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Mission. Sharing Our Life.

Three African Comboni Missionaries share their vocation journey and their pastoral experience.

My name is Father Nicholas Onyait and I am 33 years old. I was born in Kokorio village, in the Eastern Region of Uganda. I attribute my vocation to my early childhood years. My family was so close to the Church. We used to go to mass every Sunday and we also had daily prayers at home. This ignited the desire in me to become a priest someday because I had much contact with priests.

However, the reality of being a missionary was something that I had never known. This was because in my home parish, there were only diocesan priests and so I thought that all priests were diocesan.
One Sunday, a Comboni missionary visited our school, Teso College. He spoke to us about the missionary vocation and shared his mission experience of working in West Africa in Benin. This was stunning to me. It was not only something adventurous, but it demanded courage.

When I joined St. Peter’s College for ‘A’ level in 2002 this experience kept nourishing me. In fact, the Comboni missionary kept on updating me with the newsletter of the aspirants.  In December 2007, I was invited to the first ‘Come and See’ experience in Mbuya where I met many other aspirants. After this, I joined the Comboni Missionaries and I was sent to Alenga parish in Lira in the north Uganda for my pre-postulancy which lasted three months.
This was my very first experience as a missionary and it shaped my missionary attitude and motivation. I got a bit discouraged because the life was very tough; we had to cycle long distances for our apostolate. Therefore, when the senior six results were released, I requested to join the university and come back after my studies. But, of course, I was trying to run away. However, I kept thinking about my vocation and I reapplied after completing my course.

From August 2010 to May 2013, I was admitted for philosophical studies in Jinja. Then from 2013-2015, I did my novitiate in Lusaka, Zambia. I then made my first vows on the 1st of May 2015 in Lusaka. Later, I was assigned to the Scholasticate in Casavatore in Naples, Italy, for four years, 2015-2019. I then returned to Uganda and served in Our Lady of Annunciation Kasaala parish from 2019-2020 in Kasana in Luwero diocese. I concluded my missionary service with perpetual vows in Layibi, Gulu on 15th July 2020. I was ordained a deacon on July 18th, 2020 at the Nativity parish Matany by Bishop Damiano Guzzetti. I then served in Kasaala as a deacon and I was ordained a priest on January 9th, 2021 in my home Parish of St. Pancras Toroma in Soroti diocese.
My most touching experience occurred when I was a novice in the parish of Chama in North-Eastern Zambia. Living among the people taught me the real sense of being a missionary. Thus, it is about sharing the life situation of the people, identifying with the people.

These people taught me the value of humility and motivated me to be able to offer myself in whatever way I could. For me, this was the greatest opportunity I had to witness to the gospel.
The very first hurdle I would say is the culture shock. When you encounter people whose culture and language you do not know, it is a big shock that is also humbling. But I learned to be strong and patient in such moments and also to be open to learning and embracing cultural differences.
There is also that obvious pain of separation from one’s original community and the young generations are often unprepared for it. To the young people of today I would say: “if you are convinced of the call to religious life, God gives you the graces you need for the journey”.

Bro. Jean-Marie Mwamba. Brother philosopher
I was born in 1974, in Kolwezi, the capital city of Lualaba Province, in the south-eastern part of the DR Congo, in a Catholic family of eight children. From my childhood, my mother made me get used to going to morning mass with her. After secondary school exams, I moved to Kinshasa to continue my university studies. In the capital city, I got to know the Comboni missionaries through the friendship I developed with one of them, a native of the Central African Republic, who had come to Kinshasa to finish his theology courses. He is now a priest.

Through reading the life of Comboni and the testimonies of some Combonian missionaries, I was more and more motivated to become a Comboni missionary.
Although my friend was studying to become a priest, the vocation of the religious Brother was still clear to me, but now it became an impellent call and commitment to human advancement.
After some time of discernment, I began my training as a Comboni Brother. And here I must reveal an almost inexplicable ‘conversion’. I had always dreamed of continuing with my technical studies and acquiring a trade or technical profession.
However, during the first years of Postulancy, I came across a science that fascinated me: philosophy. Its beauty bewitched me irreparably. A beauty that increased with the passage of time, mostly spent devouring books and philosophy texts. Today I am happy and proud to be a philosopher.

After my undergraduate studies at the Edith Stein Philosophy School in Kisangani, in 2003, I was admitted to the novitiate at Kimwenza, in Kinshasa, where I spent two years. In 2005, after my first religious vows, I was sent to the International Centre of the Brothers, in Nairobi, to continue my formation.
In agreement with the superiors, I was able to enrol in a graduate programme in philosophy at the Catholic University of the Eastern Africa (CUEA). Having obtained the master’s degree, in 2008, I was assigned to the Comboni Province of Togo-Ghana-Benin, as a member of the formation team of the institute’s Postulancy, at Adidogomé (western suburb of Lomé) and teacher of philosophy in the School of Philosophy.

I have never limited myself to teaching philosophy. I always wanted to carve out time to devote to pastoral ministry. In Adidogomé, I worked with the parish youth group. In 2011 I went back to Kinshasa where I did my perpetual religious profession.
Immediately after, I returned to Nairobi for my doctoral studies in philosophy at CUEA, which I finished by defending my thesis in November 2015. My superior appointed me as a teacher of philosophy at the Edith Stein Philosophy School in Kisangani.  The following year, I was appointed Rector of that institution, a position that I hold to this day.  And here I am now, a Comboni missionary Brother, engaged mostly in the field of teaching.

