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

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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?

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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.

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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

 

 

Missionaries of Africa. A Great Gift.

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This year, the Missionaries of Africa (also known as the White Fathers) celebrate 150 years of their foundation. The society was founded in Algeria on 19 October, 1868, by Cardinal Charles Lavigerie and it focuses on evangelism and education in the African continent. The challenges of the present and the prospects for the future.

The Missionaries of Africa are currently 1,200 and come from 36 different nationalities and cultures – European, American, Asian and African. They announce the Gospel in 22 African countries with 215 international and intercultural communities.

 

The majority of the 500 young people who are currently being trained to serve in the society founded by Cardinal Charles Lavigerie are African, making what Lavigerie had predicted a reality: ‘The definitive task must be done by Africans’.
Today, Africa has to face many and serious challenges in order to improve the quality of  Africans’ life. The White Fathers want to live the present with enthusiasm and confidence. They are convinced that the gift of the Holy Spirit received by Lavigerie will guide them to serve Africans and the Church in the best possible way. The While Missionaries along with the African catechists have carried out great work, since both groups have been able to contextualize the message of evangelism in African culture.
A century and a half after its foundation, the African Missionaries are still thankful to Cardinal Lavigerie for his fundamental intuition and for giving guide lines that are still valid today, despite the change of the social, cultural and religious context that has occurred over the years.

The African continent is currently facing two main challenges: the presence of a violent and sectarian Islam, which had remained unknown until now in Africa, as well as the poverty and political and economic insecurity of many Africans, in part due to globalization, with the consequent tragedy of migration.
The Society of the Missionaries of Africa has always been engaged in inter-religious dialogue with the Islam world. The White Fathers created the Institute of Fine Arabic Letters (IBLA ) 1926 in Bou Khris (near La Marsa) in Tunisia.
The Institute, was born from the desire to know better and promote Tunisian culture in all its aspects. IBLA is interested in the human and social sciences in Tunisia and, more broadly, in the Arab world. Its mission is to encourage intellectual openness in Tunisia, while developing intercultural and interreligious dialogue, with the aim of achieving mutual understanding and peace. The IBLA moved to its present location in 1932, near the medina of Tunis, where it gradually became part of Tunisian society. The training part in classical Arabic language and Islamology was transferred to the Manouba in 1949, then to Rome, by will of Pope Paul VI, in 1964, to become the Pontifical Institute for Arabic Studies and Islamology (PISAI).

In 2004, The Institute for Islam-Christian Education, (IFIC), opened its doors in Bamako (Mali). The Missionaries of Africa interact with the local Churches and mainly focus on evangelization and the promotion of justice, peace and sustainable development. The White Fathers have therefore established several institute such as, the Centre for Social and Economic Studies of West Africa (CESA), in Bobo-Dioulasso (Burkina-Faso); The Social Training Centre (CFSC), in Lilongwe (Malawi); The Faith & Encounter Centre Zambia (FENZA), in Lusaka (Zambia). All these centres are committed to social issues and represent a reference point for Christians who have to face, through the evangelical knowledge, the challenges of traditional and contemporary culture.

The future of the Missionary Society is marked by hope. The White Fathers are aware that they are carrying out God’s project of love for all humanity and therefore also for Africans. This project of love means supporting and promoting justice, peace and fraternity. The White Fathers accept the challenge of the present with enthusiasm, and are full of hope for a better future. The Missionaries of Africa’s priorities are contained in the following tasks:

  • Educating educators to favour the autonomy of African Churches; creation and improvement of Major Seminaries, catechist schools and lay training centres.
  • Collaborating with the African Churches whose representatives are called to announce the Gospel in their country, or outside their national borders to other peoples and cultures.
  • Giving priority to those projects that promote development, justice and peace, because a large number of African people still suffer from hunger, war, injustice, and corruption. Making a reality in Africa what Pope Francis stated: “Everyone has a God-given right to have a job, to own land, and to have a home”.
  • Keeping missionary vocation as a priority, in order to make the Gospel known to people and communities who do not know Jesus Christ.

The White Missionaries’ hope is supported by seeing the results of the work of the confrères who have preceded them. The results obtained up to now can be summarized as follows:

  • An Africa which is proud of its priests. From the very beginning, the White Fathers focused on the promotion of a local clergy whose formation was as good as the one they received themselves. In 1868, there were only two large African Churches, the Coptic Church of Egypt and the Ethiopian Church, besides the Christian communities established by the European colonizers (Algeria, Tunisia, South Africa). In 1987, the African Church was already led by Africans who passionately worked to form African Christianity in the framework of the Universal Church. Today the African Church numbers 15 cardinals, 700 bishops and 30,000 diocesan priests.
  • An Africa which is proud of its laity. While it is true that Lavigerie wished all Africans were Christian, it is also true that he always had immense respect for people. He urged his missionaries not to baptize anyone who had not completed a four-year catechumenate. A school of faith, where thousands of Africans have put into action the grace of baptism by accepting to be announcers themselves of the Good News. There are 225 million Catholics in Africa (19 percent of the population of the continent).
  • An Africa which is proud of its catechists. Since the beginning of the mission, many laity responded to the vocation of catechist through a dedicated life, often in a framework of poverty. Without them, Christian Africa would not be what it is today. The African Church numbers more than 400,000 catechists.
  • An Africa attentive to the poorest. According to the African tradition, in a family, the one who owns something, shares it with those who don’t. The insane development of cities and frequent corruption are putting in danger this and other African values. Moreover, certain political developments are jeopardising human rights. The Missionaries of Africa have chosen to live with the poorest, and they support them to establish communities characterized by people who live and fight for a dignified life.

 

Being a missionary in Africa is a vocation that requires a lot of love for God and Africans, as well as much strength in order to accomplish the mission God asks of those who decide to serve Him. Being a missionary means working for the achievement of justice, love, openness and deep respect for the people of other cultures and religions. But first of all, being a missionary is a gift from God.

Juan Manuel Pérez Charlín.

 

 

Africa/India. A Stronger Partnership.

Continual growth in commercial exchange between the Asian giant and many African countries. Closeness of ties that can be seen also in the diplomatic field with the opening of eighteen new Indian embassies on the continent.

