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Uganda. Luwombo, a Traditional Dish Cooked in a Banana Leaf.

Wednesday, 1 June 2022 8:00

Among the Baganda people living in the area north and northwest of Lake Victoria in south-central Uganda, Luwombo is one of the most popular dishes. It is prepared for specific occasion by specific people.

It is a stew steamed in banana leaves; it has been considered to be a very special dish that was/is served only to very important guests in the Baganda culture. These include the king, chiefs, visitors, and in-laws.
The dish was originally reserved for special occasions like traditional marriages, parties, festivities, and last funeral rites; it is served
only to in-laws.

Luwombo may contain chicken, beef, and mushrooms in a groundnut stew, or smoked fish, and plain groundnut stew. It is a different kind of cooking where the ingredients are tied in banana leaves and steamed. This dish will take from two to three hours to cook.Luwombo is prepared by specific people depending on the occasion. For ordinary festivities, any member of the family will be given the task of preparing it but with strict instructions as to how and what to do when cooking it, otherwise one may serve a semi-cooked sauce for the guests.For a traditional marriage, it is the bride’s paternal aunt (Senga) who cooks it, and she is the only one supposed to serve it to the groom. At the last funeral rites, every wife makes sure she has cooked and served a Luwombo dish for her husband’s family.
Luwombo is a dish that was and still is used to show respect to visitors and to honour the occasion. In Buganda, a ceremony or festivity without Luwombo is considered a very minor ceremony.
During traditional marriages, the bride’s Senga is given the responsibility to make sure that the Luwombo is prepared well and reaches the muko (groom) while still intact.

They usually entrust the Senga to do the cooking and she is told to guard it jealously while cooking. No one else approaches the Senga while she is cooking, unless called by her. It is believed that during this cooking, a jealous person can poison the food or add herbs that will charm the groom to change his mind about marrying the bride, or herbs that will cause the newlyweds to have marital problems. She on the other hand, while cooking this Luwombo, has special herbs or a love potion which she adds to it. The love potion is believed to increase the love the groom has for the bride. The Senga’s other job is to make sure that the muko eats the Luwombo.The Senga is given a cock which she dresses, without cutting it into pieces. She cooks it whole and then, during serving, she brings her special dish and serves the groom. She then sits beside him to make sure he eats most of it.
The Luwombo served to in-laws (Baako – the groom and his entourage) is prepared with a lot of care. The Senga of the bride is the only one supposed to serve it to the groom. Though it is a special dish served to in-laws, during the first visit where the man shows interest in marrying the girl, Luwombo is not supposed to be served to him. The reason is that the groom is visiting the Senga who will serve them ordinary food. It is also believed to be a bad omen to serve Luwombo to a man who is showing interest in marrying your daughter. They say he may never come back to ask for her hand in marriage after eating the Luwombo.
At the last funeral rites, the in-laws are served Luwombo as a sign of respect from the family of the woman because in-laws are considered important people in Buganda. Once a husband attends the last funeral rite at his wife’s home and is served food on a plate, that is a sign that he has ceased being an in-law and that all such respect has now ended.
This Luwombo is supposed to be prepared by the woman and her paternal aunt, yet when the last funeral rite is at the man’s family, the wife is not served Luwombo but since she has to make sure that her family members are accorded the respect they deserve, she cooks the food and serves her family.

During festivities, a good wife in Buganda is expected to cook Luwombo for her family. Cooking Luwombo is one of the yardsticks of a good wife in Buganda. A lazy wife will not cook Luwombo for her family because it requires a lot of work.
This dish is steamed using banana leaves. The reason for this type of cooking is that it was adopted from the ancestors of the Baganda. In the past, they didn’t have enough cooking pots so they would place matooke and the sauce in one cooking pot, but the Luwombo would be wrapped in different banana leaves.
Not all banana leaves are used in the preparation of Luwombo because some banana leaves are already mature and difficult to fold, or they tear when folded. A banana leaf used to prepare Luwombo is not supposed to tear; it should fold easily. That is the reason they look for young and tender leaves from sweet small bananas (yellow bananas) which are preferably used because they are soft and more flexible.

Local people having lunch. ©mehmetozb/123RF.COM

The cook will harvest tender leaves that have not been torn by the wind or damaged by hailstones and which will hold the sauce better. He then roasts them over a very hot fire.
Once the leaves are roasted over the fire, the stalks are removed and kept aside. The banana leaves are then folded from left to right and placed in a basket. The different types of Luwombo are placed in different folded leaves and water is added to a large pot with banana stalks. The tied up Luwombos are piled one on top of the other, covered with a large banana leaf, and placed over the fire to cook.
Today Luwombo has become a popular dish in Uganda and it is no longer a dish served only by the Baganda but other tribes are adopting this cuisine like the Basoga in the eastern part of the country. They have adopted the trend and also serve Luwombo to their in-laws. It is also one of the main dishes on the menus in many Ugandan hotels and restaurants. In Uganda, one is sure to be served a delicious dish of Luwombo. (Open Photo: Fresh fruits and vegetables from Uganda. 123rf.com)

Irene Lumunu

UK/Rwanda. Prioritizing economic rights over individual rights.

Wednesday, 1 June 2022 8:00

Why did British Home Secretary Priti Patel, claiming her aim is to destroy the cross-channel traffickers’ “business model”, choose Rwanda for her recent £120 million Migration and Economic Development Partnership? And from what budget does the funding come?

Asylum seekers and migrants seeking a safe or better life in the UK are to be treated like toxic waste to be dumped in foreign lands, a striking illustration of the Johnson Cabinet’s moral bankruptcy. But quite likely here is a Minister playing to the Tory gallery unconcerned that their announcement can’t be implemented. Legal challenges are already being prepared. If this were just another half-baked initiative that will never happen, a Johnson specialty, there wouldn’t be much more to say. But why Rwanda and what’s in it for the Home Secretary?

The announcement provoked widespread and powerful reactions. “We pray that those who seek solutions do so with compassion, and with regard for the dignity which is innate to every human being. This week’s policy announcement simply lacks these qualities” Cardinal Vincent Nichols responded.

The Archbishop of Canterbury described this “subcontracting” of responsibilities as “the opposite of the nature of God” – more theological but less clear – while the civil servants union called it ‘inhumane’. Matthew Rycroft CBE, Permanent Secretary in the Home Office with a distinguished diplomatic career behind him, wrote to Priti Patel that he was not in a position to conclude there was “a deterrent effect significant enough to make the policy value for money” and therefore needing a Ministerial directive to proceed. In short, the deal was immoral, unworkable, probably illegal, and would likely cost a fortune.

Protest was strong but the choice of Rwanda and its geopolitical implications have aroused negligible in-depth comment. They should have. There is much to be learnt from Rwanda’s tragic history. My “Church and Revolution in Rwanda”(Manchester University Press 1977) examines the roots of the bitter political and ethnic conflict already happening 45 years ago. Following the 1994 genocide, I wrote about the failure of the international community, the complicity of the French, and the aftermath of the take-over by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). Rwanda is much more than the ‘Switzerland of Africa’.

Rwanda today is economically a remarkable success story for which its President Paul Kagame is justly credited. A former military commander, in his mid-60s, trained at Fort Leavenworth, USA, he directed the RPF take-over after the genocide and today leads a tiny, poor, mountainous, densely populated country not much bigger than Wales whose population is 3.17 million. According to the World Bank, 60% of the 13 million Rwandans still survive in extreme poverty on $1.25 a day, but many of the usual poverty indicators are moving in the right direction.