 Father Donald Maripe Magoma.
I was born in 1979 in Masikwe, in the diocese of Witbank, South Africa.  Going to church was my father’s exclusive business. Although he was a pastoral assistant in one of the thousands of ‘apostolic churches’ swarming South Africa, he never bothered to take his children with him on Sundays. Our mother, on the other hand, did not belong to any church, nor did she practice any religion.
The situation changed in 1990, when our parents left us in the care of our maternal aunt Jane, who was a staunch Catholic. For her, taking us to church was the most natural thing in the world. So, at the age of 13, I found myself enrolled in the catechumenate of the neighbouring parish. Two years later, myself and my sister were baptised and confirmed.

So, soon after baptism, I began to attend all the vocational workshops organised by the parish.  One day, by pure chance, I came across a magazine published by the Comboni Missionaries in South Africa: Worldwide. The content of the articles and the perspective that I could grasp in the many testimonies reported in it, surprised me deeply; it was no longer a question of finding priests for a diocese, however vast and poor in personnel, but for the whole world, infinitely larger. It was immediately apparent to me that the world’s need for heralds of the gospel was far greater than that of the diocese.

I wrote to the vocation director of the Comboni Missionaries. Within a few months, the decision was taken. In 1997, I entered their postulancy, in Pretoria, as a pre-postulant. Two years later, I started the postulancy proper. In 2001, I entered the novitiate in Lusaka, Zambia. It was the first time I had been outside my home country and I was the only South African among the group of novices.

The two years of novitiate went by without a hitch. In April 2003, I made my first religious profession. Shortly afterwards, I joined the Comboni scholasticate in Kinshasa, DR Congo. Here the difficulties were numerous and nerve-wracking. The language was French, the atmosphere was French, everything tasted and smelt of French… and I could not adapt. I lasted only two years, and then I gave up and decided to return to South Africa, with the intention of abandoning the idea of becoming a missionary altogether.
The provincial superior of the Comboni missionaries offered me to live in the Comboni community of St. Peter Claver Parish in Mamelodi, a township of Pretoria.

There, in a welcoming community and surrounded by my own people, I recovered and regained confidence. Two years later, I returned to Kinshasa with a renewed spirit. I resumed my theological studies, which I completed in 2010. On 7th August of that year, I made my perpetual profession in Glen Cowie Parish, Limpopo Province, South Africa. On 22nd August, I was ordained a deacon, and on 12th February 2011, I was made a priest in my parish at Masikwe.

I only asked for two months’ family leave, and in April I reached my new destination, Chad. Since then, I have worked for a year and a half in a mission in the diocese of Lai, then another year and a half in St. Francis of Assisi Parish, in the diocese of Doba. In September 2014, I was posted to St. Michael’s Parish, in Bodo, also in the diocese of Doba, where I still am.
I am engaged in the fields of first evangelisation, human promotion, training of local leaders, and the common effort towards self-support of the local Church. I like being here. I feel that I am where God wants me. There is no greater joy. The difficulties of the past – and there have been many – appear to me today as small pearls set in the crown of the Church of Africa, of which I feel a humble servant. (SWM)

Narrative African Voices in Print and on the Web.

A panorama of the newspapers founded by African intellectuals who gave and are still giving a black tone to cultural and literary production.

To change the narrative on Africa, it is necessary to have spaces where this narrative can be initiated. Unique and original spaces. Original spaces that emerge from autochthonous roots. These places, whether physical or virtual, exist in the continent, and some have been there for some time.  There are newspapers but also literary experiments, places of cultural aggregation and exchanges of perspective. Founded and fed by African intellectuals.
Many are from the diaspora, working to hold together the various threads of pan Africanism or simply to internationalise African voices. Many others never left Africa.
There are many Intellectual African magazines that already attracted notice in the fifties and sixties when all efforts and attention were everywhere focused on the struggle for independence.

One of these is Présence Africaine founded in 1947 by Senegalese Alioune Diop, who studied in Algeria and at the Sorbonne in Paris, becoming a Professor of Letters.
The magazine became a sort of forum for a movement that, first of all, promoted a concept that was, at the same time, a field of intellectual, cultural and political action: negritude. And it succeeded in involving the French and African intelligentsia of the time: from Paul Rivet to Jean-Paul Sartre, from Albert Camus to Aimé Césaire.
Concerning Présence Africaine and its founder, the Cameroonian author Mongo Beti, the pseudonym of Alexandre Biyidi Awala, once said: “Alioune Diop will go down in history as the one who allowed the blacks to express themselves. Without this instrument forged by him, we would have remained as we always were: silent”.
The magazine – that has already been available online for some time – since the death of Diop (1980) has been headed by his wife Christiane Yandé Diop who has continued to sustain the voice and black literary expression liberated from the exoticism into which Western culture often relegated it. Reading clubs, interviews with authors, as well as editorial houses, thrive. It is a shame that there are still so few associated bookshops in African territory (Présence Africaine has its physical seat in Paris) where books edited by the editorial houses are distributed.

Then there was Transition founded in 1961 as a ‘Newspaper of Arts, Culture and Society’ by Ugandan Rajat Neogy. Among the contributors (and well-known voices) to the magazine were Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, and James Baldwin. Neogy was arrested in 1968 for sedition after publishing an article critical of the Ugandan government. Nevertheless, the magazine did not disappear; on the contrary, it assumed a growing international character. Today it is a publication of the Hutchins Centre of Harvard University – which also includes many research institutes, one of which is the W.E.B. Du Bois Research Institute – with Wole Soyinka as head of the editorial team and the Anglo-Ghanaian philosopher and author Kwame Anthony Appiah as co-editor. An incredible amount of study and research material has been accumulated on its website.

New seeds
All of these initiatives appeared in their time as milestones and could not, therefore, be abandoned. On the contrary, they sprouted and flowered on a thousand branches. Then came the Internet and the desire emerged – also the urgency – to scatter new seeds. One of the first online platforms for literature, art, and politics as narrated from within, Chimurenga is a pan-African platform of writing, art, and politics founded by Ntone Edjabe in 2002. Drawing together a myriad of voices from across Africa and the diaspora, Chimurenga takes many forms, operating as an innovative platform for free ideas and political reflection about Africa by Africans.