Back in 2002, on 26 May, the Indian minister for Commerce and Industry, Murasoli Maran, launched the programme “Focus Africa” to exploit the enormous potential of the sub-Saharan region and create opportunities for economic development in the area.

Since that date, bilateral relations between India and the countries of Africa have continued to grow stronger, as shown by the figures for Indian exports to the markets of the continent which, in the two years 2016, 2017 reached 23 billion dollars against 14 billion in 2007 and 2008; in the same period, 2016-2017, African exports to India amounted to 28 billion dollars (in 2007-2008, they were worth 20 billion). The five leading African countries in exports to India are Kenya, Tanzania, Egypt, South Africa and Nigeria. The latter, between 2010 and 2015, was the main trading partner of New Delhi on the continent.

At the World Economic Forum held at Davos in 2014, India and Africa established the ambitious goal to be reached before 2020 at 500 billion dollars worth of commercial trade. In 2017, the total value of trade between the two blocks amounted to 42 billion dollars.

This is certainly quite an achievement and Africa and India may improve upon it by developing the entrepreneur sector which is one of the key indicators to measure the performance of the two blocks which have not yet completely made use of their commercial potential due to a series of obstacles.To increase the volume of exchange, New Delhi is very much turning its attention to the countries of East Africa where planned incentives by local governments have induced an increasing number of Indian investors to enter the markets of the region.

The five-day trip carried out in late July by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Rwanda, Uganda and South Africa, is a clear indication that the country is more than willing to undertake new commercial activities in Africa where the New Delhi government intends to implement 118 lines of credit to the value of eleven billion dollars in more than forty countries.

Modi’s African tour marked the first ever visit of an Indian head of state to Rwanda during which Delhi announced two credits for a hundred million dollars to develop industrial estates, expand the special economic area of Kigali and to develop the plan for the mechanisation of agriculture in the country.

Also in the Rwandan capital, Prime Minister Modi signed six agreements that include the modification of the 2007 Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the sectors of agriculture, animal and military resources, cultural exchanges, the dairy industry and on a broad field of commercial cooperation.

The India’s interest in Africa is not simply economic, as demonstrated by the announcement by the Indian Prime Minister, in a speech made to the Ugandan parliament on 25 July, of India’s intention to open 18 new embassies in Africa.India is also conducting a fifth round of negotiations with Mauritius to reach an agreement on free exchange involving the reduction of import tariffs on goods.

The general lines of the agreement called the India-Mauritius Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Partnership Agreement (CECPA) will include the exchange of goods and services, the resolution of controversies, economic cooperation and the elimination of technical obstacles to commerce.

It must however be noted that the reduction of tariffs on goods imported from the Indian Ocean archipelago will have little effect since on the island nation only about 6% of goods are subject to customs duty. Nevertheless, given that Mauritius is only one of the 44 African countries that signed the historic agreement last march in Kigali creating an African continental free trade area (AfCFTA), New Delhi hopes that a commercial agreement with the country may open the door to the rest of the continent.

Mario Cochi
Political Analyst

Letter to Pope Francis from African Youth.

A group of young people living in Nairobi who regularly meets at Shalom House has written a letter to Pope Francis on the occasion of the Synod to be held in Rome next October, during which hundreds of bishops will discuss on the theme “Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment”. The letter has been sent to the Synod Secretariat and wants to be a respectful contribution to the discussion from an African perspective.

Holy Father Francis,

We are a group of African youth, aged from 20 to 30 years. We would like to deepen the way we live our faith, and two years ago we have started sharing the Gospel together calling ourselves “Youth’s Missionaries”, maybe being too visionaries. Though we belong to different Christians Churches all of us recognize in you a servant leader, a shepherd who can lead us with example and wisdom.
On the occasion of the Synod of Bishops dedicated to the youth we have decided to write to You directly on how we live our faith. We hope this Synod will give us more motivations and instruments to become missionaries to our fellow youth.

Jesus and the Churches

We feel that Jesus should be the most important person in our life. Instead, speaking for us African, we feel there are too many mediators between us and Jesus. We read the Gospel, feel inspired by the Beatitudes and wish to live a life of commitment to Jesus that would be fully African and fully Christian. Sometime it seems that to be Christian we have to shed our culture and follow traditions and rules laid down centuries ago, in another place and another culture. Traditions and rules that even the youth in the countries of their origin do not understand, as we know from our contact with them. We do not reject the Tradition of the Church, we would just like to remove the unnecessary stains so that the face of Jesus would shine with more splendor upon us. We are sure that a more direct dialogue between Jesus and us will bring an abundant harvest and fruits of holiness, expressed in an African way. We dream of an African Saint Francis!

Sometimes we are intimidated in front of the structures of the church, we feel that more than a community of followers of Jesus the church is an organization with a structure that rejects you if you do not conform. It looks like an international corporation with mission and vision expressed with Gospel term, but often the internal rules show a mundane spirit. The church should condemn our mistakes, but also comfort us in our failures and show us how to forgive our-selves and forgive the others.

We would like from time to time listen to our leaders (bishops and priests) face to face, and have them listening to us. We love what you do, celebrating Mass every morning with a small community. It would be so much easier for our bishops to do this, their flock is much smaller, yet we have the chance to see our bishops only during big celebrations.

The prevalent attitude of our faith leaders is that of instructing us, very rarely that of sharing the joy of the Gospel with us. In this way the leaders risk to become only teachers and judges. We would need strong and loving fathers instead! We need guidance on how to confront the continuously new challenges that the modern world sends to us. So much of the modern culture reaching us through the powerful mass and digital media undermines in a subtle way the Gospel values. Without the loving guidance and the example of our shepherds we cannot grow in the ability to discern what is good from what is bad.

An African expression for our faith

Our traditional cultures and religions were often too closed in themselves, unable of change and lacking a long term vision. They were wonderfully all-inclusive for the members of the same human group, but often excluding the others. The Gospel has opened up our horizons. Yet we cannot renounce our roots, they are part of us and the Spirit of Jesus wants us to grow from where we are. They connect us with the mystery of life and the mystery of God.