The Kagame government has achieved impressive economic and social progress. 30% of Rwanda’s budget is spent on health and education. There is almost universal primary education along with innovative health measures, though malaria remains prevalent. Life expectancy increased from 49 years to 67 between 2001-2017. Significant efforts have been made to overcome the ethnic divides that lay behind the genocide.

In 2008 a law against gender-based violence was passed and some 62% of parliamentarians are now women. Inequality in Rwanda as measured by the Gini coefficient (Sweden 0.3, South Africa 0.63) is 0.44. According to Transparency International, Rwanda is the least corrupt country on the African continent. An extraordinary example of national regeneration after the genocide.

Foreign aid accounts for from 30-40% of Rwanda’s annual budget but, poor though the country remains, the government hopes to leap-frog into the cyber-age and make the country a regional ICT hub; 4,000 kilometres of fibre optics have been rolled out and 600,000 laptops distributed. The national university has a course on Artificial Intelligence. Rwanda – formerly Francophone now in the Commonwealth with an English language policy – has become a darling of British Development Aid. What’s not to admire?

The maggot in the apple is Kagame’s violation of individual human rights. Years ago, I was threatened by the head of Rwanda’s official human rights organization for taking too much interest in human rights violations. Opposing Kagame is dangerous. Deutsche Welle’s Global Media Forum (the German equivalent of the BBC World Service) reports ‘enforced disappearances’ (the official legal name used in a 2006 human rights UN International Convention) of journalists and opponents of the Rwandan government as well as mysterious deaths in South Africa and Mozambique of Rwandan exiles.

You have to be a very courageous to criticize the government. The country is ranked 155 out of 180 for Press Freedom and, placed between Angola at 122 and Zimbabwe at 133, is 128th out of 167 on the Economist Intelligence Unit’s democracy index. In the 2017 elections, after 22 years in power as President, Paul Kagame allegedly received 99% of the votes achieving a constitutional change that would allow him to stay in power until 2034. Rwanda is now amongst the world’s authoritarian one-party States.

Western governments making decisions about relations with Rwanda face a dilemma. Its work for social and economic rights inspires support and engagement. Its violations of individual rights, rights by which the West officially sets such store, call in question the fundamental opposition the West asserts between democratic governments and the growing number of authoritarian States around the world.

The contemporary China-Russia alliance has made the West’s defense of democracy an overriding geopolitical priority. The Cold War between Communist States and Western democracies is resumed with once again the (false) choice between the personal freedoms of the 1948 UN Declaration of Human Rights and the economic and social benefits of the 1966 UN International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights. Does achieving the social and economic rights laid out in the 1966 UN International Covenant really depend on suppression of political opposition? Hardly. It’s a counter-factual argument but a democratic Rwanda could have done just as well.

The West sees itself championing democracy and a culture of democracy underpinned by respect for human rights, especially those violated by authoritarian regimes. So, what is the UK doing planning to deport asylum seekers for ‘processing’, many of whom will be fleeing one authoritarian regime only to end up in another? This is no-one’s idea of ‘constructive engagement’.

Priti Patel in her choice of Rwanda is de facto prioritizing economic rights over individual rights, reversing the West’s longstanding geopolitical position. Perhaps she simply doesn’t notice that there might be a wider problem here in the message she is giving to the world in her migrants for money partnership. (Open Photo: © Can Stock Photo / focalpoint)

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

Pygmies, the last caretakers of the forest.

Wednesday, 1 June 2022 8:00

Indeed, the Pygmies have always been the caretakers of the forest, truly forest advocates.

Messok Dja, an area of Congo rainforest especially rich in biodiversity, is the ancestral land of the Baka people who have managed the forest since time immemorial. The Baka are one of the many Pygmy groups living in the forest spreading from the Congo Nile Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean. They are called the African Pygmies, the African rainforest hunter-gatherers or Forest People of Central Africa. Scientists roughly identify them in three main geographic groups: the western Bambenga, the eastern Bambuti, and the central and southern Batwa.

That of the Pygmies is a fascinating world. They live by hunting and fishing, they are semi-nomadic gatherers. They have always lived in their own world and happy to be there. Modernity arrived and contaminated, tore up their traditions. The Bantu treat them as pariahs; exploit them like beasts, without any rights or dignity. Now modernity diseases, viruses and bacteria from the outside world that their elders did not know haunt their life.

Red earth tracks enter the rainforest almost with arrogance, the same arrogance of the villagers towards the Pygmy population, increasingly harassed, discriminated and despised throughout the countries. Yet, according to UNESCO, the Aka – also called Bayaka – and all other Pygmy groups are the earliest inhabitants of the rainforest spreading in almost eight countries from the Congo Nile Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean. Yet Pygmies are the poorest of the poor in these least developed countries.

While pretending to establish a conservation zone on their land without their consent the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) threatens the Baka. Park rangers commit violent atrocities against them, assaulting, robbing and murdering people in the name of “nature conservation.” There are armed rangers patrolling the area even though the park is not yet established. WWF has been aware of this for many years but has done little to tackle the problem. Actually, logging and palm oil corporations, among others, fund the WWF’s project.

The devastating results of a major investigation just released, document grave human rights violations and atrocities taking place against the indigenous Batwa people in Kahuzi-Biega National Park (PNKB), eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The report by London-based Minority Rights Group (MRG), released on 06 April 2022, shows that Park authorities have engaged in a three-year program of violent forced expulsions (Read the report here).

The pygmies have an intimate connection to their land, where they have lived since time immemorial. They also rely on the forest for medicine, food, and shelter and have their own sophisticated codes of conservation. The forest is their life. Taking the forest from them means stopping them from feeding themselves. They are going to die. Therefore, they are instinctively the caretakers of the forest not because there were the good savages imagined by J.J. Rousseau but because protecting the forest they advocate for themselves.

A pygmy pointed it out to an Okapi Wildlife Reserve’s ranger of the Ituri Forest. The ranger was forbidding him to hunt there “because you are going to kill Okapi for meat.” The pygmy answered, “Not at all, the Okapi’s meat is not good, we eat monkeys.”
Actually, who attacked the rangers on Friday 14 July 2017 killing four of them because they were preventing the hunting in the park was an armed local rebel group, not the Pygmies.

International law says that any projects taking place on tribal land can only go ahead with the agreement of the people whose land it is. The Messok Dja project has broken this law, as did Okapi Wildlife Reserve: these projects did not secure the free, prior and informed consent of the local communities before they started the process of creating the park. The forest is now off limits to the Baka tribe as it is to the Bambuti group. If they try to go there, the rangers stop them.

Like the indigenous people in the Amazonian Forest, the Pygmies are the African forest’s best caretakers. In Latin America, REPAM (Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network, in Spanish acronym) was set up in 2014 answering to the concerns of Pope Francis and the Latin American Church regarding the “deep wounds that Amazonia and its peoples bear”. It embodies Pope Francis’ “a whole-hearted option for the defense of life, the defense of the earth and the defense of cultures.” REPAM efforts produced a main event the Amazonian Synod.