Outputs include a journal of culture, art, and politics of the same name (Chimurenga Magazine); a quarterly broadsheet called The Chronic; the Chimurenga Library – an ongoing invention into knowledge production and the archive that seeks to re-imagine the library; the African Cities Reader – a biennial publication of urban life, Africa-style; and the Pan African Space Station (PASS) – an online radio station and pop-up studio.
The aim of its many and multi-form activities “is not just to produce new knowledge but rather to express the intensity of our world, capture those forces, and act”.
The literature and poetry sites have for some time been helping to make known a culture that still remains unexplored given its vastness, or rather, a bottomless well. Brittle Paper is one of these, for those who love and are never satisfied with African literature and its diversity. More territorially centred is Bakwa, a Cameroonian literary magazine on Anglophone literature in a country with a Francophone majority (and where, as a consequence, a civil war has been waged since) and dominated by the French language.

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, a Kenyan writer and academic.

Doek! is instead a Namibian literary magazine – but is also contains visual poetry and arts – co-founded in 2019 by Rémy Ngamije. It is a place where the heritage of colonialism and the “the unexpressed losses due to the liberation struggle” against the white government of South Africa, are explored.
Other initiatives worthy of mention are the Johannesburg Review of Books which gives a voice to African writers to comment on literary works from all over the world, but especially those from Africa. One of the spaces opened up for writers of short stories (including emerging ones) who live in the continent or are part of the diaspora is Afreada, a natural fusion of Africa and the reader. The aim of this platform inaugurated in December 2015 is to preserve those cultures and traditions that find expression in the stories published on the Website.
Another magazine founded during the same period and based in Nairobi is Jalada, a collective of pan African writers which has already made history and among its projects is the translation of The upright revolution: or why humans walk upright, by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o into 97 languages, most of them African. Finally – simply because it is the youngest in this incomplete barrow load – Lolwe, an online magazine that publishes stories, book reviews, personal articles, photographs, and poetry, was founded in 2020 by the Kenyan editor, writer, and lawyer Troy Onyango. The name of this project derives from Nam Lolwe, the original or traditional name for Lake Victoria which means ‘infinite lake’. Similarly, Lolwe means ‘infinite’, ‘without limit’, like the flow that unites the narrating voices of the African continent.

Antonella Sinopoli

Egypt. Anaphora, the Monastery of Encounter.

The situation of Christians in Egypt is that of a varied minority. They do not always succeed in living as brothers and sisters. Nevertheless, the reality of encounter and fraternity is a real possibility. The monastery of Anaphora is a place that bears witness to this. A young Comboni Missionary tells us about it.

Christian Egyptians comprise about 10% of the 100 million inhabitants of the country.  They make up the numerically largest Christian presence in all of North Africa and the Middle East. Most of these Christians are Orthodox Copts belonging to the Church which is heir to the millennial monastic tradition of the desert and of the best-known theological school of the first centuries of the Christian era, the Alexandrian School.
Alexandria city was also the seat of one of the five patriarchates of the primitive Church. The head of the Coptic Orthodox Church is the Patriarch of Alexandria and successor in ministry to Saint Mark the Evangelist who, according to tradition, was the first patriarch
and evangeliser of Egypt.

Coptic mass book. Can Stock Photo / meikesen

The Coptic Church is an Eastern Orthodox Church, one of the Churches that separated from the great Latin and Greek Church after the Council of Chalcedon (451).
As such, it is independent and separated both from the Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church which is under the Patriarch of Constantinople. Alongside this Orthodox majority, there are also Egyptian Christians called Coptic Catholics who, while observing their Coptic rite, are in communion with the Church of Rome. There is also a growing number of Egyptians who belong to reformed denominations including Anglicans and various evangelical Churches.
Egypt has always been a place of encounter of peoples, cultures, and religions due to its history and its geographical location. In the course of the ages, groups of Greek, Turkish, Maltese, Lebanese, Armenian, Syrian, Italian, French, English, Sudanese, Eritrean and other nationalities moved into Egypt and settled there. These communities are to be found mostly in Cairo and Alexandria.
Many members of these groups are Christians of various denominations who, over the years, established places of worship and religious communities. Consequently, the Christian presence in Egypt today is made up of a large variety of nationalities, rites, and communities.

The different rites of the Catholic Church, the various Orthodox communities and the galaxies of reformed Churches live side-by-side on the banks of the Nile, their churches and places of worship often close together. Coexistence is not always easy. Belonging to a minority may, on the one hand, encourage valuing what is held in common, especially regarding daily life. On the other hand, this situation carries the risk of clinging to what one has, and living together of Churches and rites may lead to competition. For this reason, the acceptance of Christians of other denominations can never be taken for granted, especially as concerns the leadership of the communities. Fear, mistrust, new and old grudges come to the fore especially as regards the sacraments, the first of which is matrimony, and the formation and accompaniment of the youth. However, it was through an experience with the youth that I had the opportunity to come to know a place that is a symbol of openness and encounter: the Coptic Orthodox monastery of Anaphora situated about 75 km north of Cairo.

Anaphora is a Coptic word of Greek origin which means ‘offering’, derived from the verbs ‘to raise up, to carry’.

