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Danger of Jihadism.

The spread of terrorist actions across West Africa alarms the Ghanaian authorities. Experts argue that the possible involvement of Ghanaian youth has an economic and social rather than an ideological matrix. The sentinel role of local communities.

What seemed unlikely a few months ago is now possible. Ghana is observing with increasing concern the onset of terrorism on the northern borders of the country. So much so that the same ministry of national security no longer speaks of anything but a ‘terrorist threat’ linked to the attacks in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, but also to recent events in the Ivory Coast, Togo, and Benin. Meanwhile the information minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, talks about intelligence reports suggesting the involvement of Ghanaian youths in terrorist groups.

Until now the country had been considered an oasis of peace where extremist ideologies and radicalization phenomena were unlikely to take root. A long tradition of peaceful coexistence – also made possible by frequent inter-ethnic marriages – and a strong religious tolerance, have naturally kept tensions and ‘exaltations’ at bay. Now things are changing. The reasons are essentially two: the spread of the terrorist phenomenon in areas very close to the country where it is easy to cross borders, and an economic and social unease that attracts young people to dangerous and violent paths.
This year’s Global Index on Terrorism highlights the deterioration of the situation across sub-Saharan Africa – especially in the Sahel – protagonist in 2021 of 48% (or 3,461) of all deadly terrorist attacks, globally. Between 2007 and 2021, deaths from terrorism in the Sahel increased by more than 1000 per cent. As the Global Index points out, the factors underlying affiliations (al-Qaida and the Islamic State group) are complex and systemic: lack of food, access to water, high population growth and weakness of governments. It is therefore clear that such violence has a strong social rather than ideological matrix.

An Immigration Service officer in northern Ghana. (Photo Ghana Press)

Meanwhile, the Ghanaian government – engaged in the surveillance of sensitive targets such as churches, mosques and other public places – in recent years has concentrated its efforts on border control, especially the one to the north (a region with a Muslim majority) with Burkina Faso, a country in which terrorist actions increased from 191 to 216 in a year. But there is another modality that has always characterized a form of intelligence in the field. “Communities know each other and therefore the presence of a ‘foreigner’ is always noticed”, explained Ken Ahorsu, a researcher at the University of Legon in Ghana and co-author of a study on border security. “What is being done is to educate the community to take responsibility and report anything suspicious, or an unusual presence, to traditional leaders or the police”.

No country is immune
Furthermore, the concern for arms smuggling has led to the involvement of drivers and hauliers so that they themselves pay more attention to what they carry. Emmanuel Kotin, director of the Africa Centre for Security and Counterterrorism is convinced that Ghana is “not at all immune from terrorism”. “Some of the conditions that gave rise to the birth and expansion of terrorism in other countries are here in Ghana”, he explains, referring above all to the lack of involvement of young people in decision-making processes and to the economic crisis.

“Communities know each other and therefore the presence of a ‘foreigner’ is always noticed”

The reason for the destabilization in many African countries and the Sahel in particular, says Vladimir Antwi Danso, dean of Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College and an expert on international affairs, “is that people do not know how to find food or how to live and it will not be military interventions or the imposition of Western democracy that stops the violence”. And he continues: “Ghana is not prone to terrorism, even if obviously this is unpredictable. If attacks occur, we think they may be aimed at Western interests”.
And aside from the delicate socio-economic situation and the criticism of the current government’s achievements, there are other reasons for resentment. For example, the ‘cordial relations’ with the US that led, a few years ago, to hospitality being given to two former Guantánamo detainees (although there were never any reasons to consider links between these and Sahelian terrorist groups) or even the signature of an agreement for a greater US military presence in the country for the deployment (and training) of anti-terrorist troops.

Kwesi Aning, head of the research department of the Kofi Annan Peacekeeping Training Centre, also insists on the strong sense of community of the Ghanaians, especially in rural areas. A form of natural opposition to the entry of dangerous elements. Of course, the country’s weaknesses are known to intelligence: the presence of small arms, the overcrowding of the zongos (slums inhabited by the poorest Muslim community), permeable borders, and the passage of information and ideologies through social media. Yet, Ahorsu concludes, “the military solution is not the answer. To fight terrorism in West Africa, we need to work with traditional authorities, religious leaders, and civil society. And above all to provide for the needs of the populations”. (A.S.)

South Africa. Zapiro, a Graphic Humourist.

Through his cartoons, Jonathan Shapiro (Zapiro) has been campaigning against apartheid since the 1980s. He has written 28 books and publishes a daily cartoon in the South African Daily Maverick. We went to meet him

 Order prevails in Zapiro’s bright and pleasant creation space. Smiling and apologizing when his dog’s barking interrupts the conversation, for a few minutes he leaves the creative process he embarks on daily to share his ability to humorously interpret what is happening in the country. “Cartoons have played a huge role in both old and new South Africa. The relevant thing is that there were no blacks who could express themselves through the cartoons, they were not given the opportunity even if they were good, and they were persecuted. I only remember one cartoonist, Nanda Soobben, a South African of Indian origin, who worked with me in the days of apartheid”, he explains, surrounded by his books and his reference volumes, from Asterix and Obelix to Tintin, or art books that have helped people to be more observant.

“They were all white men, like me, who worked in the establishment media, very restrictive and limited by prohibitions. It was a very repressive state. Others among us were in the alternative press. But in the new South Africa, everything has accelerated and now there are almost two generations of black cartoonists”, adds Zapiro.
“There is no place in the world where cartoonists are completely free. Media owners censor themselves on sensitive issues. He also mentions the fact that in the last 15 years you feel that you cannot express yourself as you would like on social networks because things can be perceived out of context and you risk being hacked or attacked by trolls (problems on social networks). The feeling of absolute freedom is difficult, but in South Africa, we are quite comfortable in the Department of Freedom”, he says, with a half-smile after recalling that former president Jacob Zuma mentioned him twice, even though the complaints have not been successful.

Aware of the privilege it means for the cartoon to be the first thing the reader notices when they reach the opinion pages, he insists on the importance of the “surprise factor combined with humour” to have a real impact. “It’s about making people think differently, seeing something and absorbing it, connecting multiple messages that support each other to give it another interpretation… These are signals that quickly reach the brain and can become memorable. Combining that communication with the image makes it burn in the brain”. Surrounded by notebooks composed of sheets of sketches, ideas and thoughts labelled with the year of production, for Zapiro the key concepts are “the content – what you want to say – and the vehicle – how to do it”.

While he prepares breakfast, Zapiro listens to the radio with a pencil and one of those white notebooks; he then puts the television in the background and converses with his contacts, with his editor or with the journalists who are currently working. “You have to reach the climax, it’s the hardest part, but it’s what makes you reach the reader directly”, he says. Zapiro created his first character at the age of 11, at school – a boy with a fringe over his eyes – and received the baptism of censorship with a cartoon in 1993, in which he draws “puppets in a Parliament created by the old government, in what blacks did not occupy seats. This put me on the right track”. (Open: Jonathan Shapiro (Zapiro) – Photo: José Luis Silván Sen
Carla Fibla García-Sala

 

 

Cuba. The Old Saint Lazarus. The Devotion of a People.

Every year thousands of people go to pay homage to Saint Lazarus in El Rincón, a few kilometres from the capital Havana. “Only Cubans know the mysteries that Saint Lazarus hides”.

Pilgrims arrive breathless crawling on their knees along the path that leads to the National Sanctuary dedicated to Saint Lazarus in El Rincón. The place is packed with devotees paying homage to Saint Lazarus, the saint of the poor, the healer of the diseases of the skin. This miraculous old man is loved as much as Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, the patroness saint of Cuba.
Every 17 December, the day of homage to the saint, a vast crowd gathers at the small town of El Rincón, about 15 kilometres from the centre of Havana, either to honour promises for graces they obtained or to ask the saint for health, money and love, essential elements, according to many, to achieve happiness.

