camp is located in St Louis Minor Seminary. The seminary was opened fifty years ago and educated part of the leading class while training many Central African youths for the priesthood. On 15 May 2017, two thousand Moslems from Bangassou who were about to be massacred in their mosque, were rescued and brought to the seminary, close to the cathedral where they are still living. The Church, like the Good Samaritan, does not ask if the wounded person is black or white, Moslem or not, or whether they have residence permits: it simply helps them. This is how the churches still standing in the city and in the countryside have become places of refuge, field hospitals, as Pope Francis often says, or simply friendly places where people can find temporary shelter and save their lives.

Attempts at Reconciliation

When, in December 2013, the anti-Balakas attacked the Moslem quarters of the city, the Cardinal of Bangui, Dieudonné Nzapalainga, granted refuge to the Imam of the central mosque, Omar Kobine Layama. Of 25 mosques, only two are still standing. Hundreds of Moslems were killed in the streets and more than half a million fled to Chad. The more than 600,000 internally displaced people were taken in by the Catholic churches. At Boali, 60 km from Bangui, the parish priest who had Moslems staying in his church firmly opposed about a hundred anti-Balakas who wanted to burn the building down. His courage avoided a tragedy and there was no loss of life. In this situation, the Cardinal, the Imam and the Protestant Pastor Nicolas Guerekoyame Gbandou, organised a Platform for the religious denominations of Central Africa to seek social cohesion and peace.

The Catholic Church throughout the country also organised committees for mediation and the prevention of conflict. These are but small signs which, in many instances, have not produced great results but they have set in motion the wheels of reconciliation.
Certainly, the Church has paid a high price. Hundreds of chapels burned, many churches vandalised, and priests killed. The mission of Nzako (central-north) was burned to the ground: the priests’ residence, the dispensary, the school and the newly-built church, everything was destroyed by the FPRC (Popular Front for the Rebirth of Central Africa, a Seleka group led by Noureddine Adam. In 2015, Fr. Forman Wilibona was killed in the forest of Bossangoa. On 21 March 2018, Fr. Joseph Désiré Angbabata was assassinated at his parish of Seko (Bambari, in the centre of the country) while he tried to defend a group of women and children who were shot by UPC militias.

Fr. Albert Toungoumale was killed at the Comboni parish of Our Lady of Fatima, close to the PK5 in Bangui, the stronghold of the Moslems of the capital, on 1 May last. Fourteen other people were killed with him and hundreds were injured: they were attending mass on the memorial of St. Joseph the Worker when a radical Moslem group entered the building and fired on the faithful at point blank range. A few hours later the act was defined as, ‘a horrible crime’, by the UN peacekeeping force without, however, sending any troops to the place. We bishops and priests are witnesses to this often incomprehensible violence. We have interceded for Moslems and non-Moslems; we evacuated the wounded, bringing help to all for years. We have even dug common graves in the land behind my house to bury Moslems and non-Moslems alike.

Let us begin again with forgiveness

Pope Francis reminded us that religion is not to blame but is part of the solution. Since June 2017, I have spoken of little else in my cathedral but unconditional pardon and the need to start afresh. Many of my faithful would leave the church murmuring and with downcast eyes: their hearts did not follow the trend of my words. Both the Seleka and the anti-Balaka have burned down all sorts of buildings. Many families have lost everything. This is what happened in the Ligouna quarter (in the city of Zemio, in the east): for four kilometres, everything was burned, leaving but a dead desert. I can guarantee that, during these five years of conflict, many Catholic missions have remained there in the forest, to provide a place of safety for those unfortunate people whose quarters have been burned down, forcing them to flee. For everyone, a church means there is a priest there to welcome them, a well with clean water, a place to hang out their coloured clothes and rest in the shade while waiting for better times.
The church is always a place of encounter, a place where people from the organisations meet to spend the night. The churches are also places where we can find ministers, ambassadors, international organisation workers, even President Touadéra and the UN Secretary Antonio Guterres. They all meet in the hall of some church to analyse the problems, to plan, discuss how to spend the huge amounts of money, to offer solutions that are never realised. They hardly ever even cast a glance at the voiceless poor. They then depart in their high-powered Toyotas, surrounded by bodyguards to board their flights. And so they leave, while the Church remains. It is usually the Church that is the last to leave and turn out the light.