The monastery was founded towards the end of 1998 by Bishop Thomas, Orthodox Bishop of El-Quossia, in Upper Egypt. A charismatic personality with many years of monastic life, His Grace Bishop Thomas came into contact with some European places expert in ecumenism such as the French ecumenical monastery of Taizé. As pastor of a mostly rural diocese in southern Egypt with problems related to work, education, and co-existence between religions and different groups, he decided to found a monastery in an area to the north of Cairo where, for centuries, some Desert Fathers had lived. Besides providing work for some young people of the diocese, the monastery has 120 acres of land cultivated sustainably, with the goal of making the monastery of Anaphora self-sufficient. Right from the start, Bishop Thomas wanted Anaphora Monastery to be a place of encounter for all, especially Christians, regardless of their denomination.
The name of the monastery suggests its vision. Anaphora is a Coptic word of Greek origin which means ‘offering’, derived from the verbs ‘to raise up, to carry’. It is, therefore, a community that lives fully the vocation to build up and raise the spirits of those who visit it, a fruitful reality that wants to be a place of peace, serenity, simplicity, and welcoming for all, without setting limits to journeys, convictions or faith.

Father Giovanni Antonello with a group of young people visiting the monastery.

My first contact with Anaphora Monastery was in November 2018 when, together with a confrere and a Comboni Sister, we accompanied a group of young people from our parish in Cairo to take part in a three-day meeting organised by two monks from Taizé in collaboration with the Anaphora Centre. Those days were like a cool drink of water on a hot summer’s day. We were the only Catholic group among a large majority of Orthodox Christians and various groups of Protestants. Right from the start, we felt that we were meeting not so much as Catholics, Orthodox or Protestants but as brothers and sisters. With extraordinary simplicity, our differences were overcome as we prayed and reflected together, in listening to experiences of dialogue and service, in the simple sharing of meals and study seminars. During those days, we could breathe an atmosphere of fraternity, exchange, listening and reciprocal acceptance.

We immediately understood that what we were living was not exceptional but an integral part of the mission of the monastery. As well as meeting Orthodox monastic men and women and volunteers, we also met some members of European Protestant Churches who were having an experience of monastic life there with them. That visit gave rise to many more in the years that followed.
Today, I am reinterpreting my experience at Anaphora Monastery in the light of my experience as a Comboni Missionary living and working at Aswan, in Upper Egypt, involved in coming to understand better the challenges faced by these people and especially the Egyptian Christians.
I see the monastery experience in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic and Pope Francis’ Encyclical Fratelli Tutti, in which the challenge of fraternity strongly emerges. All of this makes me understand ever more how places and experiences like that of Anaphora Monastery are seeds of hope which Egypt and the whole of humanity desperately need.
In a world where the temptation to close oneself off from those who are different, or from all others no matter who they are, is forever growing, a world where building walls, whether material or mental, becomes a convenient and attractive solution, where personal or group individualism is in danger of becoming the rule, Anaphora Monastery reminds us that there are still people who are committed to building bridges and creating opportunities for encounter and dialogue; there are still people capable of seeing others as brothers and sisters despite their differences. Anaphora Monastery testifies to our ability to walk together in diversity. The dream of regenerated, reconciled humanity can only be built up by starting with the short steps we are capable of, in mutual acceptance and fraternity.

Giovanni Antonello

The Buffalo and the Bees.

It was while grazing one night under the watchful eye of the king of the night and his tribe of stars, that the leader of a herd of very strong buffaloes decided to move to a place where there was better grazing.

They journeyed for many days and arrived at a place where life was good. Deer had made the forest their resting place, hares found plenty of food in the fields of Man and Tortoise sunned himself on the banks of the river. The only dangers in that area were snakes that lived in the bush and lions whose roars made all the animals tremble.

But when the buffaloes arrived, they brought disaster with them. The powerful dark brown beasts that were the colour of bark, trampled the crops and destroyed them.
Small animals were crushed under their heavy feet without the buffaloes even noticing them. And if it were not for their hard protective shells, even Tortoise and his family would have been destroyed. So, the animals called a meeting to discuss what could be done.

Tortoise spoke out first, “I think that we should approach the head of the buffalo herd and complain about all the destruction caused by his family. Then we need to ask them to inflict less damage to the land.” The animals agreed with Tortoise and decided to go in search of the cunning head of the herd, whom they found asleep.

“He will be very angry if we wake him – said Deer-. Buffaloes are known to be very dangerous, especially when confronted.”
“So, what – said Lion assertively in a loud voice -. We haven’t come all this way for nothing!” But their strong voices disturbed Buffalo and he shouted out angrily, “Why did you wake me?” “Sorry – said Lion -, but we have travelled far to see you.”

“And what do you want?” asked Buffalo, grabbing a tuft of grass. “We have come to ask you to be more considerate – pleaded Tortoise, keeping his distance -. “You have caused great damage, although I’m sure that was never your intention.”

Buffalo scowled at Tortoise and shook his back in anticipation of the relief he would get from the ticks on the oxpecker bird, which had just arrived. Cautiously, Tortoise continued, “In your stampede you have crushed birds and small creatures. Even members of my family were trampled and only survived because of their tough shells.”

Boldly Tortoise continued to speak while the buffalo leader grazed the lush grass. “You have also destroyed Man’s crops and I warn you that if he starts hunting your flesh, everyone could become victims. Please keep away from the crops and allow my family and the turtles to use a section of the riverbank.”  “And, please, be careful where you tread,”
pleaded Hare.

By now Buffalo was furious. “We are doing what we have always done. This is how we live and as rulers of the bush we are entitled to do as we please. So, take care of yourselves and we shall take care of ourselves; and if Man intervenes, he’ll regret it.”

Anger grew in Lion and he responded to Buffalo’s arrogance by crying out in a loud voice. “You think that you are king of the bush, but it is widely known that we lions rule the bush. Let us fight to see who is the king. ““Stop!” pleaded Tortoise, retracting his head.

But a fight broke out between Lion and Buffalo and the animals formed a circle around them. Lion, who was past his prime, hadn’t fought for a long time and all the animals feared that he would lose the duel. Buffalo fought fearlessly. Although he had been injured by Lion, the ruler of the buffaloes pinned his opponent to the ground, broke his back and caused Lion to take his last breath.