We sometime feel that we do not have a direct contact with the Gospel. Yes, we can read it, we can hear very learned explanations, but it seems to be a food already cooked by someone else’ mother! To be really nutritious for us it must be cultivated and harvested and cooked by our own mothers and fathers, our leaders.
If they do so they will feed us with a faith with a deeper African flavor, and we shall carry on from their example and words.
We like to celebrate our faith in a community, with songs and dances, with all our being. We see the love of God around us, and every day is a joyful celebration of life. This is part of our African spirituality.

Now our faith is not sustained and fed with African models. We know of the Uganda Martyrs and of the “martyrs of brotherhood” of Buta, Burundi, who with their life and death have witnessed to Christ and overcome division and tribalism. They are an example of how the Gospel can assume and take at a higher level our African traditions. In every African town there should be a church dedicated to them! And in the history of African church other figures should be identified who can be inspiring for young African people, so that we can feel they are companions in our life journey.

Our Churches

We know that our Churches have come to Africa already divided, sometime in competition. This is another bitter heritage of the European history transferred to Africa. But we know also that some African Christians in time of danger were able to overcome the divisions, work together. and to witness Christ together, like in the case of the Uganda Martyrs. And we feel that we have to strengthen communion with all Christian Churches. With those who have come divided and also with the many that were born on our African soil mixing the Bible with our traditions. They have weaknesses, yet they provide answers to the quest for African spirituality.

We dare to suggest that in the ordinary calendar of our local churches, at least once per year there is a special celebration for all Christians. It could be not only a time when we pray for the others, like what it is done during the celebration of the Week for the Unity of Christians, but a time when we pray with the others and with them we celebrate our common faith in Jesus our Saviour. We have in the Church a multiplications of celebration where we stress our own faith and our own tradition. Aren’t we strong and relevant enough to share our faith with the others, especially with our Christian brothers?

The relationship with our Muslim brothers needs to grow, so that we can work together at the service of humanity and of God in all secular matters. This is already happening in our daily lives and it should be assumed and promoted by the churches. To cultivate friendship and common action with our Muslim brother should be a daily concern for our Christian leaders. Youth pastors should approach the issue of the divided churches without fear, the sooner they will face it, the stronger the faith and the aspiration to unity of their flock will be.

Sport properly practiced is a good preparation for cooperation, discipline and unity of intent. Many sports see Africans excel on the world stage, and most of them are sports that can be practiced with no or minimal equipment, like athletics, especially running, and football. Every parish should have a sport program accessible to all youth of every faith.

Our world

We love the world in which we were born. We look at it with awe, and we want to embrace it, to improve it. Respecting the wonderful nature around us and improving the bonds of communion in the human family.

We like your prodding the church to go out in the street, to meet the challenges of daily life and not to stay close in the safety of our homes and communities. Some of us have lived in the streets, we have experienced abandon and rejection and we know how difficult and cruel life in the street can be. We have also known war and refugee camps. The street, the most difficult places, are the places where life happens, you meet the others, you create bonds, you learn the dynamics of meeting and dialogue. In the street the unexpected comes to you and in it there is the voice of God.

Most of us are Kenyans and we have seen you in Nairobi. We remember what you said about corruption. Corruption is like diabetes, corruption is like craving for sugar, and wanting more and more of it. We are ready to accept and forgive the weaknesses of our political leaders, of some of our priests and bishops who are sick with this disease. We ask them to be servant leaders, powerless and poor, close to us. The church will be more credible and they would be able to speak with real authority at times of social and economic crisis.

In recent years the credibility of all Christian Churches in Kenya and South Sudan has been undermined precisely because some church leaders have been perceived as unable to distance themselves from corruption, party politics and tribalism. How can they promote peace, service, unity and love when trapped in nets of power and money?

We love peace. We want to build up a culture of peace and brotherhood. Blessed are the peacemakers! The Church of Jesus is there where people build bonds of community and peace. That is the heart of our mission at the service of the world. Could we suggest that for some time – let’s say the next ten year – our leaders would not worry building churches and institutions of stones but concentrate in building the church as a community of the follower of Jesus, the Teacher who opened to us the vision of the Beatitudes ?

Poor political leadership is one of our problem. In Africa we had the shining example of Nelson Mandela and Julius Nyerere, and a few others. The majority of African leaders have been blinded by power and greed. We who write this text are poor, and living a life rooted in the Gospel of Jesus is a difficult challenge for us, always stimulated and incited to become rich fast, and by any mean, by the bad example of our leaders.

Our corrupt politician and members of the ruling class have often looted our countries, and embarked on wars on behalf of the foreign interests to which they have sold themselves out. They are the main responsible for the miseries and death suffered by the youth who die in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to reach Europe. We appreciate your calls for openness and justice.

Open to life, generating life

Modern imported models of life have made us more individualistic and selfish. Friendship, tolerance, hospitality, community living, reaching decisions by consensus are values that have become almost impossible to live in our modern competitive society. Exclusion is the norm. “Be first!” is the dehumanizing imperative.

We believe in life and in the God of life, and Jesus has come to teach us to live a full life. We are not discouraged by the difficulties. We see around us the good seeds and the new life that is growing. We want to care for it, and nourish its growth in us. We know that God loves us and he wants joy and happiness for us, and for everyone. We are not naives, we have experienced that suffering and death indeed play a big part in our human journey, but we have also experienced that love and life are stronger, and we can live a full life even in the midst of material wants.. We are heirs of the joy of the Resurrection and we need to communicate this joy to the people around us and to the next generation.

As we are getting ready to sign this letter, we become aware of one of our weaknesses. We are all males! It is now to0 late to remedy, but we assure you that we work to improve inclusiveness and respect for the genius and role of women in our society.

Holy Father, continue to guide us so that we can become the prophets of a better future.

(Nairobi, 18 July 2018)

Nicaragua. The Church Under Threat.

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Bishops and priests threatened with death. Churches profaned. Nevertheless, the Church has become a sign of hope and
strength for many. 