People crawling in a religious ceremony at San Lazaro Catholic Church in El Rincon. 123rf.com

Revered throughout Cuba, this saint is represented as an old man with sores on his body, wearing rags, with crutches, accompanied by two small dogs which, according to legend, licked his wounds to soothe the pain. It is not very easy to reach El Rincón, a small town in the municipality of Rancho Boyeros. However, especially, on the 17th of December, one can see a vast crowd of pilgrims walking along the path that leads to the gates of the sacred site. Some arrive breathless crawling on their knees or on their backs, some even dragging rocks behind them all the way from central Havana to honour promises made to St Lazarus. Red Cross members are there, ready to come to the aid of those who are tired or pass out.
These touching scenes show how strong devotees’ faith is in this saint that grants miracles.
The cult of Saint Lazarus passes from generation to generation, some identify him as the Lazarus in the Bible, others as the beggar who appears in a parable of the Gospel, and still others as Babalu Aye, orisha (deity) of the Yoruba religion from Dahomey, in Africa. The cult of Saint Lazarus is therefore also an example of syncretic devotion: African slaves kept their old religions alive by ‘syncretizing’ their deities with Christian saints. The procession in honour of the Old man, as people affectionately call the saint, can be several kilometres long. Some devotees walk barefoot; others carry a large wooden cross on their backs; some tie a stone to a chain around their ankles. There is no distinction of sex or race among Saint Lazarus’ devotees.

Interior of San Lazaro Catholic Church, El Rincon. 123rf.com.

It is without a doubt, the 17th of December, the official date of tribute to the saint, sees the largest volumes of people at the sacred site in El Rincón. However, this church, dedicated to the cult of Saint Lazarus, is visited all year round. Every day a huge number of people go to the sanctuary bringing their little children, their grandparents and even their puppies to have them blessed by a priest. This shrine was built in 1917 as the Saint Lazarus Church and home-hospital for leprosy patients. In the nineties of the twentieth century, this small church was awarded the title of National Sanctuary.
In 1998 Pope John Paul II went to visit the shrine and celebrated a mass just as he did in Santiago de Cuba when he held a mass at the shrine of the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, as part of his pastoral visit.
The sanctuary remained unchanged until 1990, when two side aisles were added to make more space in order to accommodate more faithful. The whole building was restored, and despite the fact that the current structure does not have a defined architectural style it reminds one of a Colonial-Baroque-inspired church. The interior is rather modest: the main altar also shows neoclassical and romantic elements that make up a typically Cuban eclectic ensemble. Other smaller altars are characterized by neo-Gothic features and are dedicated, among others, to the Virgen de la Caridad and the Virgen de Regla.

San Lazaro Catholic Church and people praying in El Rincon. 123rf.com.

In the central vault, visitors can see a gigantic figure of a richly-dressed Saint Lazarus and, to its left, another smaller image of the saint, which is protected by a glass, where Saint Lazarus is represented as the partially-dressed ‘miraculous’ old man. The faithful stand praying before the image of the saint. They also make offerings, light candles and leave bouquets of purple flowers, the colour of the saint, which are placed in large baskets by attendants. Saint Lazarus …whether the Biblical Lazarus raised from the dead, or Saint Lazarus the ‘miraculous old man’, or the Afro-Cuban Babalu Aye, beyond beliefs and miracles, whether granted or not, fanaticism or tradition, this saint is part of  Cubans’ culture. These people find strength, resistance, humility and love in their religious faith. Only Cubans know the mysteries that Saint Lazarus hides, only Cubans know about the alleged miracles granted to them, or to their dear ones. One of the characteristics of these processions, despite being overcrowded, is silence. There is only one to talk to and to pray: this saint. And once people leave the gates of the sacred site behind, whether they are believers or not, their souls will certainly feel at peace. They will feel grateful for something they cannot even define. They can’t explain why… but they feel at peace with their conscience. (Open Photo: San Lazaro Catholic Church in El Rincon, Cuba. 123rf.com)

Pedro Santacruz

Mexico. Between Art and Popular Religiosity.

Mexican folk art is present in all aspects of community life. During the civil (and Christian liturgical) year, no less than 120 traditional religious feasts are celebrated. The greatest of all is the celebration of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Almost all the religious festivals that take place throughout the year provide a theme and a reason for the elaboration of an infinity of handicrafts: among the Huicholes, who live in central-western Mexico, they are called eyes of God (offerings to protect children up to the age of five, when it is believed that they have overcome the dangers of the first age), the muvieris (feathered arrows that the priest or marakame uses in the various rituals and with which he invokes the divinity), the jícaras with drawing in beadwork of the sacred animal: the deer, the boards on which they draw the symbols of their mythology with coloured wool threads glued on with Campeche wax.

Mexican pottery Talavera style of Puebla in Mexico. 123rf.com

Among the Otomi of San Pablito Pahuatlán, Puebla, dolls are made out of amata or Chinese paper that symbolize the spirits of good and evil.
The representation of animals in dances has a profound magical-religious significance, such as those of the cycle of the Tiger, the Tecuanes, the Tlacololeros, the Deer, the Snake and others with a profound totemic character. Similarly, milagros, which are figurines of silver or alloys, shaped like an eye, leg, heart, etc. which represent the parts affected by some evil and which are placed in churches to ask for divine help, are the extraordinary examples of popular painting
and faith found in churches.

Christmas cycle
Among the popular expressions with which Christmas is celebrated – the inn, the Nativity, the pastorelas, the Epiphany and Candlemas – we find the plastic representation of scenes related to the birth of Christ.

Mexican Nativity scene with Holy Family and baby Jesus. 123rf.com

Mexican folk art offers us nativity scenes made with all kinds of materials: from stylized figures of wheat straw in Tzintzuntzan, Michoacán; to the polychrome wooden niches that recall ancient scenes in San Antonio Arrazola and San Martín Tilcajete, Oaxaca; beautiful natural wood carvings in Coatepec de Morelos, Michoacán; figures in coloured sheet metal in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato; trees of life with nativity scenes and baroque figures in polychrome clay of kings riding magenta elephants and camels, where even the mule and the ox are studded with flowers and stars in Metepec, State of Mexico.
Very delicate cribs in stretched glass, in Guadalajara, Jalisco, and others in cardboard and pasta in Mexico City.
The famous and popular miniature nativity scenes, modelled and polychromed by hand in Tlaquepaque, Jalisco.

Pastorelas
The origin of the pastorelas is rooted in the religious theatre of the Middle Ages, ingenious representations of a symbolic nature, written in verse in ‘quadriloquism’ and handed down from generation to generation. All follow the same lines and the same trappings that allude to the narration of the birth of Christ, with characters representing the shepherds Bato, Bras and Galia, the hermits in pointed hoods, the Holy Family in the portal of Bethlehem, the archangels Gabriel and Michael, the villains of the comedy: Luzbel and her court of demons, with the deadly sins Cunning, Lust and the other infernal hosts, who are finally defeated by the forces of good who go to adore the new-born
with songs of praise.

La Candelaria
On February 2, the Christmas cycle ends with the feast of Candelaria, which commemorates the presentation of the Child Jesus in the temple. It is on this date that the images that are ‘raised’ from the cradle in domestic cribs, in baskets, trays and chairs adorned with flowers, accompanied by grains of corn, beans, wheat and other cereals, are blessed, indicating that this ceremony is linked to the agricultural cycle.

Fiesta de la Candelaria, in the parish of the Espinal, in the city of Orizaba. CC BY-SA 4.0 / Isaacvp

The godparents, who thus become compadres, will dress the child in a special costume made for this day, according to the different invocations they adopt: the Santo Niño de Atocha, the Niño Limosnero, the Niño de las Palomas … even the Niño footballer.

 Carnival
The second great religious cycle – that of the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ – is preceded by the Carnival whose antecedents date back to ancient feasts such as the feast of the sacred ox of Apis and the goddess Isis in Egypt, the Greek bacchanalia, the wolves and the Roman Saturnalia, the harvest of mistletoe between song and dance in the early spring night in the Welsh forests.