The animals were distraught and Python seethed with anger. He believed that he was stronger than Lion and that had he fought Buffalo, he would have been successful. “The matter is settled,” said Buffalo, staggering a little – I am ruler of this region. Does anyone dare to disagree with that?”

“I do, “said Python, surging towards the powerful beast to fight him. But when he realized that he was losing the fight due to injuries, he withdrew. “This shows us that we shall have to rely on brains rather than brute force,” observed Tortoise.

“Listen – said Hare -. I went to Man’s fields this morning and overheard him say that he wanted to get rid of the buffalo herd.” “Then we can enlist Man’s help – said Tortoise, showing pleasure – I need a monkey and a queen bee.” Then he sent to find them.

On their arrival Tortoise said “Please. Queen Bee, could you provide us with a hive so that we can eradicate the buffalo ruler who has caused so much damage here?”

The Queen Bee was reluctant; however, it was agreed that Monkey would fetch the hive. Tortoise then asked Hare to summon the wild pigs who were digging in the distance. “Please dig a hole for us under that large spreading tree over there” asked Tortoise, politely.
“What is our reward? – asked shrewd Pig -. “Getting rid of the buffalo herd! “answered the Tortoise.

“Alright then,” said Pig, digging an enormous hole that was well covered and concealed with branches and leaves by the monkeys. “This is a great trap,” said Monkey, who loved to deceive other animals. Tortoise instructed the monkeys to get the beehive and place it next to the trap. Then Tortoise asked Monkey to go and find Buffalo who was eventually found wallowing in the muddy waters of the river.

Meanwhile Monkey sat on the bank of the river, his charcoal fur lit by the last rays of the sun and cried out loud while smearing mud all over his body. “What is wrong with you, Monkey? –  asked Buffalo, puzzled -.  You look agitated. “ I stole some honey this morning and knocked over the hive. The bees then turned on me and stung me! Ooh! I’m in such pain. My body aches,” said the Monkey.

Buffalo listened attentively.  “There is such a wonderful supply of honey… but I am too sick to eat it… what a shame…” continued the Monkey. “Where is it? – asked Buffalo -.“Under that large tree,” said the Monkey. Buffalo left Monkey rolling in the mud and went in the direction of the honey. Monkey was not the only one watching him; Tortoise and Hare followed Buffalo with their eyes as he approached the hive. Then suddenly they heard a loud yell as Buffalo fell through the leaves into the deep, dark pit. “We’ve captured him at last,” said Hare.

“But there’s more to do – said Tortoise -. Hare, you go to the village and activate the dogs.” When they saw Hare run by, the dogs barked excitedly and chased Hare all the way back to the large hole under the tree. And when they heard their dogs yelping, the men of the village ran after them to investigate what had happened.

“It’s that Buffalo who has destroyed all our crops – said one of the men -. Let’s kill him and have a feast.” And so, all the animals joined in the feast that continued throughout the night and the next day and when the rest of the herd discovered that they had lost their leader, the buffaloes moved on to new grazing. Tortoise, Hare and Monkey were delighted.

Folktale from West Africa

Africa. The Rural Market.

In the world of rural Africa, the market is not just a place for buying and selling or commercial exchange.

All over the continent, the market is a place characterised by an intense celebration of social exchange and becomes a place of encounter between the scattered members of one’s family, one’s own village and of various villages. Market day is not only a day of rest but also a holiday. Friends meet and fiancées plan their meetings while business goes on.

“The market is nobody’s home”, says the Mawri (Niger) proverb. It is everybody’s home. It is a public space with no limiting barriers or confines and is open to all.  It is a neutral arena par excellence.
The neutrality of the market comes from the need every community has to communicate and have exchanges with the outside world, on a sort of ‘no man’s land’ on the border of all territories controlled by a community. Its absolutely neutral character emerges clearly in the ancient prohibition, in force in most of West Africa, against bearing arms within the designated space. Nevertheless, almost all markets have a place where beer made from millet or sorghum and other alcoholic beverages are sold but the place is always located on the edge of the area in case drunks might start a fight and disturb the correct running of the market, a place of peace, chatting and neutrality.

The market and the sacred
“The market belongs to the people but it is also owned by the spirits. If you make them an offering, you calm their hearts and so they stop and urge the men to come with their loads. It is they who attract the people — a lot of people”. These words of an elderly woman in Karo (Nigeria) show the ties between the market and the sacred, an element that characterises the markets of West Africa and sometimes becomes a determining factor in the choice of location of the marketplace.

The marketplaces were chosen by an ancestor or a local wise person. Still today, it is possible to find an altar where the elders go to offer sacrifices so that the market will be well animated. Sometimes, the markets play a neutral role where disputes among groups are resolved, and the magic connected to them is often invoked to resolve disputes of a political nature.
On market day, what prevails is not so much the circulation of goods as that of people. We may say that the words are the goods that circulate most in the market.
In almost all the traditional African societies, the markets of a given area, each being held in the aftermath of the other, form a cycle that represents the local ‘week’. The system for calculating the brief period of time is rather widespread in West Africa. Among the Tiv in Nigeria, for example, markets are held every five days and provide a reference for short periods of time. If one travels in the country and leaves the area of one market to enter another, the name of the day changes. In the same way, among the Dagomba in Ghana, the cycle of six days is much more important than the lunar cycle.