Tunisia. A Damocles’ sword hanging on its budding democracy.

Monday, 1 October 2018 8:00
Written by: Fr.Carmine

Political Battles Are Creating a Distraction from Main Problems Weakening its Young Democracy

Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi wants new elections, promising they would be held in December 2019. The new elections have become necessary after the president announced that his ‘Nidaa Tunis’ (Call of Tunis) Party will break its alliance with the Islamist Ennahda Party, founded by Rachid Ghannouchi, the historic leader of the Tunisian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Essebsi and Ghannouchi had formed a coalition in 2015, which, for better or worse, has secured a form of political stability in the wake of the post-2010-2011 – ‘Arab Spring’ or ‘Jasmine Revolution’ turmoil.

Ennahda and Ghannouchi’s Islamists were, in many ways, the biggest winners of the revolution, given that the government of the now exiled Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali had applied severe restrictions on their activities.

In Tunisia’s post-Spring political landscape, Beji Caid Essebsi, represents the country’s secular tradition, shaped by the historic post-colonial President Habib Bourguiba since independence in 1956. For decades, along with Syria and Iraq, Tunisia was perhaps the most secular Arab State.
The ‘alliance between Nidaa Tunis and Ennahda proved essential in soothing socio-political tensions in the wake of intensifying violence in 2012 and 2013. But, it was always a delicate compromise, however harmonious the personal relationship between Ghannouchi and Essebsi might have been.

Internal Weakness in Nidaa Tounes Party

The break of this alliance raises questions about prospects for social stability in Tunisia, especially given chronic economic problems, which have played no small role in perpetuating social tensions. The 92-year old president, who advised Bourguiba as far back as 1956, is himself on the way out of ‘Nidaa Tunis’. The much younger Prime Minister, Youssef Chahed, appears to be Essebsi’s natural successor and he has established a favorable working relationship with Ghannouchi.

Thus, for the time being at least, the secular-Islamist political coexistence will continue. Moreover, in the 2018 municipal elections, the first ever democratic local elections held in Tunisia, Ennahda emerged as the strongest political party – even if it did not officially win (independents and Nidaa Tounes obtained more votes combined). Thus, Ennahda’s islamists have become the ‘kingmakers’ in the current ruling coalition at the national level. Where there is a brewing political crisis is within the Nidaa Tounes party itself. President Essebsi’s son, Hafez Qaid Essebsi, Leader of Nidaa Tounes, has called for prime minister, Chahed to resign because of his failure to revive the economy. Ennahda has been the main obstacle in the way of the resignation. Ghannouchi has sided with Chahed.
Perhaps, the relationship between President and Son, leader of the Party, reminds too many Tunisians, especially those who sympathize with Ennahda, with the bygone days of ‘pre-Arab Spring’ political dynasties. Still, regardless of the individual players’ ambitions, all political leaders must still confront the Tunisian General Union of Labor (UGTT). The UGTT may be less favorable to Ennahda’s ‘candidate’ (Chahed).

The union fears the free-market/neo-liberal economic reforms that the technocratic prime minister would push, given the latter’s declared penchant for tackling the reduction of public debt rather than addressing rising socio-economic differences. In other words, the UGTT fears Chahed as the IMF/World Bank man. The rest of Chahed’s own Nidaa Tounes Party sides more closely with the UGTT. Nevertheless, the intensifying political battle risks overshadowing Tunisia’s more urgent problems. Problems, which, if left unaddressed, will compromise not only the elections but the entire legitimacy of the democratic revolution.

The Jasmine Revolution is at Risk

Tunisia, the only country where the ‘Spring’ left a semi-favorable legacy, continues to endure a deep social crisis. The standards of success are low in this case. Tunisia is considered ‘successful’ because it’s the only country, of those that experienced wide scale uprisings in 2011 to have upheld the resulting political changes without degenerating in total anarchy (Libya), war or back to dictatorship (Egypt). Yet, a disastrous economic situation, compromises the tenure of democracy and its progressive Constitution in the North African country. In other words, the structural causes that sparked the initial anti-government revolt the interior rural area of Sidi Bouzeid remain intact.