They broke down the door of the presbytery to get in, those six hooded and heavily armed men. They held Father Alfredo Garcia, parish priest of San Cristobal in Managua, at gunpoint while shouting at him to reveal where he had hidden the students.
Then they dragged Fr Alfredo into the church which, for some days, had become a hospital for those wounded in clashes with the police and paramilitaries. They threatened the people and frightened the wounded. “We will kill you all”, they shouted as they went away.

During the night, the bells of the church of San Juan Bautista in Masatepe had alerted the population to an imminent attack by paramilitaries. “To frighten us they shot volleys of machine-gun fire at the church and launched a mortar round.
Some paramilitaries came close and told us they would kill us if we continued to sound the bells”, said the parish priest, Fr Andres.
Fra Carlos Torres, a Franciscan, together with his companions and other priests of Juigalpa, tried to act as human shields between demonstrators and the anti-disturbance police. Any march whatever against the government was being met with bloody repression.
The white walls of the Divine Mercy church in Managua show the marks of bullets. Even the large image of the Merciful Jesus has been hit. For twelve hours, the parish in front of the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN) was under fire from different directions by paramilitary groups, the so-called ‘Turbas’. It was they who, on 16 July last, attacked the athenaeum, occupied since May by students protesting against President Daniel Ortega. They waited for sunset to take the students by surprise. It was nothing less than a brutal blitz. The paramilitaries attacked with high calibre guns the students who sought cover behind the barricades. One of them died in the first attack. Another, seriously wounded, died a few hours later at Divine Mercy Church. More than a hundred took refuge there, fleeing from the volleys of the ‘Turbas’. Fathers Raúl Zamora and Erick Alvarado, who were at the parish, admitted them and improvised a field hospital to take care of the fourteen wounded. The paramilitaries, however, had not given up the hunt and began to fire on the church, wounding two more students.
Rosary in hand, some standing while others knelt, the students prayed, alternating the prayers with old revolutionary songs. They were rescued by the Papal Nuncio Mons. Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag, and Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, Archbishop of Managua. At dawn, after a night spent mediating, they both came to Divine Mercy Church with buses to take the students to safety. They were accompanied by UN representatives and members of the Inter-American Court for Human Rights.

On countless occasions, the Church has to rush to rescue groups of demonstrators in the sights of agents and paramilitaries. The most famous episode took place at Masaya on 21 June, when the bishops formed a human shield for the demonstrators. On 9 July last, in Diriamba, the bishops were attacked by the ‘Turbas’ and beaten. ‘It was a cowardly attack’, declared Cardinal Brenes on Twitter. ‘The road of violence is a road with no exit. Problems must be resolved by reasoning and dialogue’, added Mons. Báez, wounded in the right arm during the attack, as was Fr Edwin Román, nicknamed the ‘Hero Parish Priest’. The latter, a grandchild of the Father of the nation, Augusto Sandino, defended with prophetic courage the inhabitants of Masaya. On account of his commitment he has received several death threats, just like Mons. Báez and many other prelates.

The protests which began in April, in opposition to a reform of social security that Ortega wanted to impose unilaterally, were immediately brutally suppressed by the forces of order and militant Sandinista groups. The iron fist endured by the population is seen as a total betrayal by 72 year-old Ortega, who in the seventies led the Sandinista revolution that overthrew the dictatorial regime of Anastasio Somoza. Now, the people say, he himself has become a dictator just like the one he overthrew.
According to the Organisation for Human Rights in Nicaragua, in the last four months there have been 440 deaths, more than 2,000 wounded, 280 disappeared and 500 people arrested.

The target is Mons. Baez

President Ortega of Nicaragua says he does not want him in the Commission for Dialogue which, for some months now, mediated by the Catholic Church, civil society, the business sector, the unions and the student movement, have been meeting with a government delegation to find a solution to the crisis.

Early in August, the foreign minister of Nicaragua, Denis Moncada, went to the Vatican to seek the removal of Mons. Baez, Auxiliary Bishop of Managua.
“I know personally that the Pope is very well informed about what is happening in Nicaragua. I have had the opportunity to speak with him on two occasions. The bishops at this time have the complete support of the Pope”, Mons. states confidently.
Mons. Silvio José Báez creates trouble for the regime. On several occasions he used the social media to criticise the government. President Ortega and his Vice-President wife Rosario Murillo know very well that Mons. Báez is listened to by the people. He is from Masaya, the city that sparked the rising of July 1979 that put an end to the Somoza dynasty. He is a Carmelite religious.

He calmly states: “I have always believed that this society (of Nicaragua) would rise up due to the structural, social, political and economic problems. The youth have awakened the whole of society when they became aware that Nicaragua could be different and better”. In the view of Mons. Báez, what is happening in the country is “an opportunity to show the true face of the Church that many do not know and that the religious have never been able to show”.
However, this time the Church has troubled the Ortega regime which has accused it of encouraging a coup. “In a society where what prevails is authoritarianism, the desire for wealth and power, deceit and violence, it is only logical that whatever is the opposite of these anti-values will be troublesome”, Mons. Báez affirms.
The bishop again goes on the attack, accusing the Ortega-Murillo government of manipulating the explicitly religious dimension of the Church, its language, images and its patronal feasts but “the Church is not only this, it is also solidarity, service, being close to those who suffer and to the victims” he explains. He is no longer surprised at what is happening and the accusations against him. “When power is corrupt and is no longer a power at the service of the majority, this face of the Church will obviously be troublesome and so we are subject to scorn, threats, calumnies and persecution”.

A dramatic photo that went viral on the social media shows him alongside Nicaraguan Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes as they pass, heads held high, between two furious Sandinistas who insult them to their faces. At that moment, Bishop Baez says he asked himself, “how is it possible that there are people so full of hatred and capable of such violence and madness?” He had gone to Diriamba, a municipality forty kilometres from Managua, surrounded by Ortega’s paramilitaries, to free a group of paramedics and Franciscan missionaries who had taken refuge in the Basilica. “I am saddened to see the Nicaraguan people in such an aggressive attitude; we Nicaraguans are not like that. Our people are happy, industrious, peaceful and honest and I endure this situation with great pain”, he states.