The Dagomba today have adopted a week of seven days, of Islamic origin, but among all the Dagomba and in Konkombaland, the old ‘week’ of six days is followed in the market cycle. Each day of this week, a market is held somewhere nearby. The days of the week are often called by the name of the market. The cycle norm of rural African markets, adopted as a base for calculating time, goes back to ancient times. In the course of their colonisation of Africa, the Romans found what they called nundinae (from novem dies, since the cycle of markets in ancient Rome was based on a week of eight days and so the same market was repeated on the ninth day), which, however, followed a period of four days. Here we find a way of calculating time that is different from that based upon ecological cycles, seasons, rains, or the moon. This demonstrates that it is not true that the calculation of time in Africa is based only on natural events: it is also based, as in this case, on concrete facts that refer to social phenomena such as on markets, the point in question. Market-time is a world within which men contract obligations towards one another and it is therefore much more perceptible with respect to structural time connected to rites of passage, or ecological time based on the seasons.

Managing space
Even the space within the market and the arrangement of the stalls often reflects characteristic elements. In the smaller markets, the centre is occupied by the women of the community where the market is located – a sort of reserved place – while those who come from outside take their places around the central nucleus, often according to the villages from where they come.

In some markets, there is an authority who declares the market open. This is to protect those merchants coming from more distant villages, sometimes many miles away, and to prevent the local women sellers from starting their selling early and getting most of the business.
In larger markets, the arrangement follows the type of merchandise. We can find sections for fabrics, victuals and a food section which may be subdivided according to the sort of food being sold. Despite this commercial division, closeness brings about friendships and alliances among the women sellers. We may also find in these markets a section reserved for foreigners. In Benin, Togo, Burkina Faso and Ghana, for example, Yoruba and Hausa have their own section, sell foreign products, and are tolerated but are also considered marginal. In many western African cities, we find quarters called wangara which indicate the presence, past or present, of Jolas.

Positions in the market, like the items for sale, reflect positions and hierarchies within local society. There are some goods, such as those acquired by commerce over long distances (agricultural tools, utensils, and the like), that are the privilege of men sellers, while foodstuffs fall within the female competence. There are also some goods that cannot be sold but only exchanged. Other items such as cattle are never placed in the market but follow a different commercial route.
New ways of reasoning have been imposed by the appearance of a growing number of ‘western’ goods which have penetrated the remotest looms of the African commercial fabric, reaching every village.

Marco Aime

 

Social reform starts at the grassroots.

Big rivers emerge from small springs. They spring forth in remote hills. Big ideas to change the world are also born on the edge.
Great movements to transform societies do not start
from the centre: they start in small places and incubate
in some unknown sections of society.

Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in a bus. That led to a bus boycott, which inspired a small-town priest, Martin Luther King, and thousands of others at the grassroots level, eventually becoming a great movement to end racial injustice in America.

Parks and King did not come from the White House. They came from the fringe. Yet the racial justice movement finally shook the centre of government and mainstream society, and now images of Parks and King adorn the White House.

Whether it be Emmeline Pankhurst, Mahatma Gandhi, Rachel Carson, Nelson Mandela, Greta Thunberg or Malala Yousafzai, all social reformers start their journey of transformation from the fringes. Then their ideals and values, their science and innovation gain popularity and there is greater awareness at the grassroots level.

Once the new vision and values obtain large support among people, governments start to listen. They see not only the merit in these ideals and values, but also the votes in them, and therefore they embrace these ideals. Thus, pragmatism meets with idealism, and a legislative framework is put in place to satisfy popular demand.

Once governments come on board, industry and commerce see new business opportunities and benefits of change, and they begin to invest in products and services that meet the expectations of governments and gain the support of ordinary citizens.

Thus ecological, social or political transformation is a combination of the vision of radical idealists anti activists, the legal framework
provided by a pragmatic government, and implementation by the
business community.

Take the example of renewable energy to replace fossil fuels, which cause climate catastrophe. In 1973, the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) was established in the remote hills of Wales. At that time, not one wind turbine or solar panel was producing renewable energy anywhere in the UK.
The founders, who began to experiment with wind power and solar power, were considered either crazy or impractical idealists.

No one in government or in the business world or, least of all, in the oil industry believed that one day wind and solar power would be a real resource to meet the nation’s energy needs. But gradually hundreds of thousands of people began to visit CAT. It became a destination for eco-tourism and even for eco-pilgrimage.

A strong grassroots movement began to emerge in support of renewable power. Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and scores of other environmental NGOs endorsed the project of CAT. They promoted and strengthened the people’s movement for renewable energy. Only then came government subsidies, and finally businesses started to invest in companies like Solar Century, Good Energy and Ecotricity.

Even big mainstream electricity suppliers started to embrace the change. Gradually millions of solar panels and wind turbines spread across the UK. It became an energy revolution! By 2020, more than a quarter of energy consumed in the UK was supplied from wind
and solar sources.

The development and spread of renewable energy within the last four decades show that in order to bring a successful social transformation idealistic NGOs, pragmatic governments and realistic businesses need to collaborate and work together. While doing so, NGOs need to stay ahead and maintain their radicalism and remind politicians and entrepreneurs that ethical, ecological and social values must always be the guiding principles behind their actions. Political or commercial considerations should always remain subservient to the ideal of planetary wellbeing.

The planet is in the process of continuous evolution – physical evolution as well as an evolution in consciousness. There will always be a need for a new Gandhi, a new Greta, a new Mandela and a new Malala as a part of the evolutionary process. At first, they will be ridiculed and dismissed or even persecuted, and eventually they will be accepted and followed. Even if their radicalism will sometimes be forgotten, their subtle influence will endure.

Activists and idealists often ask how they can persuade politicians and inspire entrepreneurs to accept ethical and ecological values.
The answer is to act out of the courage of conviction and with great patience and deep commitment but without any expectation of an immediate outcome.

With this consciousness we need to do three things:

First and foremost, be the change that you wish to see in the world. Words and thoughts gain power only from practice. One example is stronger than a thousand words. As a radiator radiates warmth, we have to radiate change. The pioneers of CAT set a shining example that attracted attention from all corners of the country. This is the first step: be the change.