The economy remains weak, which forces the government to act in ways that ‘appear authoritarian’ due to a focus on structural reforms and austerity measures. One of the symptoms of the malaise is the rising migration phenomenon. The same poverty that in 2011 served as the fuel for the public display of anger and frustration, especially among the youth. Ben Ali may be gone but, Tunisians have discovered that democracy doesn’t necessarily imply prosperity.
The democratic Tunisian government has even succeeded in upholding secular ideals, but the economic problems make it weak and prone to frequent crises. For all of the technocracy of 40-year old Prime Minister Chahed, President Essebsi may be forgiven for being unable to ‘learn’ the new democratic ways. He tends to address economic protests and social tension with the army, which is regularly deployed to guard infrastructure and key industrial facilities (phosphate industry for example) during ever more frequent strikes
The threat posed by alleged ISIS or al-Qaeda terrorists further complicate matters. Indeed, the threat of extremist breakouts in Tunisia remains high, given the known presence of anywhere between 3,000 and 6,000 al-Qaida or ISIS fighters, many of whom are returning from war zones such as Syria and/or neighboring Libya. It’s no exaggeration to suggest that Tunisia is a corridor for jihadists heading to Libya.

Tunisia’s Economy

Of course, poverty and unemployment don’t help. And that poverty tends to remain concentrated in the non-coastal rural areas such as Sidi Bouzeid itself. Such tows suit themselves to recruiters of unemployed young men to the ‘jihadist’ ranks, where they can at least earn however basic a living. The new democratic government has been unable to reduce the income and economic opportunity divide that exists between the coastal resorts, open to European tourists and their Euros (even if tourism has not resumed pre-revolution figures), and the depressed and eroding countryside.

Given the decline in prices of phosphate, Tunisia’s national industry, the tourism sector – however more fragile – has become a main source of foreign currency. Unemployment stands at a conservatively estimated 15% – but almost 40% among youth on average (some 60% in the rural areas). But the government has few tools to improve the situation. It tackles deficits to please international donors and banks, raising the cost of gasoline and other services and reducing subsidies.
The risk, of course, is that the economic weaknesses that democracy has exposed will trigger widespread disillusionment among those who challenged the old guard. The revolution has not improved life for a clear majority of Tunisians. And political apathy, or democracy indigestion, has already shown its first effects: in the May 2018 municipal elections, the turnout was a dismal 34% of those eligible to vote.

Tunisians appear to have grown tired of democracy already. And it’s understandable, given that both parties in the coalition government, despite their wide disparity in political and social direction – a coalition formed by the laity of Nidaa Tounes and the moderate Islamists of Ennahda – have both gladly accepted IMF conditional loans in exchange for harsh austerity, which inevitably hurt the lowest classes. In this context, there are few prospects to prevent the frequent strikes by workers from all strata, including teachers, professionals and unemployed while investment in the weakest – and most ‘islamist’ prone rural areas – remains non-existent. Whatever, and undeniable, progress Tunisia has made in the development of institutions, the austerity and unsatisfactory economic conditions leave a Damocles’ sword hanging on its budding democracy.

Alessandro Bruno

South Africa: Is This Land Your Land?

Saturday, 1 September 2018 8:00
Written by: Fr.Carmine

The issue of the redistribution of the land is splitting South African society and could deeply impact the economy of the country. The government and the ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), are pushing in that direction, but they have still to prove that this reform will help the development of their nation.

According to Foreign Policy, in 2015, one out of two citizens of the country was classified as ‘poor’; to be precise, the poverty rate was 55.5% of the population. According to official data diffused on 30th July 2018, the unemployment rate in South Africa is at 27.2%. This situation is pushing South African authorities to find a way to lift those people from poverty and unemployment. The expropriation and the redistribution of the land owned by white farmers seems to be the solution they found.