Speaking of politics, Mons. Báez explains: “As Christians we are called to do our part not only in our personal, family and professional life but also within the economic system, in our political options, in building up society and exercising our rights and duties, seeking the common good”.
The government accuses him of engaging in politics. “There is politics in the strict sense which is that of party politics whose aim is to gain power to exercise it in society. But politics in the broad sense is that which all citizens must practice and in which we are all involved. It is the politics of citizenship, of rights, of the search for the common good and respect for human rights”, he added. “It is the politics that concerns the freedom of others and the exercise of my liberty with love; in other words, it is politics understood as the principle that guides a social group living together”. And again: “The political dimension of the faith is indispensable. Christians are not complete if their faith does not involve them in the social and political dimension”. (C.C.)

Support Local Initiatives.

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Today, Bangladesh is a country in tumultuous growth, afflicted by many problems that for the small local Church and the missionary presences are so many fields for intervention, both in country areas as well as in the capital Dhaka, a metropolis of 15 million inhabitants, containing in its chaos both problems and potential as well as an inexhaustible vivacity.

The encounter with the Pope was also a recognition of the courage of the Bangladeshis in coexisting and sharing. It was an event that, for the Church, was a sign of continuity after the stop-over of Pope John Paul II during his trip to Asia in 1986 and the brief stop of Pope Paul VI at Dhaka airport in 1970: a great gesture on the occasion of the catastrophe that had struck what was then East Pakistan, only a few months after the start of the war of liberation.

Caritas is the social ‘arm’ of the Bangladeshi episcopal conference with a nation-wide organisation that is involved in charity, socio-economic development and in responding to emergencies. Founded in 1967, its present structure is the result of its reorganisation following the typhoon which, in 1971, wiped out entire islands in the delta and caused at least 300 thousand deaths, presenting the local Church with new and extreme needs. In particular, that disaster led to the understanding that it was necessary to think in terms of long-term programmes and to seek to prepare the population not only for extraordinary events but also for daily life together that would be more sharing and more autonomous. The results have been flattering as notes Atul Sarker, the director of Caritas Bangladesh. “I am proud to say that we in Caritas have been among the pioneers of the agricultural revolution of the country, accompanying the introduction of more efficient varieties of crops and techniques with support for cooperatives but also promoting education and training. This is but a part of our role that has never discriminated against anyone”.

“Our programmes place social justice at their centre based upon the social teaching of the Church and they are as concrete as possible and in harmony with local needs and customs. Things are evolving. The Bangladeshi economy has changed drastically in the last forty years. Today the country is self-sufficient in food and better able to face natural disasters. In normal conditions, Bangladesh produces a surplus for export. We are proud that the projects started by us such as interventions in rural cooperatives, the mechanisation of agriculture, irrigation and agricultural methods, have been an example for official projects. It was essential for us to intervene on the level of education and health, with activities designed to support local initiatives”, Mr Sarker continues.

“In the South, Caritas concentrates on protection from frequent and disastrous cyclones; in the North on the construction of refuges against the floods. The structures are open to all and, when necessary, they are used as schools, as communication centres or for meetings. For quite some time, relations with Moslems and the government have been collaborative. We do not discriminate in our commitments and for this reason we are accepted by the authorities and overall society. We are also members of various committees for the management of disasters, for climate analysis and others. Both at national and local level we are always among the first to respond to crises as a fully recognised national organisation”, the director pointed out.

“Our desire and our organisation were again severely tested in recent months by an unexpected humanitarian emergency of gigantic proportions and totally different to what we had seen up to now: the influx at the end of August 2017 of almost a million Rohingyas fleeing Myanmar. Bangladesh is small and poor and consequently the pressure may explode – notes Mr Sarker – and we, too, risked being overwhelmed by this commitment. In the first three months, we distributed aid to 18,000 families, corresponding to at least 120,000 individuals. The scale of the needs forced us to improve coordination with international organisations and our commitment owes much to the family of Caritas International, which responded generously”, Mr. Sarker concluded. (S.V.)

Do Not Forget Rana Plaza.

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Ashulia and the nearby districts of Savar, Tongi and Gazipur on the edge of the metropolitan area of Dhaka, represent the greatest industrial concentration of the country, the heart of the production of textiles, clothes and accessories much of which is destined for the foreign markets of European and US brands.

However, they are also the scene of what were the worst work accidents in the history of the country. On 29 November 2012, in Ashulia, a fire that destroyed Tazreen Fashion caused the deaths of 112 people and hundreds of workers were burned or inhaled poisonous fumes; on 24 April 2013, the collapse of the Rana Plaza building that housed numerous factories, caused more than 1,129 deaths in Savar. At least 15 workers were killed and about seventy wounded in the fire that, on the following 8 October destroyed the two floors of Aswad Knit Composite, a clothes factory in Gazipur. In this latter case, most of the 3,000 workers had already left the factory at the end of work in the evening, even if the number of victims showed that some workers were engaged in night work, something denied by the companies of the sector, since such work is notorious for being obligatory and often unpaid.

Even after these work-tragedies, as also after lesser events, up to the present, the foreign client companies – which even after the Tazreen fire have published interventions, both directly and through the local government, to improve working conditions and safety – have denied any responsibility, even indirect. On the other hand, grave need is an incentive to migration and a concentration of manpower in the few available production sectors. Among these is the textile sector in which thousands of companies offer a steady income in exchange for 70-80 hours of work per week in places that are mostly unhealthy or dangerous with the constant risk of accidents or abuse.
At the centre of the country’s difficulties and even as regards the prospects of Bangladeshi society, is the low average age of the population, 26 years. This situation make young people a resource, but for families and educators they are a challenge that is all the more acute in the urban areas and especially in the capital Dhaka. Here their dispersion and anonymity is guaranteed by the immense human concentration, by both parents having to work, by the use of the internet, the telephone and TV. Often, and this is seen on the mass media, parents themselves do not know what their children are doing, and children have no dialogue with their parents. Suicides among young Bangladeshis show an increasing weakening of family ties.