The second step is to communicate the change. All great idealists and activists have also been great communicators. There are many ways to communicate. Pablo Picasso communicated his ideals of peace through painting. His heart-wrenching image of Guernica touched and moved millions of people around the world.  Rachel Carson communicated by writing a marvellous book, Silent Spring, which laid the foundation for the environmental movement. Monty Don communicates by being an exemplary gardener. Martin Luther King communicated through his rousing speech ‘I have a dream’. All of us, the activists, need to develop skills of communication to bring about change in the world.

And the third step is to organise the change. Start an organisation to present and promote your vision and ideals. Eve Balfour started the Soil Association. Gaylord Nelson started Earth Day. Jane Goodall started Roots & Shoots. Dorothy Stowe started Greenpeace.

Similarly, Friends of the Earth, the Green Party and thousands of other organisations were started by radical dreamers who wanted to change the world, and they have. We can start an organisation or we can join an organisation. Join Extinction Rebellion, join Fridays For Future or any other organisation that speaks to your heart.

These, then, are the three steps: Be the Change, Communicate the Change and Organise the Change. Then we will be able to inspire governments and businesses to join the change!

Satish Kumar/Resurgence

 

 

 

 

Gulf of Guinea: the new hotspot of the US-China rivalry.

In the context of the US military presence in Taiwan and US Navy incursions in the China Sea, Beijing’ s plans to set up a naval base in Equatorial Guinea is rising tensions between both superpowers.
A Chinese base on the Atlantic might also increase NATO’s involvement in Africa.

On the last 5 December, the Wall Street Journal raised the alarm about Beijing’s plans to establish a permanent naval base in Equatorial Guinea. The paper mentioned classified U.S. military intelligence reports which warned that in such scenario Chinese warships would be able to rearm and refit opposite the East Coast of United States
Accordingly, the Chinese are planning to use the port of Bata, on the country’s mainland coastline which could handle any vessel of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). The Chinese military are capitalizing on the funding by the Export-Import Bank of China of the construction of this port by the state-owned China Communications Construction Company’s  First Harbor Engineering Company which was completed in 2019.


China has reconstructed and extended a deep water commercial port in Bata, Equatorial Guinea. Photo: Weibo

For the White House, such plans raise national-security concerns, which prompted Principal deputy U.S. national security adviser Jon Finer to visit Equatorial Guinea last October to persuade President Teodoro Obiang Nguema to resist to China’s lobbying efforts.
These American concerns in a context of rising tensions between Washington and Beijing. are not new: in April 2021, the U.S. Africa Command (Africom) boss, General Stephen Townsend told the U.S. Senate that the “most significant threat” from China would be “a militarily useful naval facility on the Atlantic coast of Africa”.
In a report to Congress in 2021, the Pentagon said that China has “likely considered” African bases in Kenya, Seychelles, Tanzania and Angola. In 2017, China established its first overseas naval military base in Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa, which can accommodate aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines, beside the military installations from the U.S., France, Spain, Italy, Japan and Saudi Arabia.
The pretext for such installation was plan’s contribution to fight piracy and protect global trade This same pretext is now used again by China to expand its military influence in the Atlantic. American diplomats have already advised Mauritanian authorities to rebuff Beijing’s efforts to use the N’Diago Chinese-built port, for military purposes, after it was inaugurated by President Mohamed Abdelaziz in December 2016.

Nigeria is also on the list of potential targets as showed China’s attempts to consolidate bilateral military links such as the participation in 2018 of its guided-missile frigate Yancheng to Lagos, for the multinational naval exercise Eku Kugbe in the Gulf of Guinea, sponsored by the Economic Community of Central African States and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). One of the reasons for China’s participation to this exercise which also involved ships from Cameroon, Ghana, Togo, France and Portugal and China, is the importance of Beijing’s economic interests in Nigeria. State-owned companies such as PetroChina, Sinopec and China National Offshore Oil Company, have all investments in Nigeria’s oil sector.
China has also increased its military presence along the Atlantic coasts of Africa, in Morocco where it inaugurated last December its first military base near the town of Sidi Yahia el Gharb with a long-range air defence system developed by China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation.
Yet, having plans is one thing, materialising them is another. A case in point is Angola where the government’s mouthpiece, the Jornal de Angola, in an article published on the 27 December 2021, stated that this country won’t be part of Chinese plans, since its constitution does not allow the installation of foreign military bases on its territory. In the past, the Luanda authorities turned down a similar American request for setting up a military base, accordingly.

President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.

However, China is not giving up. It has continued to improve its military cooperation with Angola. On the 20 July 2021, the national director of the Defence Policy, Barbosa Epalanga, told the press that several cooperation instruments already existed between both countries, including an agreement between the respective defence ministries and another concerning the supply of non-lethal military equipment. According to Bloomberg, the first negotiations on the installation of a Chinese military base in Angola started in December 2014. Such base, according to the Namibian Times, was part of a plan consisting in setting up 18 bases across Africa and the Middle East. Beside Angola and Namibia, Cape Verde was also approached by China.
The U.S. who wants to block these attempts, are faced with some problems, especially regarding Equatorial Guinean case. While Beijing insists that it does not to interfere in African partners’ domestic politics, the U.S. State Department has accused the Obiang regime of extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances and torture.
In addition, the U.S. Justice Department pursued the allegedly ill-gotten gains of the President’s son and Vice-President Teodoro “Teodorin” Nguema Obiang Mangue who accused of amassing a fortune of over $300 million “through corruption and money laundering”. Such accusations prompted the Equatorial Guinean Foreign Ministry to condemn the U.S. announcement as a “misrepresentation” of the facts.
On top of that, even if American oil companies conducted most of Equatorial Guinea’s oil exploration and production, China is indisputably the country’s first economic partner. In 2006, the China Eximbank extended a $2 billion oil-backed credit facility to Equatorial Guinea in order to finance the development of the deep-sea port in Bata.
In 2015, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China signed another $2 billion deal to support infrastructure projects and local activities of Chinese businesses. On that year also, Huawei Marine Networks was awarded a contract by the Malabo government to connect its submarine cable system into a network that reached Europe. Altogether, Equatorial Guinea’s debt to China has created a high degree of dependence: by 2021, it amounted indeed to half of the national GDP.