Mexican Carnival dancer wearing a traditional folk costume and mask.123rf.com

In Mexico, this festival has a completely different character, due to greater indigenous influence, where its ritual-propitiatory character is more accentuated. According to some researchers, this is due to the fact that this time of year corresponds to the Mesoamerican New Year, with its own nemonteni (five useless days), which regulate the ritual calendar.
Thus, several cities celebrate parades and dances: in Yuriria, Guanajuato, the dance is made up of hooded men dressed in black, with a skull painted on their backs; in Xochistlahuaca, Guerrero, men dress up as women, with beautiful huipiles and ride the machomula, which is a huge wooden horse; in Chiconcuac, Morelos, masked men with coats and bobbin hats dance the Taragotas; in Tlaxcala, the charros parade with feather headdresses and shawls embroidered with sequins; in Cantona, Tlaxcala, groups of catrines can be seen wearing coats and top hats, fine masks and open umbrellas; in Tepotzotlán, in the State of Mexico, the Chinelos, dressed in artisela dressing gowns, wire mesh masks, beards and a large feather headdress, take to the streets dancing the Brinco.

Lent
More than anywhere else, in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato and in the States of Colima, Morelos and Puebla, on the sixth Friday of Lent, the Friday of the Addolorata, altars covered with tablecloths and paper flags are erected, where images of the Virgin of Sorrows are placed with candelabra, stacks of large blown glass balls with coloured water, candles, chia seed plates, lentils, flowers and decorated candles. In Santa María Atzompa, Oaxaca, the altars include vases in the shape of a deer, the body of which is decorated with deep incisions through which chia or corn seeds are inserted – as if in a furrow – which, when sprouting, resemble the fleece of the ‘animal.’

Holy Week
On Holy Thursday and Good Friday, in various cities of the country, Judas dolls are sold, made of cardboard and cane, decorated with fireworks, and painted in bright colours, which, while symbolizing the traitor apostle, take on the appearance of the devil, of death and, above all, of the popular and political figures of the moment.

Handcrafts for sale in San Martin Tilcajete, Oaxaca, Mexico. CC BY-SA 4.0/ AlejandroLinaresGarcia

These very special dolls are usually burned in the square or in the streets of every town and village. On the occasion of Holy Week, in Metepec, in the State of Mexico, crucified Christs are modelled in polychrome clay; in San Antonio Arranzola and San Martín Tilcajete, in Oaxaca, wooden niches are created to represent Calvary and others in sheet metal with clay figures representing the different phases of the Passion of Christ.

The cult of the dead
One of the most deeply rooted celebrations in Mexico is that of All Saints which is celebrated on 1 and 2 November (the first is dedicated to deceased children, the second to adults). For Mexicans, death is nothing more than a phase of life itself, like the corn seed which, in order to continue its life cycle, must be buried to be reborn again. The Mexican people celebrate with great enthusiasm the day of re-encounter with those who preceded us on the journey towards eternity; they celebrate and erect altars in honour of the dead in the houses, with food and drink; the tombs are decorated with flowers or candles and their favourite dishes are offered to the dead, of which they will only take the ‘aroma’, while incense is burned.

Day of the dead celebration. Photo: 123rf.com

Traditional altars of the dead are decorated with cempasúchil flowers, and paper garlands of chopped Chinese paper. They are also decorated with scented candles or black paper flowers, as well as with crosses, vases, candlesticks, and censers. Of the latter, the best known are those hand-modelled and painted in tempera with bright colours, or those made of glazed black clay, such as those in the neighbourhood of La Luz, in the city of Puebla; or the polychrome and painted ones of Izúcar de Matamoros, Puebla.
The most popular items for the Day of the Dead holiday are decorated and painted sugar skulls, which bear a person’s name on their foreheads. Among these, those produced in Toluca, in the State of Mexico, in the central area of ​​Michoacán and in Mexico City stand out. In Celaya, Morelia and Mexico City, the skulls are made of cardboard and pasta, in the style of the Jews. Huge sugar skulls are also made in which bowls of colourful flowers are placed.

Our Lady of Guadalupe
The most important symbol of Mexican religiosity is the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, in whose mestizo face scholars have tried to see that of the most revered female divinity in pre-Hispanic times: Tonantzin (‘Our True Mother’), and whose sanctuary is found in the same place where the patron saint of Mexico is venerated today. But Guadalupe’s cult goes beyond its religious significance, as she is an icon of nationality with a deep social sense of integration and identity.

Every 12 December commemorates the apparition of the Guadalupana on the Tepeya hill. Near this date, pilgrimages to the Basilica of the Virgin multiply. Groups of pilgrims carry banners – some of them hand-painted – flags, banners with different legends and images of Guadalupe, richly decorated with natural flowers. The pilgrims are accompanied by marching bands and many people dressed in traditional costumes with ritual dances that they will perform in front of the Morenita. (Open Photo: 123rf.com)

Electra López Mompradé
Museo de Arte Popular
Mexico

Freedom of Religion – Touchstone of Human Rights.

All rights are equal but some rights are more equal than others. FIFA and the Qatar authorities are justly under fire for restrictions on LGBT rights and their treatment of migrant labourers.

But nothing is said about the abuse of rights to religious freedom, a world-wide problem as well as one local to Qatar and other gulf states where many migrant workers, especially those in domestic service, are Christians from the Philippines.

Article 18 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights spells out what the right to religious freedom – violated around the world – means in detail. “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice,
worship and observance”.

This means little in practice today, neither globally nor in Qatar which hosts big interfaith gatherings but where, even at Easter, Christian servants are refused time off to attend religious services.

Worldwide harassment and persecution of people because of their faith, from verbal abuse and hate speech, to arson and murder, is rising steadily. Only eight of 198 countries monitored by the Evangelical Christian organisation Open Doors get a clean bill of health.

Aid to the Church in Need, a Catholic organisation which works in over 140 countries, is currently running a ‘Break the Silence’ campaign to raise awareness of the persecution of Christians and all faiths [my italics] with a day of special events this Wednesday in London’s Ukrainian Catholic Church. Aid to the Church in Need has also renewed focus on Nigeria, where attacks on Christian churches have risen from 18 in 2019 to 31 in 2020 and 23 in just the first six months of this year.

Religious freedom, a touchstone of human rights around the world, is not ignored in Britain but tends to be mainly a Conservative Party concern. The UK has a special envoy for Freedom of Religious Belief (FoRB), Fiona Bruce MP, an evangelical Christian. Both the Commons and Lords, the latter with 26 Church of England bishops, the Lords Spiritual, do lobby and speak out on FoRB issues. But with the exception of the Uighers and Rohingya, the cases they raise rarely are deemed newsworthy, can be complex, and seldom evoke large-scale sympathy.

Take the case of Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian. When she offered water to a Muslim co-worker it was refused; her ‘Christian hands’ rendered it haram, forbidden. She was told to convert to Islam to cleanse her impurity. An altercation ensued in which she allegedly blasphemed against the Prophet and the Qur’an.

Asia Bibi was convicted under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws and spent eight years on death row before being acquitted in a High Court judgement in October 2018. Here was a named individual, a fruit-picker, a working woman with whom we could empathise. Public opinion was aroused.

According to Open Doors, of the three Abrahamic faiths, Christians suffer from some degree of harassment and persecution in 145 of the world’s 198 States, Muslims in 139, and Jews in 88. But is discrimination always based on faith alone? In India the Modi government for its own purposes is promoting Hindu-based cultural nationalism against Muslims. Are the Hazara in Afghanistan persecuted because they are not Pashtun or because they are Shi’a or both?

Particularly in Africa some ethnicities, minority and occupational groups are identified by their religious beliefs. Bloody clashes over land-use in parts of northern Nigeria between pastoralists, who are broadly-speaking Muslim, and farmers, broadly speaking Christian, are perceived as religious conflict.