“We may say that young Christians receive more attention than average from their parents and their community. The others, especially here in Dhaka, often grow up alone and so risk taking the wrong path. The dangers are many: drug use, the abuse of the internet and chat, disappearances and fundamentalist involvement. This shows the need for specific activities for young people, starting with a truly formative education that is personal, cultural and professional”. This was emphasised by Father Tushar James Gomes, Rector of St. Joseph’s Minor Seminary in the capital who confirms that Christians too are affected by this situation, even if only marginally.
“As Catholics we have specific programmes at parish and diocesan level. We seek to impart moral teaching, to insert them in communities, to create initiatives that bring youth together. We firmly believe that sharing commitments and problems gives them a positive sense of community and improves their personal prospects”, the educator priests points out.

Instruction and commitment are therefore part of the process that the Church proposes to its youth. In a certain sense, Dhaka – the leading city containing a tenth of the population and an enormous part of resources and companies – brings Catholics greater opportunities for involvement and cooperation than the small communities scattered in rural areas. It is estimated that there are 50,000 Catholic living in the city but many of them still have homes elsewhere. Opportunities for work are the catalyst but success is only for the few. There are many candidates for employment as they are qualified with school certificates but competition is fierce and selection by companies is strict.
Usually, the higher the level of studies, the more difficult and arduous is the work.  Again, employment in the informal sector is high and the statistics are optimistic. Finally, emigration provides a safety valve for problems and tensions, but a heavy price is paid at the social level, even by Catholic communities.

The risk of extremism

Bangladesh is often cited as a Moslem country with Islam in its DNA but with characteristics of tolerance and coexistence that render it an example to follow. It may be said that even if there are no rules of exclusion and coexistence is there to be seen, the faith of belonging (or belonging to no faith) may support other instances of prevarication and exclusion. An example of this is pressure on tribal groups (mostly Christians, Buddhists, Hindus and animists) by local Moslem notables in order to gain ownership of their lands and resources.
Apart from that, it is undeniable that the experience of international Jihadism sees in Bangladesh the formation of extremist groups which local groups try to radicalise, and that emerge from Moslem society, especially from among the youth.

The enquiry into the massacre at the Holey Artisan restaurant in the diplomatic quarter of Gulshan in Dhaka on 1 July 2016, confirm something more than an infiltration by the so-called Islamic State into the country. The situation may be worsened, both by the return of ‘combatants’ from Syria and Iraq, and the creation in the country of a ‘sanctuary’ for armed extremists of the Rohingya minority persecuted in neighbouring Myanmar, and by the refugee crisis on the borders of both countries.In the case of Dhaka, communications in police possession clearly indicate the ‘go ahead’ for Isis to strike foreigners as a prime target. One of the major consequences of greater extremist influence, if confirmed, would be the flight of the multinational companies that at present use local raw materials and personnel for their production. This also explains the constant denial of foreign terrorist radicalisation in the country by the authorities, despite the fact that Islamic Sate claimed responsibility since September 2015 for at least a score of attacks against moderate Moslems, intellectuals and the secular media, foreign citizens and exponents of minority religions.

There are numerous local groups influenced by Jihadist ideas such as Jamatul Mujahdeen Bangladesh, banned a decade ago but still active, with the objective of making Bangladesh a country governed by religious Islamic law, the sharia. This would appear to be a retrograde step for the secular policies followed by Premier Hasina Wazed, which have thousands of supporters and are infiltrating the elite also. In support of this there is the adhesion to JMB of one of the alleged terrorists of Dhaka, Rohan Imtiaz, son of a notable of the Awami League, the governing party.

Stefano Vecchia

 

Women At The Crossroads.

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The population of Bangladesh is rapidly approaching 170 million, depending on an area of 147,570 square kilometres, large parts of which are subject for their productivity to seasonal variations in the tides and seasonal flooding.

After the first dramatic decades following independence in 1971, the country succeeded in bettering its agriculture and rationalising its resources, reaching self-sufficiency in many essential products and even having a surplus for export. Perhaps for this reason the debate on population limitation and resources is not very widespread; this may also be due to its divisive content. “The government promotes contraception and non-natural birth control but without any great insistence, because it is aware how fragile the equilibrium is between the present state of development, Moslem identity and respect for the needs of groups and individuals”, asserts Probha Lucy Rozario, in charge of Caritas Bangladesh development initiatives, responsible for the development initiatives of Caritas Bangladesh and formerly government consultant for natural birth control. “From my experience, I can say that the Catholic proposal for education towards responsible procreation has failed but the family remains central to society”, even if the contradictory development of Bangladesh weighs on it considerably.

One challenge is accelerated urbanisation; another, at least for some millions of family nuclei, is the work-seeking diaspora. In general, the transition from traditional models of life (for many Christians this is related to ethnic origin) and the competition for limited resources, render traditional structures all the more fragile.
“The rising cost of living also compels women to work. Today the price of rice has reached 42 taka a kilo (about 45 Euro cents) double what it was last year. This is followed by rising house rent, and not only in Dhaka. Besides the cost of living,  – Mrs Rozario also states – the considerably increased territorial distribution, competition for studies and work and the possibility of reaching different living standards, certainly weigh upon the institution of the family”.
The contrast between a deeply traditionalist society accentuated by its Islamic origins, and the need for a modern life in urban centres is increasingly felt. Women are at the crossroads between emancipation by law, necessity and the desire for personal affirmation and a role that remains unvaried in a society that does not support them.

The Bangladesh stopover from the afternoon of 30 November to the afternoon of 2 December 2017 doubtless imposed on Pope Francis less caution than that in Myanmar where he had just finished an epoch-making visit. In Dhaka, the Holy Father immediately found himself immersed in a situation where the Church with only 0.3 per cent of the population is involved in a bewildering and incisive variety of initiatives at the service of the entire nation.
His sensibility and his role faced the legitimate pride of the Moslem majority and the membership of ethnic minorities of most Catholics. This is a condition which, of itself, does not promote equality and integration and challenges both the authorities and those who are convinced that the country which insistently promotes its ideals of independence as a common nucleus from where to advance towards progress, must also confirm the principles (right to liberty, security, one’s language, one’s identity and justice) that inspired the founders of independent Bangladesh.