In March 2015, the Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) launched REBAC (Ecclesial Network for the Congo River Basin), whose mission is to bring each inhabitant of the Congo Basin, especially young people, to appropriate the issues of the environment and climate change, as well as the vision of REBAC.

This vision and hope is that “north-south, indigenous peoples and local communities, present and future generations have access to a life of better quality through responsible and sustainable management of natural resources and especially energy, fisheries, biological, forest and animal resources available. We advocate, and hope, and will advocate that REBAC, as does REPAM for indigenous people, will take special attention to the Central African Pygmies.

John Paul Pezzi, mccj

DR Congo. Bringing Back the Smile.

Wednesday, 1 June 2022 8:00

The Nyota Centre in Bukavu gives hope to many young girls who have suffered oppression and violence. We visited the Centre.

In the large courtyard, we see some girls chasing each other while others are jumping over stones. In a corner, some little girls are drawing on pieces of paper. The climate is peaceful. Nobody could imagine that, behind those faces and those smiles of today, there are countless stories of so much suffering.
The eastern provinces of DR Congo have been a land of violence and suppression for more than twenty years, infested with armed groups who plunder the country’s wealth, sowing death, and terror.
Those who suffer most are the women, often children, the weakest and most vulnerable. To worsen the situation, there is also the misery in which a large part of the population finds itself. Hundreds of children end up on the street where they suffer all kinds of abuse because their parents are sick or are missing or simply do not have the means to feed them. This plague is fuelled by the disintegration of families broken up by the socio-economic crisis.

Father Bernard Ugeux with Noella Kadayi, director of the school.

“The young girls are victims twice over – Father Bernard Ugeux explains. After being abused, they are considered guilty for what happened to them: they are repudiated by the communities and left to fend for themselves”. Father Bernard, a 75-year-old Belgian White Father, has been working for more than thirty years giving hope to many boys and girls. Together with a team of lay Congolese, he manages the Nyota Centre, founded in 1986 by the Dorotee nuns, which today serves as a school and as a refuge for more than 250 girls fleeing horrors. “These are street children, victims of abuse and violence, orphans or the daughters of parents who are very poor or unable to raise them”.
These girls are brought to the centre by the parishes, by people of good will, by the police and by other young people who have met them on the street.“Every day the young women attend the Centre which provides social and psychological assistance, instruction, education and professional training. In class we teach French, mathematics, cutting and sewing, computer science and cooking – explains the director of the school Noella Kadayi – we support the girls in the process of reintegration into society and we look for foster or adoptive families willing to help them. We try to finance ourselves as much as possible through the sale of sweets or dresses made by the girls themselves”.

Father Bernard points out: “Many of these girls have been traumatized and must go through a process of resilience which consists in recovering self-esteem, emotional and relational autonomy, trust in society, and the ability to make plans. Those who have suffered the most severe violence need time to heal their inner wounds. Hence the need for 3 to 5 years of treatment”. “Our Centre demonstrates – continues the missionary -, that with the dedication of the staff and a holistic approach to resilience, real reconstruction is possible. Most of the young guests do not have an identity card, not even a birth certificate, so we have started a process to help them obtain identity documents, without which they cannot become independent after obtaining a diploma and learning a profession”.

But the help is not reserved only for women: “we also want to support a vocational school for boys who work in the gold mines of Kamituga, in the diocese of Uvira”- explains Father Bernard.
Every year 30 young people learn the profession of carpentry and at the end of the year they receive a kit to start their own project.
The approach of the Church to the population is concrete because, says Father Bernard, “it is a question of being present among people, of listening to them, of being in solidarity with them, of giving them the support of the Gospel”. “Every day – he concludes – we try to take a small step together to get away from the nightmares of the past and rediscover the smiles and hopes for the future “. (Open Photo: Bukavu. CC BY-SA 4.0/ EMMANRMS)

Joséphine Kabemba

UK-Rwanda. “Offshoring migrants”: a controversial deal.

Wednesday, 1 June 2022 8:00

The UK and Rwanda have signed an unprecedented deal to transfer asylum seekers to the tiny African country in return for a cash package. NGOs, opposition parties and UN bodies disapprove.
Rwanda’s President Kagame denies that that deal may consist in trading human beings, while Denmark is considering to follow UK’s example.

On the last 14 April, was signed the Rwanda-UK Migration and Economic Development Partnership which could allow the transfer of dozens of thousand refugees to the African country. The deal was made in the context of a more than threefold increase during 2021 of the flux of migrants and refugees into the United Kingdom which amounted to more than 28,000 people having crossed the Channel.
They came from West Africa and the Horn of Africa, from the Middle East and from Afghanistan. According to the UK government, most are just looking for better economic opportunities and are victims of human beings trafficking cartels. Besides, curbing illegal migration and regaining control of UK’s borders was one of the main objectives of the Leave Campaign in the 2016 Brexit referendum. According to a recent opinion poll conducted by Ipsos, 59 percent of the UK citizens consider that their government is not doing enough to stop Channel crossings.

British Home Secretary Priti Patel (L) and Vincent Biruta, the Rwandan foreign minister, sign the immigration deal in Kigali. (Photo (Photo AP)

The UK-Rwanda deal is of the Home Secretary Priti Patel’s Nationality and Borders Bill, approved by the Commons on the 28 April 2022. In a joint address, published ten days earlier, Patel and the Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta claim that the initiative which they call an “innovative solution” emerged as a response to the collapse of the global asylum system and will set an international standard.
As a result, it will be no longer possible for asylum seekers to apply for a residence from the UK territory but only outside the country. Furthermore, entering the UK territory without visa will be considered as a criminal offence which can be sanctioned by a four-year prison sentence. Migrants who arrived in the UK since January 1 will see their asylum claims processed in Rwanda and not in the UK “Those whose claims are accepted will then be supported to build a new and prosperous life in one of the fastest-growing economies, recognised globally for its record on welcoming and integrating migrants” says a UK government statement. Accordingly, the deal will ensure that those in need of protection will be safe and secure in a host country recognised globally for its record on welcoming and integrating migrants. Rwanda already hosts 130,000 refugees, including endangered migrants evacuated from Libya at the request of the UNHCR.
Under the programme, migrants will be entitled to full protection under Rwandan law, equal access to employment, and enrolment in healthcare and social services. Furthermore, the UK will invest £ 120 million to fund opportunities for Rwandan and migrants including qualifications, vocational and skills training, language lessons and higher education.

Abandoned boat on the coast. © Can Stock Photo / Nightman1965

According to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, tens of thousands of people could be resettled to Rwanda in the years ahead. Johnson says the plan is “fully compliant” with the UK’s international obligations, but he expects it to be challenged in courts and admitted that the system would not take effect overnight.
The plan sparked indeed an outcry in the UK. Labour Party Leader, Keir Starmer called it “a desperate announcement by a Prime Minister who just wants to distract from his own law breaking” (of Covid lockdown rules in June 2020). The Archbishop of Canterbury and Church of England’s most senior cleric, Justin Welby said that sending asylum seekers overseas posed “serious ethical questions”. The UK branch of the United Nations Refugee Agency UNHCR considers that such agreements are often “eye-wateringly expensive, often violate international law” [and] “lead to the use of widespread detention”.
Enver Solomon, chief executive of the UK-based charity Refugee Council argues that “sending people seeking asylum to be processed abroad will do absolutely nothing to address the reasons why people take perilous journeys to find safety in the UK”. According to the US charity Human Rights Watch, there is a contradiction between the UK’s description of Rwanda as a “safe country” and its call to the Rwandan government in 2020 to “model Commonwealth values of democracy, rule of law and respect for human rights”.