From one perspective these aren’t important distinctions. In all cases human rights are grievously violated. And as my old Nigerian friend Matthew Kukah, Bishop of Sokoto, once said: ‘What do you call these people? I call them criminals”.

In 1971 a Synod of the world’s Catholic bishops declared: “Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel.” A wordy way of saying that for Catholics working for justice is a religious obligation, an integral part of Christian practice and observance – so politics and religion can’t neatly be separated.

In the repressive states of Southern Africa and Latin America where I worked resistance by Christians qualified them for persecution, imprisonment, torture and death. Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, gunned down at the altar in 1980, made a saint of the Catholic Church, became an icon of this kind of martyrdom.

A little discussed feature of the Cold War is the way the global political and ideological division penetrated the Catholic Church itself. In Moscow I had the unnerving experience of listening to devout Catholics whose little church opposite the KGB’s Lubyanka headquarters had cameras trained on the door, dismiss the late Cardinal Paolo Arns as a communist. Arns, a Cardinal committed to the poor, was a tireless campaigner against human rights violations by Brazil’s
brutal military dictatorship.

From 1960-1990, in Latin America, Philippines and South Africa, opposition to military dictatorships, oligarchies and apartheid, produced martyrs killed for following the simple demands of justice. Opposition to Communist Party repression in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe had the similar consequences.
But because of the ideological barrier of the Cold War, never did these victims of tyranny engage with each other in serious dialogue.

Religious Orders with members from both parts of the world experienced this same division within their own ranks. Catholic charities worked on different sides of the divide, Aid to the Church in Need in the Communist world, the Catholic Institute for International Relations in Latin America, Philippines, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), South Africa, Namibia, and Mozambique.
There was no coming together around the shared experience of persecution and the terrifying ordeals of those who resisted tyranny.

Today there are new violations of religious freedom. Christians pursuing environmental causes are experiencing martyrdom in Latin America. The question arises who is responsible for such persecution? The actions of the State or the inaction of the State? A former governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, reared a Christian and a leading opponent of the blasphemy laws, was assassinated by his bodyguard for supporting Asia Bibi. An unholy amalgam of State and Society at work.

There is no lack of information. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom publishes a factual annual global report. The Mormons in Utah have a comprehensive archive of FoRB legal cases. In 2019 the Anglican Bishop Philip Mounstephen of Truro produced for the Foreign Secretary, an independent review entitled Support for the Persecuted Church. It contains a fine summary of the plight of Christians around the world and suggests what might be done about it. But nothing much changes for the better.

We in the UK have no right to be complacent. Antisemitism alongside Islamophobia remains a rallying theme of extreme Right organisations. I have listened to black Pentecostals who believed Muslims worship the devil. Ahmadis experience the disdain, and sometimes worse, of their Muslim neighbours.

Anti-Catholicism bubbles up from the depths of social media. The Labour Party was investigated and castigated for its failure to deal adequately with antisemitism by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and a question mark hangs over the level of anti-Muslim prejudice in the Conservative Party. Muslim-Hindu tensions have surfaced in Leicester.

Do not expect such symptoms of hostility and prejudice to improve as poverty and social dislocation, the recruiting sergeants for intolerance and discrimination, increase in Britain, and in the rest of the world. (Open photo: 123rf.com)

Ian Linden
Professor at St Mary’s University,
Strawberry Hill, London.

South Africa. Joburg. Towards Social and Urban Renewal.

Johannesburg or Joburg, as it is called, is one of the fifty largest cities in the world. With six million inhabitants, it is estimated that in less than a decade, it will be a mega-city and will have to find solutions to the demands of services and basic resources.

Known as Igoli (city of gold, in Zulu), the urbanization of Joburg began after the discovery of deposits of the precious mineral in 1896. Only 35 years later it already had 400,000 inhabitants. It is also the city with the largest area of trees planted in the world (6 million).
Its population is made up of 76.4% blacks, 5.6% mestizos, 12.3% whites and 4.9% citizens of Hindu origin. Furthermore, according to official data, 7% of its population is illiterate and 34% only received primary education. It is also a mix of religions: 53% are Christian and 24% do not identify with any creed, 14% follow independent African churches, 3% are Muslim, 1% Jewish and 1% are Hindu. It also has a small community
of Mormons. (49,000).

Despite the push that the country’s democratic governments, the first led by Nelson Mandela, gave to the construction of social housing – between 1994 and 2014, 2.9 million homes were built across the country as part of the Reconstruction and Development Project – and the increase in infrastructure for basic services for the population that suffered under apartheid discrimination, the situation is still serious.
Almost 30 years after the end of apartheid, the feeling of stagnation, coupled with the frustration of repeated promises and an average waiting time of decades for access to a home, indicate that the problem is still far from being solved.

A boy on the outskirts of Johannesburg

According to World Population Review, 80% of the South African population resides in formal housing, 13.6% in informal housing and 5.5% in traditional housing. In the case of Johannesburg, it is estimated that 29% of its residents live in informal housing, with limited access to water and electricity, and poor sanitation.
“We strongly believe in the importance of undoing the divisions of space imposed by the apartheid era that continues to segregate our cities on the basis of race and social class. And for this, integrated housing districts from the periphery must be developed, with economic and leisure opportunities for the districts of the city centre”, says one of the managers of Divercity, a real estate fund formed by large private companies in the sector (Atterbury, Ithemba, RMB, Future Growth and Nedbank Properties) which is collaborating with the Johannesburg city council to make inhabitable those areas of the city condemned to service cuts or occupied by criminal gangs who demand money from people and keep them under coercion and violence.

From Hillbrow to Maboneng
“Joburg is rapidly becoming urbanized and is expected to become a megacity by 2030, requiring more homes to meet current and future demand. Converting the old commercial buildings in the city centre into affordable residential housing with a high standard of quality in the urban core helps to answer this question economically”, emphasises the Divercity manager in his brand-new office in one of the restored buildings in Maboneng, located in the area christened Jewel City, whose splendour cannot be ignored.

The main square of Jewel City. Photo José Luis Silván Sen

Jewel City is just a street where transformation is absolute. Modern buildings decorated in bright colours converge in squares where children can play safely. You can see international and local fast-food restaurants, well-stocked supermarkets, and modern cafes with a wide variety of products. It is a scene limited to a specific space because in parallel streets you pass into a completely different situation, with badly paved roads and overcrowded and untidy places.
The restored buildings function because all their services, from waste collection to water and electricity supply, to security, are private. The well-intentioned former mayor Herman Mashaba launched a plan in 2016 (with an initial investment of around 1,220 million euros) to ‘rebuild Joburg’ which included kilometres of cycle paths, whose durable green colour can be seen in some streets in the neighbourhood of Hillbrow, and partnering with real estate companies to offer affordable one- to three-bedroom apartments to the lower-middle-class population. This is with rents of 55 to 275 euros, depending on the number of rooms, excluding the services necessary to make them habitable such as water and electricity.

The entrance to renovated buildings with a security system. Photo José Luis Silván Sen

Mashaba, during his tenure – he resigned in 2019 to form a new political party, Action SA, with which he ran for local election in November 2021, without obtaining a majority that would allow him to carry out his project – estimated that more than 150,000 people were on a waiting list for accommodation and an average of 3,000 migrants arrived in Johannesburg each month in search of better economic opportunities to build a decent future.

Newtown and culture
In addition to basic accommodation at an affordable price and with guaranteed minimum services, other areas of the city centre have undergone a somewhat fictitious transformation, due to specific places such as Newtown, which is home to Mary Fitzgerald Square, where events and political meetings are usually organized. The dilapidated Museum Africa and the Market Theatre, which with its experimental shows and shows that end late in the night, provided a degree of big-city normality, aside from the obsessive safety in which every citizen moves around Joburg.
During the Mashaba period, the number of police officers on the streets was increased to make the city centre ‘the safest place to invest’. The claim remained only words since crime rates and violent deaths have not stopped rising.