“Many of the problems identified from abroad with Bangladesh derive from its youth and its on-going transition. Ours is a country that began its industrialisation only twenty years ago, where poverty and need are widespread”, says Cardinal Patrick D’Rozario, Archbishop of Dhaka. “The poor, concentrated in 77 per cent of the rural population, have given an essential contribution to the development of the country, but their day is also coming and, in the last 6-7 years the percentage of the population considered poor has been lowered to 28  per cent. Certainly the government has functioned, wages have tripled in five years, modern slavery is present but, looking to the future, the main problem is the qualification of the youth and their ability to take advantage of the opportunities available to them”.

The Church has accompanied with deep commitment and ample recognition the challenges of young Bangladesh such as its overflowing population, development, security and well-being; it has intervened in all natural disasters that have afflicted this country, the beneficiary as well as the victim of floods. It is a Church with ancient roots going back to the first Portuguese presence in the 16th century, but with a history that grew with the missionary drive of the last two centuries to which Italian institutes gave an important contribution. (S.V.)

Senegal. Ina Thiam: “Photographers put their soul in each image”.

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Young Senegalese artist Ina Tiam takes fashion shoots in places covered with rubbish and plastic around the capital Dakar, to denounce the degradation of the city.

Her pictures of young and attractive girls dressed in expensive clothes, but surrounded by plastic, garbage and all kinds of waste, have gone around the world. However, that is the scenario that young photographer Ina Thiam sees daily behind her own house in the Pikine neighbourhood, on the outskirts of Dakar. “I intend to shock, and provoke a reaction. If I simply took pictures of garbage, people would not even notice it, since they are used to it. I wanted people to ask themselves questions”, she says. For her, photography is also a form of denunciation.

Ina Thiam is 33 years old and one can see her inner strength just by looking into her eyes. Ndeye Fatou Thiam, her real name, was told ‘no’ twice, just because she was a woman. The first time was when she wanted to study mathematics and then when she wanted to candidate herself as customs officer, but her family said ‘no’. ‘This is not right for girls’, they explained. When she began to spend some time with some rappers and hip-hop singers of the multidisciplinary group Africulturban, she was told again she’d better not. But that time she put her foot down and kept on meeting those artists “I learnt music production from them and then I entered the audiovisual world. They gave me a camera and I had to record all their concerts”, she recalls.
Her switch to photography occurred in 2012 after meeting Fatou Kandé Senghor ba. “Video is speed, while photography is time to stop on a still image that may express several things”, she says. American artist Martha Cooper, who portrayed the graffiti artists of the seventies as nobody else was able to do, is a referent point to Ina Thiam, who just like her American colleague, captures an action to turn it into an image. Ina Thiam takes pictures of several Senegalese rappers like Fou Malade, Simon, Didi Awadi or Matador. “They are people who fight to change things, I try to do the same through my photos”, she says.

Pikine, the place where she was born, is a neighbourhood with huge environmental problems. “It’s polluted, and kids here play among garbage and puddles of stagnant water.  While I am convinced that the State should do something about it, at the same time I think that people could clean up their neighbourhood and should stop littering. But they seem not to care about it. One day I had an idea, I decided it was time to make the inhabitants of the neighbourhood aware of the degradation of the area. So I asked my friend Wasso to wear an elegant dress, and to come to my house. When she arrived we took a chair and went to the landfill behind my house, I asked her to sit down and pose for some shoots. That’s how it all began”, she recalls.
“People say that the City Council should take initiatives to solve the degradation of the Pikine neighbourhood, but that would not be enough if people do not stop littering. The inhabitants of the area are also responsible for its degradation”.

The neighbours of the Guinaw Rail Nord district, dress well to go to work and when they come to our neighbourhood, they take off their shoes and put on flip flops to pass through our area, and then they put on their shoes again when they leave. They are used to seeing rubbish here and are not bothered at all! But watching children playing among plastic and garbage is what shocks me the most!”, says Ina Thiam
So she took several unusual pictures of young models with strong make up, wearing expensive dresses and high heeled shoes and posing among rubbish and then showed the series to Senetopía, a project inspired by the book ‘Afrotopia’, by Senegalese publisher, writer, economist, professor and musician, Felwine Sarr. Ina Thiam, who is also known by her stage name as Ina Makosi (‘wisdom, in the Lingala language), is currently focused on the project ‘Les Ailes du Sport’, which means ‘The Wings of Sport’. “I photograph young girls who dedicate themselves to non-traditional sports disciplines for women, like Senegalese boxing or rugby”. With regard to photos, the young artist says, “a photographer must make feel the people who are posing at ease and gain their confidence. A photographer’s photos do not only ‘speak’ about people or images they portray, but they ‘speak’ about the photographers themselves. Pictures can capture the personality of both: the one who is in front of a camera and the one who is behind it”.
“I succeeded in entering into a world of men like that of hip-hop and I dedicated myself to photography in protest, because I was not supposed to do it, because I was a woman. I know that other girls have to fight against these sort of prejudices, and if being a feminist is setting an example and showing them that women can do what they want, then yes, I am a feminist!”, she says.

Ina Thiam, who covers both documentary and artistic photography, likes challenges and has also worked for ‘Plan International’, a development and humanitarian organisation, accepting to operate in difficult realities such as the one in Central African Republic.
The young Senegalese photographer has recently engaged with self-portraits. “We must be proud of who we are. I also say it as an African. I like to demonstrate that I am not a person with a a passive personality, that I do not ask for help, because I can manage by myself. I am someone who protests, who fights and that is what I try to communicate through my photos. One must work hard to get what one wants. I am proud of living in the Pikine district, of being African, and I am proud of fighting for myself and my people”.

José Naranjo

 

 

 

South Africa. The Catholic Church. In Search Of A New Presence.

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The Catholic Church celebrates the bicentenary of its presence in South Africa. From the colonial era to the fight against apartheid.  In search of a new way of being present in South African society.