A group of refugees arrive at Kigali International Airport after a life-saving evacuation flight to Rwanda from Libya. © UNHCR/Eugene Sibomana

The Joint Council for the Welfare of Migrants, considers that “offshoring” asylum seekers is a “tried-and-failed mode” since “a similar deal made by Israel with Rwanda in 2013 led to refugees being detained, beaten up in prison and ultimately paying smugglers to escape Rwanda”. There is a risk to violate the 1951 Convention on the status of refugees of which the UK is a party, add critics whose list includes some Conservative MPs such as the former PM Theresa May.
In fact, many estimate that the policy’s success will not so much depend on the numbers of asylum seekers relocated to Rwanda but rather on its potential deterrent effect on would-be migrants. Yet, the path to such a program is fraught with obstacles. Indeed, the UK remains bound by international law and is responsible for offering protection to some asylum seekers, such as unaccompanied children, those with family ties in the UK and members of vulnerable groups.
There has been also an opposition from the African Union to the prospects of a similar Danish deal that was discussed in 2021. The Rwandan government has already stated it will not accept relocation of citizens from other East African countries or those with criminal records. The agreement’s flexibility also leaves the UK free to allow “sympathetic” asylum seekers who have not used “safe and legal pathways”- for example Ukrainians – to nevertheless claim asylum in the UK. Human rights groups wonder why Rwanda accepted the deal when Ghana and Kenya rejected similar offers.

Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame.

In Kigali, few citizens dare criticise government policies but Frank Habineza, President of the opposition Democratic Green Party crossed the Rubicon and questioned the legality of the deal. “Conflicts are inevitable. When people come in and you say you are going to give them 120 million pounds and they are going to live a very good life whereas Rwandans they don’t have anything the same way as that, then be sure there will be conflicts”.
President Kagame showed unimpressed by the critics. He told participants to a virtual seminar hosted by the Brown University in the US: “We are not trading humans”, “We are actually helping”. Kagame made a specific mention of a previous decision by Rwanda to welcome Libyan refugees at the request of the UNHCR in 2018 when he was AU chairman, reminding that these refugees “were stuck in Libya trying to cross to Europe. Some had already died trying to cross into the Mediterranean, others were kept in prisons in Libya”. “We are not involved in buying and selling of people, with the U.K. or anybody”, pursued Kagame.
The UK-Rwanda Agreement may encourage other high-income countries to externalize migration management, deplores the www.migrationpolicy.org website. Beside the UK, Austria has also eyed the option of offloading the responsibility for asylum seekers to third countries. On the 20 April, The Danish government opened talks with Rwanda on a similar plan to transfer asylum seekers, which are in line with a law passed in 2021 which allows refugees arriving on Danish soil to be moved to asylum centres in partner countries. At the time, the move was criticised by the UN and the EU and Denmark which approached Tunisia and Ethiopia failed to find such partner.
The EU Commission said relocating refugees outside the EU is not legal. But Denmark is exempted from some EU rules, including on asylum, due to an opt-out. (Open Photo: Refugees at the Emergency Transit Mechanism in Nyamata, Rwanda. © UNHCR/Will Swanson)

François Misser

The Unending Saga of Jacob Zuma.

Wednesday, 1 June 2022 8:00

The former president faces two important trials. At the moment, he has only been in prison for three weeks. The strategy is to extend the trial time in order to prevent him from returning to prison because of his advanced age.

In June 2021 Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa from 2009 to 2018, was sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment. His crime was that he ignored an order of the Constitutional Court that he should appear before a judicial commission of enquiry that was investigating corruption and maladministration during the period of his presidency.
In the days immediately following his imprisonment, rioting and looting broke out in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal and in a few other places around the country. Although much of this was opportunistic – poor people seeing the chance to grab some food or consumables – some of it was a genuine, orchestrated political reaction by Zuma’s supporters. Even after all the revelations concerning his corrupt relationships with various business interests, and the collapse of state-owned corporations, as well as social services, that occurred during his administration, he is still popular in parts of the country.
After three weeks, an official released Mr Zuma on ‘medical parole’, apparently because he was unable to look after himself physically. This release was later found to be unlawful by the High Court, but Zuma has appealed against that finding and remains, in effect, a free man.

Palace of Justice in Church Square in Pretoria. ©demerzel21/123RF.COM

This is not the only criminal case that Mr Zuma faces. He is also on trial for numerous charges of corruption which relate to his role in arms purchases and other government deals back in the 1990s, when he was a fairly minor provincial politician.
For many years he and his lawyers have fought endless legal battles to prevent this trial from proceeding; and of course, while he was President, he was able to appoint his allies to the top posts in the prosecution service, and thereby stall the investigation.
For South Africans who value the rule of law, and who understand the importance of preventing public-sector corruption, all this has been extremely frustrating. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of state officials and politicians have followed Zuma’s example, and have involved themselves in corrupt activities costing the state billions of dollars every year. And many of them have also adopted his tactic of launching legal challenges – often on non-existent grounds invented by their lawyers – against every step of the investigatory and prosecutorial processes.

People walking down a main road in Alexandra township, a formal and informal settlement. ©sunshineseeds/123RF.COM

Law-abiding citizens do not understand how Zuma and other corrupt politicians are able to stay out of jail. They increasingly blame the prosecution service, without grasping just how much this arm of the state was intentionally weakened by Zuma when he was President. Citizens are also questioning why the current President, Cyril Ramaphosa, who has committed himself to tackling corruption, does not do more to have people arrested, charged and sent to jail.
All of this diminishes respect for the rule of law, for the courts and for the justice system as a whole. People begin to ask whether there is any benefit in having a constitution that guarantees fair trial rights and due process of law if the result is that figures like Zuma can exploit these rights in order to evade justice for nearly 20 years.
Politically, this saga is an embarrassment for President Ramaphosa. In a constitutional state, he cannot intervene in prosecutions or in the work of the courts; he has to respect their independence. But as long as Zuma and others implicated in large-scale corruption remain unaccountable for their crimes, it will be difficult for Ramaphosa to build a new ethos of clean, honest government in South Africa. In addition, Mr Zuma and his supporters lose no opportunity to undermine Ramaphosa – in their populist rhetoric he is portrayed as a servant of white capitalist interests, while they claim to be on the side of the poor and the marginalised. A cynical reversal of the truth!

123rf.com

It is difficult to know how this will end. Mr Zuma will be 80 years old later this year, and the older he gets the more reluctant the courts will be to send him to jail; it is regarded as inhumane to sentence a person of such an age to the harshness of prison life. Mr Zuma and his lawyers know this and deploy their delaying tactics accordingly.
And even though his age also means that he cannot personally make a political comeback, his followers – including a number of ambitious ministers and senior ANC members – take encouragement from the way he has played the system.
On the positive side, we can at least say that there is still a chance that Zuma will ultimately be convicted. The basic principles of criminal justice and accountability are still in place, but it will require greater determination and a tougher attitude on the part of prosecutors than we have seen so far if they are to succeed in applying these principles to Mr Zuma. (Open Photo: Former president Jacob Zuma in the dock. Photo: Leon Lestrade/African News Agency)

Mike Pothier

South Africa. A Bitter Season.