Buildings undergoing renovation. Photo José Luis Silván Sen

Farther south, between Market and Commissioner Street, in Gandhi Square and the Marshalltown business area, the spaces designed to sit and enjoy the hustle and bustle of the city are surprising. As in Maboneng, it is impressive that if you widen a little the radius in which you walk, you come to a road with potholes and sidewalks where the sewer covers are missing. The feeling of insecurity also increases, and is impossible to avoid when faced with evidence of the armed guards at the entrances to buildings who warn people of the danger of carrying a mobile phone in one’s hand.

Fighting the structural inequality that exists throughout South Africa, but which in big cities like Johannesburg increases due to the presence of mafias and corruption that has become intrinsic in recent decades, is the great challenge of the mayor, Mpho Phalatse, who last January promised a ‘golden start’ for the city. This commitment includes the development of the city centre, the operation of traffic lights, public transport, road maintenance and the fight against cable theft to avoid power outages, and has also led to the renaming of the Joburg heritage site named after Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Much remains to be done for the city to become a more human place. (Open Photo: View of Johannesburg. Photo José Luis Silván Sen)
Carla Fibla Garcia-Sala

 

 

 

Good Science Made in Africa.

More than 300 African researchers have conducted research of considerable scientific and practical impact on variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. “With investment in African human resources, creating the conditions for it to express its potential, the results are there and they are of great scientific depth”.

Last September, the journal Science published an article – The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance – which reports on a study on the sequencing of 100,000 genomes of the virus carried out in Africa by the laboratories of about forty countries with the participation of roughly 300 researchers.
Sequencing means analysing the genetic structure of the virus (nucleotides, abbreviated to standard codes of three or four letters) and identifying a mutation, a variant.
The biological nature of the virus varies; however, there are so-called variants ‘of interest’, which are not dangerous, and others ‘of concern’, high risk, which instead can generate diseases with serious complications. Furthermore, sequencing allows us to understand how variants are transmitted in space and time.

photo: WHO

The study documented that Africa was traversed in a very heterogeneous way by four high-risk variants: alpha, beta, delta, and omicron. Two, in particular, beta and omicron, were sequenced on-site and communicated to the scientific world and policymakers. The study has put together a colossal amount of data relating to the variations of the Covid genome: 100,000 Covid genomes have been sequenced. By way of comparison: 12,000 genomes of the influenza virus and 3,700 of the HIV virus have been sequenced.
That Africa has managed to obtain the information which for the first time gives a precise picture of what has happened with the variants is an extraordinary fact that has a great impact both on the scientific and practical level because it allows us to better orient epidemiological oversight and preventive interventions, including vaccination. This fact undermines the deep-rooted belief that Africa does not have the skills to deal with science and does not have the necessary standards. Of course, the result was obtained thanks to the contribution, above all financial, of various international agencies, but the ‘head’ and the capacity for realization – on a technical, professional, and scientific level – is entirely attributable to African researchers. It means that when you invest in African human resources, creating the conditions for it to express its potential, the results are there and are of great scientific depth.

Photo: WHO

Another positive sign is the decision of some states (South Africa, Rwanda, Senegal, and Kenya among them) to produce vaccines as soon as possible. Africa imports 99% of all vaccines: not only for Covid but also measles, polio, etc.
The lesson of Covid-19 has convinced the international community even more that it is necessary for Africa to equip itself with its own production capacity. There are economic and political obstacles because the intellectual property of vaccines is in the hands of multinationals. And the delay with which the vaccine arrived in Africa was an inexcusable manifestation of inequality and injustice. Therefore, the continent is anything but stationary and, if sustained in an appropriate, serious, regular manner, it produces good science as well as skills and abilities capable of solving problems.
One of the stereotypes that has accompanied the epidemic in the last three years has been that the epidemic would be little more than a common cold for Africa. Because the population is young and the temperature does not help the spread of the virus, etc. An official told us that 3% of all diagnosed cases and 4% of all reported deaths come from Africa. It is not so. It was known from the start of the pandemic that the diagnostic capabilities of most of the 54 African countries are very limited. It was also known that there are no reliable personal data systems to attribute the deaths to the Covid-19 epidemic.

Photo: Unicef

The most recent research on this issue says that one must be extremely cautious of the stereotype of the common cold. In fact, they document that Africans exposed to the virus were not 3% but 70% of the population; and that excess mortality (considered an estimate of the direct and indirect effects of an epidemic on the population) has existed, and how.In the case of South Africa, there was an excess of 300,000 deaths, far more than all the deaths attributed to Covid-19 in Africa. This signals that many cases and deaths have occurred in communities and that health systems have come under such pressure that they cannot provide adequate care for all other diseases. Another study concerns the risk of mortality linked to the infection, that is the probability that a person will die following infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The study found that the risk of death for a 20-year-old in Africa is 2.7% higher than for a peer in high-income countries. For a 60-year-old this risk is 1.7% higher than for a peer living in Western countries. Why this difference? In Africa, access to treatment and vaccination reaches only a small part of the population. (Open Photo: Photo: 123rf.com)

Giovanni Putoto

Bolivia. The Amerindian Dance that Welcomes The Child Jesus.

In Bolivia, it is the Chuntunqui musical rhythm that leads the celebration of Christmas Eve. A way to help Mary’s birth, to express joy, and to reflect on the difficulties of life.

Christmas is a feast where the joy of the people and the gospel meet. It is God made a man-child; embodied in the fragility and joy that strongly unites the stubborn hope of human beings to live fully. This hope becomes a melody in the Chuntunqui, a musical rhythm that emerges from the Christmas songs. The Chuntunqui is a joyful dance, which combines agility and coordination and is danced during the Christmas period in Sucre, the capital of Bolivia.
Chuntunquis are an important part of Christmas Eve and when they dance in the street, they always generate enthusiasm and in particular attract attention and arouse the participation of the children. Those who participate in this dance often say that the stamping of the Chuntunqui animates the birth of the child Jesus in Mary.

A little girl wearing typical coloured clothes. 123rf.com

It is important that the Amerindians take part in the ritual, and not just be observers. For this reason, at midnight on December 24, young people and children stamp their feet with enthusiasm so that the young Mother, Maria, receives all the encouragement of the Chuntunquis, with songs and dances to the sound of charangos, tamborcillos and pajarillos (two-pronged containers of water that mimic the song of birds). Thus, they express and share the joy of Jesus’ birth. The angel said to them: “Do not be afraid: behold, I announce to you a great joy that will be for all the people” (Lk 2, 10).
At the same time, the Chuntunqui manifests joy at the birth of the Child God who is tenderly called Emmanuel, referring to what Matthew 1:23 says: “The Virgin will conceive and give birth to a child and he will be given the name of Emmanuel, which means: God with us”.
People transform the name Emmanuel into Manuel, calling him Manuelito and in several songs, they sing ‘Niño Manuelito dame buñuelito’. At this time of the year, the bodies occupy a special place; with the zapateo (stamping) they accompany the body of Mary while she gives birth.
Taking care of the fragile little body of the newborn, welcoming God incarnate with the dance of their bodies, songs of joy and looks of love.

Photo : 123rf.com

The arrival of this fragile child, which makes us strong, is welcomed with joy … at the same time, Christmas becomes a space in which the violence and scarcity that bodies suffer, such as hunger, the lack of a roof over their heads, child labour, become visible. The health, working and educational conditions that do not allow children and young people to learn in the warmth of the family. And again, Christmas highlights the urgency of finding a way to support the family and earn more to cover the cost of the many expenses (often superfluous or of little use) that the market offers every year to express the happiness of Christmas.
There are many sad faces in the streets and praying in the churches. It is urgent to live Christmas as the feast where the joy of the people and the joy of the gospel meet. For this we need attentive listening and sharing among all people, to reach a conversion of mentality, of lifestyle and everyday choices.  (Open Photo: Watercolour with girl in traditional Bolivian dress, lama, and alpaca pets with cactus desert, stones, and mountains. 123rf.com)

Tania Ávila Meneses

Cop 27. Emissions, loss and damage, finance: the decisions.