When it gained power for the first time at the end of apartheid regime in 1994, the ANC launched a land reform programme aimed at transferring 30% of arable land from white farmers to black owners in five years. The project was based on the ‘willing seller, willing buyer’ principle. That is to say, the government buys the land from white farmers who are willing to sell to distribute it to black people. But this process has been slow. As of May 2018, only 8% of the land was owned by black farmers.
In the latest years the ANC position on this issue seems to have changed. In December 2017, during the 54th party conference (which choose Cyril Ramaphosa as leader) the ANC officially endorsed the idea of an expropriation of the land without compensation.

Apparently, in a first phase, Ramaphosa opposed this choice but now seems to have embraced it. He even proposed to change the Constitution to permit this policy.
The change of ANC’s stance on land reform is likely due to the political pressure from Julius Malema and his Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). Malema was the chief of the ANC youth league before clashing with then president Jacob Zuma and being expelled. He founded EFF, which has a radical political platform and campaign for expropriation without compensation. The fear of being outmaneuvered by EFF pushed the ANC leadership to shift towards the expropriation policy. This shift is closely linked with the 2019 legislative elections. Due to the loss of votes at the latest elections, the ANC senior ranks are rejuvenating populistic slogans that were part of the ANC rhetoric in the past to regain consensus.

The original sin

In the speeches of the supporters of land reformation, this policy will solve the social issues affecting the country and will improve its economy. The social tensions that divide the society are supposed to be the consequence of the land dispossession of the black owners in 1913, during the apartheid era (a decision Ramaphosa considers a sort of ‘original sin’ for modern South Africa).
But a more dispassionate analysis brings to consider the actual state of the nation mainly as the consequence of the failures of the ANC leadership from 1994 to now. The former President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, was pushed to an early exit on 14th February 2018, first by the pressure of the streets then by the ANC leadership due to accusations of corruption (which have yet to be confirmed by a court). His place was taken by his vice, Cyril Ramaphosa himself.

Thorny issues

The redistribution of the land risks being a complex issue both from a social and economic point of view. Stephen Grootes posed two interesting questions in Daily Maverick (6th August 2018). The first concerns the hypothetical beneficiaries of the expropriation. Basically, the land will pass to someone who has no land and, in this way, will have a new capital, or will it be given back to those black farmers who lost their parcels due to the apartheid regime?

The second question is also thorny. Large parcels of land in different areas of the country are administered by traditional leaders on behalf of their community. Those ‘homelands’ comprise about 13% of the arable land and are the homes of 17 million people. Most of them work small plots on a subsistence basis. The traditional leaders have the authority over these areas, for example by determining who will farm a certain lot or have access to water. Will this system be saved by the expropriation drive or will the ownership of the land be given to those that actually farm it? The tribal chiefs are pressing for the maintaining of the system, but this exception to the general principle of ‘expropriation without compensation’ is not welcomed by all the commenters. But the tribal kings and chiefs are a political group traditionally courted by ANC leaders, which, as seen before, are focusing on the 2019 elections.

Food and security

One of the main questions is whether the reform will damage the economy of the country and if it will jeopardize the food security, due to its impact on agriculture.
Farming in developed countries, such as Italy and the USA, nowadays requires know-how, capital and entrepreneurship. In countries such as Italy and USA, a small farm is often not enough to feed a family and therefore the farmer is required to have another job.
The simple fact of passing a plot of land to a black owner is not a guarantee that they will be good farmers or will be better off.

The supporters of the traditional system point out that the beneficiaries of land redistribution could fall into a debt spiral. To buy seeds, fertilizers etc., they will be forced to offer their land as a collateral to get loans and in case of drought (a frequent phenomenon in several areas of South Africa) they could lose everything and be forced to sell the land.
The redistribution of the land will target mainly white farmers. According to government data provided by the BBC, 72% of the land is owned by whites, who constitute 9% of the population. Many of them denounce an increase in attacks (robberies, homicides, aggressions, etc.) by black criminals and claim not to be protected by the authorities. Some of them are planning to emigrate to North America, Russia or Australia.
They could leave the country and bring with them their know-how and their resources.