Wednesday, 1 June 2022 8:00

Next December, the African National Congress will hold its five-yearly elective conference. President Cyril Ramaphosa will be looking for a second term as party leader, in view of the 2024 general elections. Weakened by internal struggles and weak governance, the African National Congress may split in two at the December congress.

For many political parties in the established democracies of Europe, to win 46 per cent of the vote in a country-wide election would be a triumph; but for the African National Congress (ANC), which has governed South Africa since 1994, this result in the local council elections held last November was a disaster.
It is the first time that the party has fallen below 50 per cent of the popular vote, and it continues a downward trend that goes back to 2004 when the party won 70 per cent. In addition, the ANC lost control of a number of big cities, including Pretoria, the capital, and Johannesburg, the financial and economic heartland of the country. In fact, it now controls only three of the country’s eight biggest cities.

Many political observers welcomed these outcomes, since it is not healthy for one party to rule, both at national and municipal level, with an outright majority for such a long time. Predictably, this kind of one-party dominance leads to corruption, non-accountability and a sense of entitlement. Jacob Zuma, whose tenure as President from 2009 to 2018 was characterised by maladministration and crookery, put this in very clear terms when he promised that “the ANC will rule South Africa until Jesus comes back to earth”.
Fortunately, it seems that more and more voters are of a different opinion. Even though they still have a deep loyalty to the party of liberation, the party once led by Nelson Mandela, more and more black voters, especially among the youth, are realising that the ANC has not fulfilled the promises it made 28 years ago, and which it continues to make – to eliminate poverty, to create jobs, to provide a decent standard of living, and to ensure ‘a better life for all’.
It might be expected that this judgment by the voters would provide the ANC with an opportunity to reflect on where it went wrong, and to find ways of improving. It might also be expected that the electoral setbacks experienced by the ANC would be to the benefit of the other political parties, and perhaps even open the possibility of a complete change of government in the next national election, due in 2024.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Regarding the ANC, firstly, the signs are that it will weaken even further, as internal rivalries and competition for positions of power are intensifying. There are broadly two factions within the party. One of them, which supports the party (and national) leader, President Cyril Ramaphosa, is attempting to carry out positive reforms and to help the party to overcome its recent history of involvement in corruption and malfeasance. The other faction, associated with the former president, Jacob Zuma, seeks to prolong the systems of bribery, patronage and nepotism that it benefited from in the years when Mr Zuma was in charge of the country.
The Ramaphosa faction is in the majority in the main decision-making structures of the party, but it is not strong enough – or united enough – to comprehensively defeat the Zuma faction. In addition, the loyalties of a significant number of senior figures are not clear; they tend to take sides with whichever faction seems to be gaining in popularity.

To build unity
Ramaphosa’s approach is to try to build unity above all else. He does not want to see a split in the ANC, and he appears to believe that, by accommodating the Zuma faction rather than acting against it, he can keep the party together. He is also very much aware that, 15 years ago, when the ANC did act against Mr Zuma – who was then Deputy President of the country – it made him into a martyr and he was able to gather enough support to eventually become President in 2009. If Ramaphosa were to move against the Zuma supporters now, a repeat of such a scenario is possible.
All this is happening in the run-up to the ANC’s five-yearly elective conference, which takes place in December this year. Ramaphosa will be looking for a second term as party leader, and while the numbers so far are in his favour, it is likely that the Zuma faction will be strong enough to win a few of the other senior positions in the party. If this happens, we can expect a few more years of internal wrangling and tension, a kind of political stalemate within the governing party.

Cape Town. Parliament of South Africa.

This is bad for the country as a whole. The continued in-fighting in the ANC takes up a lot of the time and energy of government ministers and members of parliament who should be busy running the country and attending to its many needs. While they engage in party political battles, the list of areas in which governance is failing grows longer: state-owned companies that control electricity and water supply are near to collapse; the national airline has almost ceased to operate; various government departments, such as the Post Office, fail to pay their employees’ salaries on time; only a small part of the country’s vast rail network is still functioning; and so on.
These failures of governance have a serious impact on the economy, and on the unemployment rate which has now reached almost 40 per cent overall, and 70 per cent for young people. This, in turn, means that more and more voters will reject the ANC at the next election – but what will take its place? The second question, therefore, is about the state of the opposition parties.

Ideally, when a governing party starts to weaken after many years in power there will be an opposition party, or more than one, ready to offer themselves as feasible alternatives to the voters. This is not really the case in South Africa. The biggest opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), has also lost support in recent years, down from almost 27 per cent in 2016 to 22 per cent last year, and it has also been affected by internal squabbles and leadership problems.
The only other party of significant size is the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), which has about 10 per cent support. Neither the DA nor the EFF will win anywhere near a majority of the vote in 2024. In addition, these two parties are at opposite ends of the political spectrum, and there is no possibility that they could combine their votes to unseat the ANC. There are numerous other parties too, but they are all quite small and while some might support the DA in a coalition, others are much closer to the ANC.

Which Future?
So, what does all this mean for South Africa’s political future? After so many years of being certain about one thing – that the ANC would maintain its overall majority in the next election – we are now entering into a period of uncertainty. If Cyril Ramaphosa is re-elected as ANC leader this year, he will lead the party into the 2024 national elections; and, since he is personally very popular with the voters, it is possible that the ANC will once again gain 50 per cent of the vote, and form a majority government. On the other hand, the levels of frustration with the ANC’s poor performance are now so high that it might suffer a further decline in 2024. If this happens the ANC will have to govern as a minority or it will have to seek a coalition partnership, either with one of the two big opposition parties or with a few of the smaller ones.
Neither of these options is likely to give us a stable government, at least in the short term.

Johannesburg. Gandhi square. ©viewapart/123RF.COM

Another possibility is that the ANC will indeed split. If this happens, the reformist faction will form a new party along social democratic lines, which could find some common ground with the DA, while the ‘Zuma faction’ may well link up with the EFF. Such a realignment in our politics would be very interesting; it could bring a new sense of purpose and rekindle people’s enthusiasm for democratic politics.
However, if the Zuma faction and the EFF were to combine and form a government, the consequences could be severe. Both these groupings are deeply compromised by corruption and both espouse populist policies that would destroy an already weak economy.
But South Africa’s political future is not just about which parties are in decline and which are likely to grow. We have a very active and committed civil society, made up of thousands of organisations committed to human rights, the rule of law, social justice and economic development. These organisations work very effectively to counter governmental abuses and failures, and in this, they rely on a strong and independent judiciary which has proved itself to be a bastion of democratic and constitutional rule.
The big question is whether South Africans will continue to value the multi-party democratic system if, as the years go by, it does not fulfil their needs – decent jobs, good education for their children, adequate living standards, freedom from crime and insecurity, and a healthy environment. With each successive election, fewer people register to vote, and of those who are registered, fewer and fewer actually go to the voting stations to cast a vote.
The task facing all those in leadership, whether in politics, civil society, the churches, the business community or the workers’ organisations, is to spread the message that even if democracy does not guarantee constant progress towards a better life, without it things will only get worse. As long as we remember this, we will be able to find our way through the current uncertainties and emerge as a stronger and more unified nation.

Mike Pothier

Bolivia. The ‘Andean romeria’. A Festive Path among Songs and Prayers.