Cop 27 is over. A first step in climate justice, but zero progress on the central issue of CO2 emissions.

The principle of a new fund to respond to loss and damage suffered by the poorest and most vulnerable countries on earth in the face of climate change was introduced. But there was zero progress from the point of view of mitigating them. That is – the reduction of greenhouse
gas emissions.

The twenty-seventh United Nations World Climate Conference, the COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh ended at dawn on Sunday 20 November. After a day and a half of ‘extra’ negotiations which became necessary due to the impossibility of reaching an agreement in the two weeks of negotiations that began on 6 November.

“Unless we limit the rise in average global temperature to 1.5 degrees, we will never have enough money to respond to the loss and damage caused by climate change.” This, in a nutshell, summarises all that happened at COP27 and the remark had first come on Saturday afternoon from Frans Timmermans, Vice-president of the European Commission which had even threatened to break the bank: “Better no agreement at all than a bad agreement”.

It was only right, therefore, to finally create – after years of requests and in the face of the devastating climatic change – a fund to support the nations most exposed to and least responsible for climate change. But a lack of ambition on declining global emissions will only dramatically exacerbate the crisis. Until, in fact, the fund will be effectively useless.

Not surprisingly, the secretary general of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, underlined: “We must drastically reduce emissions and do it now. And it is a question to which Cop27 has not provided an answer”. “The world won’t thank us when, tomorrow, it hears only apologies from us – added Timmermans -. What we have done is too small a step forward for the inhabitants of the Earth. We have seen no additional efforts from the main culprits of greenhouse gas emissions.”

Nonetheless, the acceptance by the international community of the principle according to which it is necessary to dig into the wallet to repair the damage caused by global warming certainly represents a step forward. It is the main objective achieved by COP27 which was held in Africa and therefore, inevitably, has granted special attention
to the matter.

On loss and damage a historical advance but endless questions as well
“This is an important step on the climate justice front – Guterres said -. I welcome the decision to create a fund and make it operational in the near future. It is clear that this is not enough, but it is a necessary political signal to rebuild the trust (between the North and the South of the world, ed.) that had been undermined”.

That said, there are still many questions. In fact, the text indicates, in a generic way for now, that it has “decided to create an intervention fund to meet losses and damages”. It is to be supported by a “transition committee” which will be responsible for establishing the operating rules of this new instrument. In fact, to date, it is not known how this fund will be financed, by whom, and above all which will be the beneficiary countries. China is a case in question.

Despite the gigantic quantity of greenhouse gas emissions that it releases into the atmosphere every year and despite now being a global industrial power, it still insists on being classified as a developing nation. Just to be able to access the funds.

 The loss and damage fund is a whole new ball game
In short, the game has not yet begun. The committee is expected to provide the first recommendations at the next conference, Cop28 to be held in Dubai in 2023. It is not too pessimistic to imagine a global confrontation on the issue.

On the other hand, the principle according to which rich countries must provide assistance to poorer ones had already been established way back in 2009 at the Cop15 in Copenhagen.
At the time, it was said that wealthier nations would have to allocate $100 billion a year to allow the less well-off to adjust, but that promise, 13 years later, has never been fully fulfilled.

Of all the decisions taken at the COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, however, the principle of a fund for loss and damage and the deadlock on mitigation was not only the advance. Other issues have been addressed, other promises made and other changes envisaged by the nearly 200 nations that attended the conference in Egypt.

1 – The European Union has announced greater climate ambition
During the COP27, Timmermans announced that the European Union is ready to study a 57% reduction of its greenhouse gases by 2030, compared to 1990 levels. An increase compared to the current objective, set at 55%.

The announcement, however, was criticized by non-governmental organizations: “A two percentage point increase is far removed from the 65% we would need in order to align the European Union with the 1.5-degree goal,” said Chiara Martinelli, director of the Climate Action Network in Europe.

2 – The Bridgetown Initiative which aims to reform the global financial system
The proposal was made by Barbados. The prime minister of the island state, Mia Mottley, has called for a review of the statutes of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. The initiative, dubbed “Bridgetown” after the capital of the Caribbean nation, aims to make it easier for the two international organizations to finance the infrastructure needed to adapt to climate change.

Mottley is supported by the director of the IMF herself, Kristalina Georgieva, and the hope is that the seed sown at Cop27 can lead to a concrete proposal next spring.
This would be an epochal change, and for this reason, complex negotiations are to be expected on this front as well.

3 – A financial shield against climatic dangers
On November 14, the group of the most vulnerable countries (V20) and the G7 announced the launch of a Global Shield against climate risks. Again, the goal is to help the most vulnerable populations finance the response to the impacts of climate change.

So far, however, the budget is absolutely insufficient: only 210 million euros have been promised.
The first beneficiaries are expected to be Bangladesh, Costa Rica, Fiji, Ghana, Pakistan, the Philippines and Senegal.

4 – A partnership for an equitable energy transition
Already launched during the COP26 in Glasgow, the Partnership for a just energy transition (JETP) was joined by the United States, Great Britain and the European Union, which had pledged to pay 8.5 billion dollars to support the decarbonisation of less advanced economies.

During the G20 held in Bali, during the same days as the Cop27, a new agreement was signed between Indonesia, on the one hand, and a group of wealthy nations on the other. In exchange for the funding, the Asian nation has pledged to shut down its coal-fired plants and reach a peak in emissions no later than 2030.

5 – Launch of Climatic Prosperity Plans
At the Cop27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, new climate prosperity plans were also launched by the countries of the southern hemisphere. Their goal is to finance projects that are able to attack the crisis but, at the same time, stimulate economic growth and create jobs.
The first country to launch a climate prosperity plan was, in 2021, Bangladesh. In Egypt, Ghana, the Maldives and Sri Lanka also joined.

6 – The goal of 1.5 degrees was reaffirmed, but a dangerous precedent was set
Although there were rumours of a possible, sensational abandonment of the objective, the principle according to which the world must aim for a limitation of the increase in the global average temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius has been reaffirmed.

The final text of COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, however, limits itself to re-proposing the wording contained in the Paris Agreement: “It is necessary to limit the increase clearly below 2 degrees and to continue efforts to remain as close as possible to the 1.5”.

The mere fact that it has been hypothesized to abandon the COP21 milestone in the French capital, however, risks setting a dangerous precedent, in view of the forthcoming conferences. At least, the text released by the Egyptian summit recalls that “the impacts of climate change will be much more limited if the 1.5-degree goal is achieved”.

7 – Coal and energy: very little progress
As regards the abandonment of coal, the most harmful fossil fuel by far for the climate, progress has been decidedly limited. In fact, it was limited to asking for “accelerated efforts for a progressive reduction of its use without CO2 recovery systems”.

Furthermore, the final text of COP27 also calls for the acceleration of a just transition towards renewable energies. Instead, the request of the nations that asked to mention also the need for a reduction (phase down) from the exploitation of oil and gas was rejected.

Andrea Barolini/Valori

 

Ghana. Uncertain Times.

Just a few years ago, Ghana was synonymous with development and stability. Today inflation, debt and unemployment are increasingly creating a climate of precariousness and uncertainty.

In the early years of his first term (he was elected in 2016 and re-elected in 2020), President Nana Akufo-Addo proudly announced “no more help, we can do it alone”. The fault of the crisis – citizens say – does not lie in the pandemic or the Russian-Ukrainian war, we are paying for the mismanagement of recent years. The Ghanaian dream of growth, development, entering international economies, constant contact with an outside world (starting with investors and expatriates) attracted to a lively country, rich in prospects, welcoming – that dream seems
to have come to an end.