The presence of the Catholic Church can be traced back to lay Catholics in what is now the Western Cape during the Dutch era (1652-1806).
But active public worship and the presence of functioning clergy was proscribed into the British colonial era until 1818,  with the first permanent clergy presence  only occurring after 1832.
In 1818, a Benedictine Bede Slater was consecrated vicar apostolic of the whole of southern Africa and the Indian Ocean.
Bishop Slater was unable to reside in Cape Town, however, governing his vast ‘diocese’ from Mauritius. Between 1818 and 1832, although one church was built in Cape Town, no permanent clergy worked in southern Africa: military chaplains with British troops, together with missionaries en route elsewhere, served Catholic colonists in towns.

In 1831 a Dominican Patrick Raymond Griffiths was appointed the new vicar apostolic and, for the first time, was based in Cape Town from 1832. Starting with a handful of priests, his vicariate stretched from the Cape to present-day Mozambique. Even as the number of clergy grew – slowly – they were so few that they served white colonists plus a smattering of African converts, mainly in towns.  Too few priests, plus the fact that Protestant missionaries in rural areas had had a head-start (of, in some cases, 100 years), made African missions difficult.
It also had an unintended side-effect: Catholicism embraced the colonial segregationist mind-set in practice (and sometimes in theory). Even when African ‘mission’ Catholicism grew and eventually numerically outstripped the ‘colonial’ Church, power remained in the latter’s hands. Black indigenous clergy were a minority, struggling with a Eurocentric church culture, until well into the 20th Century.

Pius IX created the Eastern Vicariate in 1847. Bishop Aidan Devereux the Vicar Apostolic set up his see initially in Grahamstown. Devereux, realising that it was still unmanageable – stretching from the Eastern Cape to today’s Mozambique – petitioned for another vicariate in Natal (now KwaZulu Natal). This territory, established in 1850, included the then Boer Republics (Orange Free State and Zuid Afrikaansche Republic/Transvaal), Basutoland and later extend into the eastern parts of the Northern Cape around Kimberley.
Devereux invited missionary congregations of men and women to work in these territories. Sisters’ (and some brothers’) congregations set up schools and hospitals, creating an important network of education and healthcare that marked the Church’s public face and in some cases changed or moderated the fiercely anti-Catholic mentality, particularly in the Boer Republics. Men’s orders, notably the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (followed later by Jesuits, Franciscans, Pallotines), focused on African missions and maintenance of the colonial Church. One order, the Trappists, transformed into the Congregation of Missionaries of Mariannhill in 1909 to focus on African missions.
Early in the 20th Century, the vast vicariates were subdivided – often according to missionary territories served by specific congregations. A diocesan clergy slowly grew. Vicariates transformed into dioceses, and informal meetings of bishops became first a Conference in 1947 and finally the Hierarchy was established by Rome in 1950-1951.

The church struggle with apartheid

Racial segregation, with white economic and cultural domination, was formalised after 1910’s establishment of the Union (later in 1961 the Republic) of South Africa. Black resistance was met by the Church with caution. Eurocentric Catholic assumptions and white economic domination of the Church confronted a growing sense of injustice, deepened by the systematised racism of apartheid after 1948.

The Catholic Church’s leadership felt constrained initially in its resistance to apartheid by three factors: Eurocentrism, fear of communism and fear of anti-Catholic reaction by the state.
Though no longer persecuted, anti-Catholicism remained strong for most of the century. This, combined with the fear that the State could deport foreign religious, clergy and bishops (the majority until well into the 1970s), initially acted against strong opposition. Second, the presence of Communists among African opposition movements made many clergy fearful; so much so that some ‘progressives’, like Mariannhiller Bernard Huss, tried to create alternate, Catholic African movements – most of them far more conservative and conciliatory than secular counterparts. Finally, the financial power of the Church was in the hands of white laity, many of whom shared to varying degrees white South Africa’s views. The Church’s struggle with apartheid was thus a struggle within as much as without.
Progressive clergy, like Archbishop Denis Hurley of Durban, and laity (within both African movements and white liberal opposition parties) struggled to apply Catholic Social Teaching to the situation. Despite opposition, including initially from Vatican representatives in South Africa, their position slowly strengthened. By 1957 the Bishops Conference had made it clear that apartheid had no theological justification – but (mirroring white opposition parties) called for a gradualised end to apartheid.

After the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), the Church took an increasingly strong anti-apartheid stand. The Bishops Conference, justice and peace commissions, lay movements (like the Young Christian Students/Workers) moved by the late 1970s from denunciation to active opposition. In the tumultuous 1980s, the Church – formally at least – embraced liberation, worked with internal liberation movements and added moral and in some cases material resources to the Struggle (as it was called). This had its cost. Some clergy and laity were harassed, detained, deported and banned. While some white Catholics left the Church, persistence bore fruit, and between 1990 and 1994 the Church supported the negotiated transition, serving often as peace brokers during local internecine conflicts for power, and contributed human resources to monitoring 1994’s first truly democratic election.

Searching for a new direction

During the presidency of Nelson Mandela and his successors, the Catholic Church largely withdrew from the public stage. When it became clear that this was impractical, it established a Parliamentary Liaison Office in Cape Town in 1999 to lobby on issues of public policy. While Church-State relations were cordial, with Parliament open to Catholic Social Teaching insights on socio-economic issues, on some issues – notably abortion and same-sex marriage (both legalised after 1994) – there was deadlock. Some sections of the Church suggested these were signs of ‘bad faith’ on the part of the new government. Others, aware that South Africa had moved into a secular, democratic era where specific religious assumptions could not be the basis for policy, tried to shift the focus to where agreement could be found.

Demographically the Catholic Church changed considerably since 1994. While more numerous than ever before, its percentage of South Africa’s population has dropped – from 11% in 1980 to about 7% in 2001. Its composition has shifted too. It is an overwhelmingly black Church, both clergy and laity, with a significant bloc of immigrants from other parts of Africa. Its white membership has declined: some have emigrated, many have left the Church. The latter mirrors the rise of ‘non-religious’ South Africans as a whole, from about 2% in 1980 to around 14% today.
While the problem of corruption, particularly during the Jacob Zuma presidency, reinvigorated Catholic engagement somewhat, it remains to be seen whether the Church will sustain its political activism. Or indeed whether it will find new ways to work constructively with the new secular democracy.

Anthony Egan SJ
Jesuit Institute South Africa – Johannesburg

 

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