Wednesday, 1 June 2022 8:00

The pilgrimages of the various Andean communities are a combination of ancestral traditions and Christian spirituality.

The pilgrimage festivals take place between the months of September and October, which according to the Andean agricultural calendar are the months for sowing. The pilgrimage is prepared one year in advance when an organiser is selected for the celebrations of the following year. The organiser is responsible for the successful outcome of the event. He is supposed to be able to find the money necessary for all the expenses. He is supported in the preparation of the festival by the mayura, who must select the music and the musicians for the event. While the tata khumuri is responsible for the food transportation and the pack animals, the tata despensa is the food administrator, the mama cocinera is the one responsible for the preparation of food during the journey to the sanctuary and the journey back home.

The walking distance to the sanctuaries is between 40.50 and 60 km. Along the route, pilgrims can find specific places to rest, eat and pray before reaching their final destination.
On the day of departure, the tata khumuri, who leads the pack animals, walks ahead of the others, along with the tata despensa and the mama cocinera. The mayura and the tata pasante perform the ritual of departure, which marks the beginning of the journey. Pilgrims ch´allan, as a good omen for the journey, and entrust themselves to the Lord represented by an image or a cross covered with typical clothes. Once this ritual has been performed, pilgrims start their walk to the sanctuary, following the tata khumuri. They generally reach their destination in the afternoon and go to rest. The following day the tata pasante makes everything ready for the celebrations. The parish priest arrives and at half past ten everybody goes to the sanctuary accompanied by the jula julas, the musicians hired for the event and the mit’anis, young women waving flags of different colours. When this crowd reaches the door of the sanctuary, the musicians start to play the kuila (solemn music) on their knees, because they are in a sacred place.

The parish priest celebrates the Holy Mass and at the end of the celebration, pilgrims join a procession as a tribute to the Saint accompanied by the music played by the jula julas. Once the procession is over, all participants go back to their accommodation where the tata khumuri, the tata despensa and mama cocinera offer them food. Since it is a special day, two dishes are served, wheat soup and Jich´i with its kanka (potatoes cooked with chuño or mote corn and a piece of grilled meat). After the meal, the ch’alla ritual is performed, the tata pasante shares some chicha with the others, thanks God and asks for His blessing and protection. After the ritual the pilgrims go for a walk through the town. The next day they prepare their return home, they say goodbye from the ch`isiraya (place for farewell located at the exit of the town), and they start their walk back home feeling happy. During the journey they pray and when they are about to reach their community, they herald their arrival with an explosion from a stick of dynamite and then a second explosion follows to mean that they have arrived so that the second part of the celebrations can start. It is the moment of the pilgrims’ reunion with their relatives. The pilgrims have brought the jich`i and other foods they were offered during their pilgrimage to the sanctuary and share it with their families as a symbol of the blessing of the Lord. The following day, the celebrations continue, this time, with the entire community. It is the day during which the event organiser of the pilgrimage of the following year is selected.

The name of the new organiser is announced with an explosion of dynamite. The selected one is given all that is necessary to organise the event. He, in turn, begins to look for the assistants that will collaborate with him for the successful outcome of the next romeria festival. The next day he thanks all the staff that was involved in the event: the tata pasante, the tata mayura, the tata despensa, and mama cocinera and gives each of them, along with his wife, ch`alla and k`intu (offerings). In the afternoon between four and five, the sowing ritual, which concludes the day, is performed. The following day the dismantling of the altar, which had been set up for the event, marks the end of the pilgrimage festival. (Open Photo: ©jeremyrichards/123RF.COM)

Jhonny Mancilla Pérez

IX Summit of the Americas. From the Pandemic to Ukraine.

Wednesday, 1 June 2022 8:00

The ninth summit of the Americas, which brings together all the presidents of the continent, will take place from 6 to 10 June in Los Angeles. Washington’s real priority is to reach an “immigration pact”.

It is a political initiative conceived during the Clinton administration to accompany the process of economic integration, which its predecessor, Bush senior, had proposed as “a free trade zone from Alaska
to Tierra del Fuego.”

The first of these meetings took place in Miami in 1994; the next was in Santiago de Chile (1998), the third in Quebec, Canada (2001), and the fourth in Mar del Plata, Argentina (2005) – in which Néstor Kirchner, president of Argentina, strongly criticized Bush Jr. and the US continental free trade project; these were followed by the fifth summit in Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago (2009), the sixth in Cartagena in Colombia (2012), chaired by Obama, like the previous one, the seventh summit held in Panama (2015) and the last one in Lima (2018).

The pandemic disrupted the meetings, which normally took place every three years. Now, the holding of the 9th Summit – the second to be held in the United States – is seen by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as a tool to revive relations with Latin America, which lost priority during the first year and a half of Biden’s mandate, which has been accentuated in recent months by the war in Ukraine.

The theme with which the summit was convened is “Building a sustainable, resilient and equitable future”. But Washington’s real priority is to reach an “immigration pact”. The climate crisis, the transition to clean energy, equitable economic growth and the role of civil society and independent media complete the agenda.

On May 2, the Undersecretary of the State Department for Latin America and the Caribbean, Brian Nicholls, announced that Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela will not be invited because “they do not respect the democratic charter”. The Democratic Charter is an instrument signed by the governments of the continent more than three decades ago and is a reference point for the institutional crises that have occurred in the region since then.

For Washington, these three countries do not fulfil the requirements of the Democratic Charter. Furthermore, in the face of the Ukrainian crisis, all three countries have adopted pro-Moscow positions. They are also the three countries in the region that have expressed their readiness to accept a permanent Russian military presence in their respective territories. For his part, Mexican President Manuel López Obrador asked Biden to invite “all peoples of the Americas”.

Meanwhile, Biden has appointed his two special advisers to the summit: former Senator Christopher Dodd and former Ecuadorian-born MP Debbie Mucarsel-Powell. The former served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for 28 years with President Biden, while the latter is known to support Venezuelan refugees leaving their country, seeking temporary security status, immigration protection, and work permits.

This meeting comes as the immigration issue becomes more complicated for the Biden administration, which is working with most of the decisions Trump made to implement a drastic policy against illegal immigration. Proposals to ease or eliminate these policies, which were at the heart of the Democratic left-wing campaign, did not materialize.

The situation in Central America complicates this problem. Transit to the southern US border through Central America continues to be the main entry point for illegal immigration. The new governments of Honduras and Costa Rica show ties to the Venezuelan regime that their predecessors did not have. The El Salvador government, meanwhile, has turned to China in the face of Washington’s criticism of its authoritarianism. At the same time, the State Department opened an official channel to receive corruption complaints concerning the six Central American countries, which deteriorated its relations
with Washington.

But the war in Ukraine is the US priority. The exclusion of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, as mentioned, is linked to the pro-Moscow positions expressed by these countries. A month after the invasion, on March 24, the UN vote calling on Russia to cease hostilities was supported by all but the three countries in the region, as well as by Bolivia and El Salvador.

In other words, 29 of the 34 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean agreed with the position of Washington and the EU. But when the exclusion of Russia from the UN Human Rights Council was voted on April 4, Brazil and Mexico – as well as other regional powers such as Egypt, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia – abstained, not supporting the vote of the United States.