West Africa region, political map. Area with capitals and borders. 123rf.com

The rude awakening translates into raw facts that explain the performance of a country: inflation, debt, unemployment. Eleven years have passed since 2011 when – a novelty for those who continue to want to see Africa as a continent of backwardness – Ghana was the fastest growing economy in the world. The discovery of offshore oil fields had given it a significant boost, but the reasons for the boom also lay in other ‘treasures’: the gold mines, from which the country has always drawn part of its wealth; cocoa and then precisely the specific character of the population, the basis of democratic stability and governments. The last coup dates back to 1981 and even those years – those of Jerry Rawlings – were more of construction than mere authoritarianism. The foundations were laid for that unity and respect between religions and ethnic groups that, apart from occasional tensions, characterize the country. New perspectives emerged that would have ‘ushered’ it towards the fame that still accompanies it today.

Inequalities
Now, there is change afoot at the expense of the citizens, those optimistic people who today find themselves dealing with uncertainty. First of all, in the economy. The last few months, which coincided with the easing of anti-Covid measures and the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war, have seen prices soar exorbitantly. Spending Ghana Cedi (about 13 Euro cents) to buy a single tomato at the market when you used to bring home 10 tomatoes at the same price, gives the measure of a surge that among other things concerns all basic necessities, including bread. So much so that today the country is considered among the most expensive in the world. In November, inflation was almost 37%. Not to mention the depreciation of the local currency. The Ghana cedi has depreciated by over 50% this year and is listed as the world’s worst-performing currency against the US dollar.

President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. CC BY 2.0/Graham Carlow

The Ghanaians have been complaining for years about the marginalization of social classes which should instead receive more attention from the public administration. Yet it is they who have sacrificed most. Bills for drinking water and electricity have sky-rocketed. And new taxes, such as the e-levy, have been introduced on digital transactions. Meanwhile, the debt is growing, which amounts to over 80% of GDP. Ghana is also negotiating a $3 billion IMF bailout programme.
The country had attracted a lot of money in recent years: in 2020 there was $ 2.65 billion in foreign direct investment, the highest amount in West Africa, with the building and construction sectors playing the part of the giant. And in fact, it is all a swarm of construction sites,
new roads, and skyscrapers.
But investments are concentrated in Accra where the per capita economic output is three times that of the national average.

Busy Street near the Ghana Central Market in Kumasi. 123rf.com

In the first six months of 2021 alone, it attracted 78.69% of all investment projects. This capital has become one of the most expensive African cities to live in. Less affected by this ferment are the suburbs, which lack essential services, starting with sanitation and sewage, or worse still the slums, rural areas, and other regions of the country. It is these places that show the measure of disparity between citizens. The upper middle class has grown considerably in recent years as has the power of the political and institutional world. It is due to this power – as well as the positive reputation of the country – that Accra has secured some important presences. Starting with the secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Google which opened its first artificial intelligence centre in Africa in the Ghanaian capital and Twitter, again the first African office. These great successes were claimed by Nana Akufo-Addo who, after being elected in 2016, was reconfirmed in 2020. This growth, which however continues, has not yet turned into greater social equity. (Open Photo: 123rf.com)

(A.S.)

Pope urges African youth to be protagonists in shaping the future.

Young people from nine different countries had a chance to each comment and ask a question to Pope Francis, during the online conversation.

At the beginning of the conversation, held on 1 November, the Holy Father said young people are the roots. He said the stronger they are, the stronger their roots will be. He urged them not to be individual roots and that their roots must turn into a tree which in turn can lead to fruits.

Talking about the past Pope Francis said history is not always a pleasant story, “History can be very harsh. There are people who have built their history on blood, and many of you belong to those people.” The Pope, therefore, urged young people to take a history of their people as part of themselves, as part of their own maturity.

He noted that all people are born as something small and can only be mature if one accepts the burden of history, the good and the bad part of it. “The bad part of history you are familiar with, exploitation, slavery. You know what it means to exploit Africa without allowing it to grow,” added the Holy Father.

The Pope went on to speak about the concept of Ubuntu which said he would like to express his appreciation for and that he believes that encounter of ubuntu people can be led forward, “The richness of your ubuntu as a form of salvation through the community.”

According to Pope Francis through the term ubuntu Africans are their own masters, “You are your own missionaries. Run forward. Africa is not meant to be exploited.”

Pope Francis said Africa is not meant to be seen as a subculture and young African have to appreciate the wealth that they have.

Clevine Kavira from DRC asked about the trip that was cancelled that the Holy Father was due to make to the DRC and South Sudan. In response, Pope Francis said if all goes well in early February 2023, he will make the promised trip to Africa.

To Devis Ampereza from Uganda who spoke about the endless wars in Africa, the Holy Father said If people were to stop selling arms that would stop hunger for one year. He said the sale of arms
keeps people in slavery.

Akakpo Ghislain from the Ivory Coast talked about the problem of deforestation in his country and the role of multinational companies in this problem. The Pope said the multinational corporations that exploit nature need to be looked at.

The Pope said he is also concerned by the problem of fundamentalism, terrorism, and banditry when Osemeke Augustine Chidera from Nigeria spoke about the problems that are faced by Nigerians, especially the persecution of Christians. Pope advised that young people cannot be passive and that they need to equip themselves with religious doctrine.

He said politics is the highest form of charity because it is geared towards the common good and urged young people to inform themselves about the political situation of the countries. But he advised them to be cautious and smart too, and learn from elders, asking for their suggestions and guidance. “Keep in mind that God loves you.”

Biligui Nelly Didiane from Cameroon also had a chance to speak to the Pope and she said young people feel cornered by politicians and social injustices leave many without hope and in a situation of insecurity.

Didiane felt that the Church can be at the forefront of the economic liberation of its people through empowerment projects. The Pope then acknowledged that one of the problems young people are facing is the lack of professional integration as was mentioned by Didiane.

The Pope said the Church can do more in promoting young people even from schools and universities, “Without cooperating with the powers that oppress universities have to be free and young people have to grow in freedom. Young people have to have a mature mind, a mature heart, and the ability to act.”

Kelvin Takudzwa Tsuro from Zimbabwe said young people are struggling with their identity. He wanted to know what it really means to be an African young Catholic because there are today identities have become confused, sexual, racial, ethnic, and religious.

Tsuro said the young in living in a highly disintegrated society and the young people are caught up in the situation. He said young people wish to live the message of the Gospel and ubuntu. They wish to participate in decision makings of the church even though their culture states that young people must not participate in the meeting of the elders.

In response, the Pope admitted that the identity of young people is a serious question, “In this day and age identities are being questioned. We ask ourselves, what is identity? And therefore, young people ask themselves, who are we young Africans?” The Pope said young people were not born out of magic, they have history and roots.

“If young people don’t have about the roots they received, their families, countries, history, then young people cannot become mature,” said Pope Francis, urging young people to be aware of their roots. He also said young people must not hide in their roots but take them into the future. “Young Christians have a duty to be engaged, otherwise they wouldn’t be Christian.”

In closing, the Holy Father said he was glad to have had a meeting with the young people of Africa and was impressed by their remarks. He reiterated that he believes young Africans have values and asked them to continue to be engaged without ever forgetting to keep their roots in mind. He reminded the young people that they were not born under a tree but were born with a history.

Pope Francis advised the young people of Africa to live in the present with a firm view of reality and try not to be alienated. “Don’t stop dreaming because when young people stop dreaming that’s when countries come to an end.”

Islam. The Prophetic Voice of Women.

Amina Wadud, one of the most important theologians of Islam, criticizes the Islamic patriarchate, the male Imamate and the patriarchal interpretation of the Koran.
The recent demonstrations in Iran show how important it is to give women a voice in the Islamic world.