Liberalism vs populism

In his struggle to become first leader of the ANC and then President, Ramaphosa enjoyed the support of those, inside and outside South Africa that considered him more business-friendly than Zuma. The former president risked being impeached also due to his links to a family of rich businessmen, the Guptas. But he also used populistic rhetoric that was perceived as a menace by supporters of free market and capitalistic economy.
Ramaphosa is a former trade unionist, but after been marginalized within the ANC he became a businessman who sat on the boards of several corporations. He was sort of co-opted by the economic leadership of the country.

Even if he uses populistic tones, Ramaphosa is pursuing a policy that has a liberal undertone. He is basically dismantling an economic system to open it to the market. This move could inject new energy in the economic system of South Africa. But it could also open the door to foreign agribusiness giants that could buy the land from impoverished farmers, both black and white. Truth to be told, foreign investors are apparently scared by the expropriation policy, since they fear to be targeted. But in reality, the real primary targets will be the South African whites, especially the small farmers.
The South African leaders have yet to prove that they are right on this subject and that they will be able to bring the ‘expropriation without compensation’ policy to its end. In any case, the process will not be smooth and painless.

Andrea Carbonari

Uganda. A School Under Canvas.

Saturday, 1 September 2018 8:00
Written by: Fr.Carmine

Refugee teachers create a school for young people in South Sudan.

The life of refugees is hard. When they arrived in Moyo (Uganda),in the South Sudanese of Kajukeji, they were many, they were thirsty, it was hot… then it rained and the fields flooded. Many of their belongings were dragged away by floods and roads became impassable. Little by little, the NGOs started to supply some of the basic services such as water, which is transported by tanker trucks when they can pass through the flood-hit roads.

Some wells were opened. Scarce food supplies arrived, but people had to be standing in endless lines to get it. Access to healthcare is even more difficult. Trying to reach Moyo’s health centre, without ambulances and passing through the flood-hit roads is a painful odyssey. Those who are lucky and are able to reach the place, have to wait hours to be visited and besides, drugs supply is limited and medicines are often out of date at the health centre. It is therefore very difficult to cure seriously ill people in these conditions.

As far as education is concerned: “Still at the end of April 2017, no school was available”, says the missionary and parish priest of Kajukeji, Jesús Aranda, “so the teachers of the Comboni College in Lomín (Kajukeji), who in the meantime had arrived at the Moyo area, decided to volunteer their time and skills to establish a secondary school for the young people of the place. “So we set up some canvas under the trees, establishing six classrooms, a staff room and a laboratory, and the Comboni teachers started to teach classes in this school under the trees”. Okumu James Alan was the director of the Comboni College in Lomín, one of the most prestigious schools in South Sudan. Now he is in charge of the Idiwa Parents Secondary School, which offers tuition to some 600 young people in a humble facility made of cane, wood and canvas. “When young people arrived here, they were bored and used to spend their times just watching videos, drinking or even stealing. They had to get back on track!”, says Okumu.

At first, parents and teachers were confident that institutions would guarantee education, but nobody did anything, so they mobilised to get a permit and opened a community school. The parents contribute minimum sums of money to buy didactic materials, to build the still precarious structures and to offer small incentive pay to the professors. “Unfortunately some young people arrived here alone and do not have the support of their family. So not all of them can afford attending the classes at our school, because they must save the little money they have to buy food which is always very scarce. And at the moment unfortunately, we are not able to offer completely free tuition, which is why we are looking for partners that allow us to take on more students. We are also proposing the ‘Food for education’ program in order to increase school participation”, says the director. Okumu also underlines that attending classes from morning until 5 pm without eating is a ‘challenge’. “Concentration becomes difficult on an empty stomach”.

However, the atmosphere here in these humble schools, is the same as that of the one that can be found in any other traditional school: there are respectful and enthusiastic students.
“We hope to increase the number of girl students, who are now only half of their male colleagues. The problem arises from primary school”, Okumu explains. Many girls leave classes. South Sudanese culture somehow influences families which prefer to pay tuition fees for boys rather than for girls”.
School director Okumo says, “we would like to return to our land, but the war seems not to follow a clear direction and it may drag on for a long time. On the other hand, if peace were imposed it would not last long either. In the meantime we’ll keep on teaching in our humble school under the trees”.

Gonzalo Gómez

Photo Gallery – The Magic of the Desert

Advocacy

Baobab

Youth & Mission