At the meeting of G20 finance ministers on April 20, Argentina, Mexico and Brazil followed the position of the majority of the group not to exclude Russia or to boycott its minister’s speech. In the vote of the Organization of American States (OSA) on April 21 to suspend Moscow as an observer of the organization, which prevailed with 23 votes, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina abstained.

Thirteen non-NATO countries attended the NATO and Allied Summit in Ramstein, Germany on April 26: four from Africa, two from Asia, and none from Latin America and the Caribbean. (Photo: 123rf.com)

Rosendo Fraga/Nueva Mayoría

Ukraine youth. Fighting for Freedom.

Sunday, 1 May 2022 8:00

In just a few weeks. The dreams and lives of many Ukrainian young people have been completely destroyed. But they continue to fight for their future and that of their country.

Veronika, 19, says: “The months before the war were the best of my life. I was in the second year of university. But the thing that gave my life real meaning was playing ice hockey. It was what I woke up to every morning.

On 23 February, our coach told me about plans to create a women’s hockey team to try and reach the professional league. I went to bed so happy, looking forward to the next day. At 5.30 in the morning, there was a huge explosion. My bed was shaking from the shock waves.

My mother came into our bedroom and told us to get out; we had no idea what was going on. We sat together in a corner of the kitchen waiting for it to end but the bombing only got worse. Five hours later we got up and ran to the basement.

As soon as I entered the basement, I realized that my life as I knew it was over. Hockey, work, friends, a guy I was very much in love with, all these things ended that day. That’s probably why I don’t feel anything anymore: no fear, no pain, no anger, no will to live. I feel as if I died at 5:30 am on February 24th.”

Kateryna recalls: “We didn’t immediately realize that Russian planes were dropping bombs. They weren’t in my video games. This was real life. We had only mouldy bread to eat. ”

Victor, Alexandra and some other people were hiding in a warehouse in Mariupol, a place of hunger, thirst and cold.
There was a market nearby and so, while the bombs were still falling Victor and Alexandra go to look for the remains of vegetables among the rubble and the burning cars. “We were risking our lives for rotten vegetables,” commented Victor. “At least, the people hiding in the warehouse had something to eat.

We left the city on March 16th. As we drove through Mariupol, the only things still standing were ruins, destroyed buildings and craters left by missiles. Black smoke hovered everywhere. We decided to leave without knowing where the ‘green corridor’ was because no one in Mariupol knew; we found ourselves in a huge movement of people trying to leave.

Oleksandr comments: “Who is responsible for all this? Who will apologize? Who will give me my stolen life back? Just like my hometown, I have the feeling that I no longer exist. I have severe skin problems due to a lack of hygiene and the dust in the basement means that I am always short of breath. I no longer have any liking for food.”

The young boys and girls, gathered in a Kiev basement and wearing their school attire, ought to be in their classroom studying history, but instead have to bear the brunt of the conflict that, for more than a month, has kept the whole world in suspense. They have to use their social media not for fun but to beg the world community to help them not to die under the bombs. They are there, calm but fearful, working with their computers, asking for their cries to be shared on the social media: “We do not want to live in fear but we want to stay here: please stop the war”.

Valentyna, a third-year student of computer science at the University of Kiev: “Some of our friends are out there with weapons in hand to fight, we are here with our social networks trying to fight in a different way. Twitter, like all social media channels, is a source of information for many practical indications on how to organize life in these hours. For example, we try to give advice on how to screen windows to prevent them from being shattered by the shock wave of bombs. ”

Vasyl, a philosophy student in Kiev: “We are afraid, after having spent months and months suffering from Covid. Two years that destroyed our life like more than anything else, now this absurd war. And to think that every year I went to visit my aunt in Belgorod in Russia. I have many friends in that city. And now … “From a small window, Irina looks at the deserted street of Kharkiv. She says: “Even in the darkest moments there must always be a ray of sunshine” and she concludes “The most powerful force we have is hope, we are struggling to stop this conflict. We are human beings. We want to live free “. (C.C.)

Dancing for Water.

Sunday, 1 May 2022 8:00

There had been a terrible drought, with intense heat that had dried up the rivers, streams and springs, until there was no water anywhere. The animals wandered far and wide in search of water, but could not find any. Nowhere was water freely flowing.

The animals held a meeting, and all of the large animals attended, the Elephant, the Lion, the Tiger, the Jackal and the Wolf, plus the small animals too. “What should we do?” asked the animals.

A few animals made some suggestions, and these were passed back and forth amongst the group. None of the suggestions seemed viable. Finally, the Jackal said: “I have an idea, let all of us go to the dry river bed, and dance; by the weight of us all trampling on the ground, we will tread out the water.”

All of the animals thought this was a splendid idea, and everyone was ready to get started instantly, as all were very thirsty and in need of a drink. The Rabbit, however, was scornful and dismissive of their plan. He said arrogantly: “I have no intention of going and dancing! All of you are crazy, to think that you will get water from the ground by dancing!”

The other animals took no notice of the sour and untrusting rabbit. They danced and danced, and the water did rise to the surface. They were all enormously pleased, and each animal drank as much water as they could. Because Rabbit did not dance with them, it was decided that he would not be allowed to drink. Rabbit laughed at them scornfully and cheekily with defiance said: “I will nevertheless, drink some of the water.”

That evening, the Rabbit took a leisurely walk down to the river bed, where all the other animals had danced furiously for a long time. He drank and drank from the river until he had had enough.

The following morning, the animals saw his footprints in the mud, and all muttered to themselves that he should not drink when he would not help in raising the water. The Rabbit taunted them, by shouting: “Aha! See, I did have some of the water! It was so cool and refreshing and tasted delicious!”

The animals called a meeting. They wondered what they could do, and how they could get hold of the Rabbit. Some animals suggested one method, others suggested another. Finally, the old Tortoise moved forward and said: “I will catch the Rabbit ?”
The other animals were a bit puzzled by this, because the Tortoise was one of the slowest creatures around, and certainly not up to the speed of the rabbit. “How will you catch the Rabbit, by yourself?”

Tortoise replied, “I will rub my shell with a pitch, which is black and sticky. I will then go near the edge of the water and lay down. To the Rabbit, I will resemble nothing more than a stone. When Rabbit steps onto my back, his feet will stick fast.”
The other animals had to agree this was a clever cunning plan. “Yes, this is a great idea”, they agreed in unison.

After a while, the Tortoise had smothered his shell with a pitch and had slowly step by step made his way down to the river bank. He laid down as he had suggested, and pulled his head into his shell so that he looked like just a round stone. That evening, the Rabbit arrived and had gone to the water to get a drink.

“Ha! – he laughed to himself sarcastically -. They are quite decent. They have placed a stone here so that I do not need to get my feet wet.” The Rabbit stood with his left foot on the stone, it stuck fast. The Tortoise then popped his head out.

“Ha! Old Tortoise! It is you that has tricked me, and is holding me by one foot. But I have another foot here to give you a good kick with.” The Rabbit, did what he said, and kicked the Tortoise with all his might, but it stuck fast to the black sticky pitch on the Tortoises shell, so now he was held there by his two feet.

“ I still have my hind feet, and I will kick you with them!” threatened the Rabbit menacingly.The Rabbit kicked with all his might, that also stayed stuck on the Tortoises shell where it had made contact. “Still another foot remains – said the Rabbit adamantly -. I shall stomp on you!”