She is one of the most listened to and, at the same time, most provocative voices of Islamic feminism, which challenges both political and religious Muslim patriarchy with gestures that do not leave indifferent the followers of Islam and especially the religious leaders, who are divided into two camps: those who criticize her defiant behaviour and anathematize it – the majority – and those who support it and share its egalitarian exegesis of the Koran and its feminist claims – the minority. In March 2005, Wadud made international headlines when leading Friday prayers in a mixed congregation in New York, she sparked controversy in some spheres of the Islamic world.
During the prayers, she affirmed that “the issue of gender equality is very important for Islam. Unfortunately, Muslims have given a very restrictive interpretation of history and moved backwards. With these prayers, we want to take a step forward”.

That same year, she again led the prayers in a mixed assembly in Barcelona during the 1st Congress of Islamic Feminism.
The reactions of the Ulamas were not long in coming. Sheikh Yusef al-Qaradawi of Qatar issued a fatwa against Wadud appealing to the woman’s body, “whose physique naturally constitutes a provocation to the instincts of men”. In it he condemned Amina as anti-Islamic and heretical, and the participants in prayer as accomplices.
Sabed Tantawi of Cairo declared mixed prayer invalid, arguing that men should pray with humility and modesty, and never in the presence of a woman.There have also been favourable reactions from Muslim intellectuals and academics, such as Egypt’s Gamal al-Banna, Pakistan’s Javed Ahmad, who saw in Wadud’s gesture a revolutionary change in Islam that has the support of Islamic sources and that would have repercussions around the world.

The female voice must not only have full expression, but sometimes it will also have to have primacy,” Photo: Glen Halog (CC BY-NC 2.0)

At the same time, the response of Islamic feminism was not long in coming; neither in the Koran nor in the hadith is there a single text that prohibits women from leading prayer in a congregation of men and women. If a woman is trained to give a Friday sermon in the mosque, why can’t she do it? If a woman is chosen by the community, why will she not be able to lead community prayer?
Amina Wadud’s subversive gesture led to an in-depth reflection on the issue and to the further recognition of the female Imamate in different Muslim communities in South Africa, North America, and Europe. The Muslim Educational Centre in Oxford, England, organizes mixed prayers in which a woman imam preaches.The Tawhid Mosque network, created in the United States by the Association of Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV), founded by Indonesian imam Anni Zonneveld, supports inclusive Islam in favour of gender equality. The mosque in Washington is run by gay imam Daayiee Abdullah.

Muslim women reading Koran in the mosque during the Ramadan. (Photo: Freepik)

In November 2012 the Association of Progressive Muslims of France (MPF) created the first inclusive mosque, linked to the aforementioned North American network of Muslims for Progressive Values, who celebrate Friday prayers without any discrimination, gender, sexual orientation, or ethnicity.
Amina Wadud believes that the era of patriarchy is over. “We must evolve – she says – towards another more tolerant and cooperative model, because it is not only the future of Islam that is at stake, but the very future of the planet. In order for our families, communities and nations to move forward, more and more women must reach the areas of progress”. In defence of the new egalitarian and cooperative model, she cites the Koran, since it “argues that men and women were created inequality”. In her opinion, the principles of the Prophet have been distorted. There has been a ‘functional shift’ of Islam to conform to male domination. Precisely the movement contrary to what happened in the origins of the Muslim religion.

A feminist reading of the Koran
The Muslim theologian’s research is aimed at recovering the voice of women in the Koran and their word as commentators on the text, with the dual objective of challenging the intellectual tendency of Islam that marginalizes the female voice in the sacred text and its interpretation and to expand the possibilities of understanding among Muslims themselves. Wadud starts from an indisputable fact: the voice of women has been silenced in the Koranic text by its interpreters and has been absent from the intellectual heritage of Islam. Only men have been considered people with full rights to the presence of God and as leaders of women, while women are nothing more than mere extensions of men.

People in the Holy Shrine of Lady Fatima Masumeh, in Qom, Iran. Lady Fatima Masumeh was the sister of Imam Reza, one of the twelve imams in Islam. Photo: 123rf.com

Moreover, such silence is understood by Muslim thinkers themselves as part of a divine decree and God’s will. Women themselves have voluntarily accepted this situation of marginality for centuries, even when they have been forced to deny equality in their human condition and to accept their exclusion from the koranic text.
To this silence must be added another equally negative element for Islam: with the exception of the last three or four decades, almost no substantial exegesis of the Koran has been produced by women.
However, Wadud notes, the voice of women is contained in the Koran and makes a fundamental contribution when it comes to commenting on and interpreting it. And the search for that voice includes the person of the son-in-law, that is, the woman: “The female voice in the Qur’an is the voice of Allah, and it is not a woman, nor is it feminine. He’s not even a man, and neither is he masculine. Both the male and female voices are the divine enterprise of making themselves known through the text”.Another thing is patriarchal – or rather, anti-intellectual – intellectual heritage of Islam, which certainly privileges the male voice, the qualities and attributes of God related to power and even violence, when other qualities and attributes are more important, as shown by the 99 most beautiful names for God in the Koran: the life-giver, the merciful, the kind, the generous, the tender, the grateful, the trusting, the protector, the patient, the indulgent, the just, etc.

Amina believes that it is necessary to emphasize the female voice today to achieve balance. During the fourteen centuries of Islam, it was almost exclusively men who wrote treatises on exegesis, considered authoritative and definitive.
By silencing the female voice of the text, the Islamic ethos limited the richness of the text, which constitutes, in its view, an injustice against the divine author of the text and against those who seek in it moral guidance. To broaden the moral horizon of the text, it is necessary to eliminate the unique interpretative authority of men, recover the female voice within the Koran and encourage the development of feminist commentaries. “The female voice must not only have full expression, but sometimes it will also have to have primacy”, says Amina.
Another Koranic argument to which the Muslim theologian appeals to defend the equality of men and women in the sacred text is the idea of the duality of all creation. Men and women possess the same meaning as part of the duality of creation, and neither can be attributed a higher value.Whatever their orientation, all Koranic exegetes agree that the Koran establishes and defends the absolute justice of God as a divine attribute, which must be translated into the practice of justice in social and economic relations.
It is worth noting in this regard the hermeneutic of social justice that Amina makes of the Koran articulating the categories of ethnicity, social class, and gender.However, in practice, the principle of fairness is violated by granting absolute rights to men and relative rights to women. Amina Wadud notes such a violation in the different values that male commentators attribute to the male and female voice of God. They link the male voice to autonomy, hierarchy, domination, action, authority, control, and the female voice to nourishment, reciprocity, synthesis, and receptivity. In this case, divine justice is unfair and discriminatory to the detriment of women. To reverse this inequality, it is necessary to recognize the same value in both voices.

Iranian girl in the Nasir Al-Mulk Mosque in Shiraz. Photo: 123rf.com

Wadud notes with concern that in the collective imagination, both within and outside Islam, the static idea of a conservative Islam, which does not allow changes, is deeply rooted. To overcome this image, she believes it is necessary to distinguish between Muslim culture, Islamic texts, and Islamic law, and return to the Koran where the elements are found to break the static conception of the Muslim religion and its confinement in a rigid and immutable system.
And, it is from there that a gender-inclusive hermeneutic begins that discovers that women are moral subjects who maintain a direct relationship with God.
Her work Inside the Gender Jihad: Women’s Reform in Islam (Oneworld Publications, 2006) goes in this direction, where she proposes a Jihad (non-violent struggle) of women for justice and gender inclusion within the global Islamic community.
It addresses some of the major issues facing Muslim women today such as sexuality, leadership, education, and social status. What is proposed is to change the condition of women within Islam, a truly revolutionary task that Amina Wadud considers urgent.
This idea is developed and deepened in the tribute book dedicated to the study of her life and thinking on the occasion of her sixtieth birthday: A Jihad for Justice. Honouring the Work and Life of Amina Wadud, edited by Kacia Ali, Juliana Hammer and Laura Silvers (48HrBooks, 2012), which opens with the following text by Amina: “Listen to our song, and when the words are familiar, keep singing; for our people, silence has too often been what has sustained and nourished our principles”. (Open Photo: 123rf.com & CC BY-NC-ND 2.0/ Andrea Moroni)

Juan José Tamayo

 

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