The Rabbit stomped his final foot on the Tortoise and became even more stuck. The Rabbit tried to use his head to head-butt the Tortoise, and his tail to whip him. But both became stuck fast.The Tortoise slowly turned himself around, and step-by-step headed back towards the other animals, with the Rabbit stuck fast on his back.

“Ha! Rabbit! This will teach you to be so insolent!” shouted the other animals. The animals tried to decide the Rabbit is fate. They decided that he should be killed, but could not decide how. They were discussing this in the Rabbit is presence. The cunning rodent started to scream, “Please do not give me a shameful death!”

“What would be a shameful death?” they asked. “Please do not take me by the tail, and dash my head against a stone. Please, I beg you do not do this.” It was decided by the animals that a fitting punishment for the Rabbit, would be to do exactly what he had asked them not to.

Therefore, they decided that the Rabbit would be taken by his tail, and his head dashed against a stone. What they could not yet decide, was who would do this. The animals decided that the Lion should because he was the strongest.

The Lion walked to the front of the group, and the poor Rabbit was brought to him. The Rabbit begged and pleaded that he did not want to die such a terrible death. The Lion took the Rabbit firmly by the tail and started to swing him around. A white fluffy skin slipped off from the Rabbit’s bottom, and the Lion stood there clutching the tail in his paw. The Rabbit wounded but free, his tail fur would soon grow back with time. (Photo: 123rf.com)

Folktale from South Africa.

Is Ukraine Putin’s holy war?

Sunday, 1 May 2022 8:00

Putin’s mother may or may not have been a closet Orthodox Christian who had her son secretly baptized.

Metropolitan (head of a major diocese) Tikhon, friend of Putin, first trained as a screenwriter, is known for his ultraconservative nationalist theology, his opposition to democracy and support for censorship as well as his promotion of Orthodoxy as the antidote
to ‘Western decadence’.

The friendship between Putin and Tikhon dates from the late 1990s and developed into a close relationship as their careers blossomed. Tikhon reached the status of Archimandrite (Grand Abbot) in 1998 and became Rector of the restored Stretensky Seminary in Moscow in 1999. Putin became President of the Russian Federation in 2000 in time to oversee the rebuilding of Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.

I went to Moscow in 1991 to talk to Gorbachev’s religious advisers and to visit a little catholic church and its community in the shadow of the Lubyanka. Two surveillance cameras were trained on the door. The parish priest was a resilient Ukrainian who had spent many years in prison. Catholicism is not Russia’s favourite brand of Christianity.

Gorbachev’s religious advisers wanted to talk about life after communism. They were worried about what would fill the vacuum and hold society together. “Now our communist ethics [sic] have gone what is going to replace it?” Enter Christianity seen by them as the only available solution to providing the glue for Society. I told them things weren’t quite that simple, they would need to accommodate different varieties of Christianity. I wondered privately about the future role of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Thirty years on and Russia is 70% Orthodox with quite a high level of observance. Pentecostals and Plymouth Brethren are given a very hard time and there is little love wasted on the Catholics. Orthodoxy in Russia has largely become a politicised religion.

It is difficult to assess what the Russian Orthodox Church means today for Putin’s life, thinking, imperial ambitions and legitimacy. Until Archbishop Rowan Williams’ recent denunciation of the Moscow Patriarch Kirill’s collusion with the war in Ukraine, Putin’s thinking about religion hardly featured in UK media analysis of his motivations. The question remains unanswered whether Putin is simply using religion as a political tool seeing war as “a mere continuation of policy by other means.”

There is nothing exceptional in a Head of State attending a thanksgiving service after their inauguration – in this instance in 2000 – Putin went straight to prayers in the Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation in the Kremlin. We do know that Putin makes diplomatic use of his relationship with Orthodoxy.

During a visit to George W. Bush in June 2001 Putin drew attention to the baptismal cross his mother allegedly gave him. “This was a very good meeting”, Bush enthused. “And I look forward to my next meeting with President Putin in July. I very much enjoyed our time together. He’s an honest, straightforward man who loves his country. He loves his family. We share a lot of values. I view him as a remarkable leader”.
Trump was not the only President to be enamoured. Putin knew which buttons to press.

Archimandrite Tikhon has on several occasions accompanied Putin on foreign visits and Putin has visited the impressive Russian Orthodox monastery of St. Panteleimon on the Greek peninsula of Athos at least twice. The first time was in 2005 and the last in 2016 when, with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, he joined celebrations of the thousandth anniversary of Orthodox monks establishing themselves on Athos.

Recently a friend of mine on pilgrimage to Mount Athos saw about thirty men, in a small taverna in the ferry port of Ouranoupolis all in their late 20’s with shaved heads, eating supper in silence. Next day he watched them disembark in orderly fashion at the first Russian monastery on the peninsula. His immediate thought was that they were Russian soldiers from a military academy.

There is other evidence of militarisation of religion. In June 2020, Defence Minister, Sergei Soigu, opened the main church of the Russian Armed Forces on the outskirts of Moscow. The khaki-coloured Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ was dedicated for the 75th anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War. Its metal floor is made from melted down Nazi ordinance and armour. It has icons of martyrs who fought for Russia, most strikingly that of Fyodor Ushakov, ‘righteous commander of the Black Sea Fleet’.

The Ukrainian capital has religious significance for Russians. In 988 Prince Vladimir was baptized in the Crimea. The conversion of the Rus people began when he returned to Kyiv. An equally significant date for Putin is 1686 when the Orthodox Church in Ukraine was brought under the Moscow Patriarchate, only to split away in 2019 – supported by the then Ukrainian President Petro Porochenko – when the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in Istanbul granted it ‘autocephaly’. Patriach Kirill’s view of Kyiv as the Jerusalem of Russian Orthodoxy might explain why central Kyiv has not been shelled.

According to the Christian Think-tank, Theos, Putin does believe Grand Prince Vladimir’s ‘spiritual feat of adopting Orthodoxy’ “predetermined the overall basis of the culture, civilisation and human values that unite the peoples of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus”.

And Patriarch Kirill sees his role as being “concerned with the maintaining and strengthening of spiritual ties between people living in these countries for the sake of preserving the system of values which the one Orthodox civilization of Holy Russia reveals to the world.” In short, for Putin, the old canonical boundaries of the Russian Orthodox Church provide the template of Russia’s rightful political boundaries, and after the catastrophe of the Soviet Union’s disintegration, justification for the resurrection of ‘the Russian World’ (Russki Mir) to challenge and defeat the ‘secular political project’ of Ukrainian politicians who are backed by a ‘degenerate’ Western world.

Does Putin really believe his barbarism in Ukraine is a Holy War promoting a glorious expansive, ethnic vision of Holy Mother Russia? Or is he simply instrumentalising religion? If so, there are signs it is backfiring. On 13 March 2022, distinguished members of the Russian Orthodox Church signed and circulated A Declaration declaring Russki Mir a heresy. At time of writing, it has 1,280 signatories including theologians and others from different Christian traditions around the world. Some have compared it to the Declaration of Barmen which described the Nazi ‘Christian Movement’ as a heresy.

Perhaps the secular West should consider that some atavistic part of Putin really does believe in this perverse religious vision. The militarisation of Russian Orthodoxy is obvious and worrying. It has policy implications for the West, Ukraine – and the world. (Photo: ©jegas/123RF.COM)

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

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