Teodorin Obiang, the son of Equatorial Guinea’s president.

Simultaneously, Teodorín has been trying to defuse tensions with Washington.  Just after the publication of the WSJ story he denied that any deal concerning the establishment of a Chinese naval base in Equatorial Guinea had ever been sealed. However, a week later, President Obiang Nguema spoke by phone with President Xi Jinping, after which Beijing released a statement highlighting that “Equatorial Guinea has always regarded China as its most important strategic partner.” Teodorín himself took care in another twit to keep the door open for such deal, reminding that Equatorial Guinea as a sovereign state can seal any deal it wants with any friendly country.
The main reason for China’s great determination to set up a base or more on the Atlantic Coast of Africa is that Africa has become the largest regional component of China’s $1 trillion Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to reconfigure the architecture of global trade, with the participation
of 46 African states.
The global management consulting firm Mc Kinsey calculated that approximately 10,000 Chinese enterprises in Africa, generated up to $180 billion of annual revenues in 2017 and projected that the figure might rise to $250 billion by 2025. The importance of such interests has therefore led Beijing to integrate military and security components into its partnerships with African states.
In 2015, at the UN General Assembly, President Xi Jinping pledged $100m in military assistance to African Union’s African Standby Force and to the African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crises.
The Forum on China Africa Cooperation’s (FOCAC) Action Plan 2022-2024 called for the strengthening of “the implementation of the China-Africa peace and security plan” which aims at supporting “the building of the African Peace and Security Architecture”. Such support is part of the “Guānxì strategy”, described by Paul Nantulya, a Ugandan research associate at the Washington-based Africa Centre for Strategic Studies as “a system of beliefs in Chinese culture that shapes how reciprocity is built through personal ties and mutual obligations”. This strategy has incited China to align its Belt and Road Initiative with the African Union’s Program for Infrastructure Development.

The joint interests have grown to such an extent that between 2008 and 2016, China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has been allowed to make 22 naval port calls and 13 military exercises on the continent. The aim is to build a military presence in line with the strategy presented by the commander of the Lianoing aircraft carrier, captain Liu Zhe, in an essay published in 2017 which in summary says: “The further we are from our territorial sea, the safest will be our motherland”.
Beyond the protection of its interests, China’s eagerness to get a base on Africa’s Atlantic coast, is a response to the U.S. military presence in and around Taiwan and in the China Sea. Beijing’s African ambitions might cause a crisis similar to that of the missiles in Cuba of the 1960s, wrote Faustino Henrique in the Jornal de Angola on the 25 December 2021.
These moves shows that Africa has become a central issue of the world geopolitics. China’s appetite for the Gulf of Guinea is turning the continent into a major centre of interest for the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) which is not entirely new. Already, in 2006, for the first time, NATO had organised a naval operation called “Steadfast Jaguar” in Cape Verde, which involved 7,800 troops backed with fighter planes and warships, in order to test a new response force, to combat terrorism in the area. (Open photo: The People’s Liberation Army Navy aircraft carrier CNS Liaoning and its battle group.Xinhua)

François Misser

Catholic Radio Stations in Africa. Educating, Informing, Transforming.

There are more than two hundred radio, from Angola to Zambia reaching millions of people. They promote peace, human rights, education, health, and development. They endeavour to heal the wounds of traumas.
They are the voice of the voiceless, though sometimes silenced. Three stories of resilience and success: Radio Sol Mansi, in Guinea-Bissau; Catholic Radio Network (CRN) of South Sudan and the Nuba Mountains; Radio Ditunga in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Radio Sol Mansi has just celebrated its first twenty years as the most listened-to radio in Guinea Bissau. The Radio station was set up in February 2001 in a particularly difficult time for the country as it recovered from a bloody civil war.
From its beginnings, the Radio has been outstanding for its commitment to peace, reconciliation, and development.
“Sol Mansi means ‘dawn’ – the dawn of a new day, new history, new life, a new horizon”, explains Radio director Casimiro Cajucam.

Radio Sol Mansi was set up in February 2001.

Radio Sol Mansi began transmitting at Mansoa, sixty kilometres north of Bissau, the capital, using a small 250-watt limited capacity transmitter, but previously, in 2008, Radio Sol Mansi had been the National Radio of the Catholic Church.
A score of years after its founding, Radio Sol Mansi “is now one of the reference stations, not only in terms of listeners but also for its credibility”, especially because “it has always built bridges of dialogue between different religions and ethnic groups”, Cajucam affirms.
In August 2009, Radio Sol Mansi signed “a historic accord of collaboration” with Radio Coranica de Mansoa.
“Perhaps the first in the world to do so, the Catholic station broadcasts an Islamic programme and the Islamic station broadcasts a Catholic programme”, the director emphasises.
The Radio Sol Mansi programmes (one with most listeners is ‘Ten Minutes with God’) present all sorts of subjects, even the most sensitive, such as the genital mutilation of women, a practice only forbidden by law in 2001, under-age and forced marriages, something still very common in Guinean society, especially in internal areas. The programmes also touch upon such themes as the rule of law, democracy, justice and gender equality, corruption, professional ethics, and the social doctrine of the Church. “Our programmes are in line with the situation and needs of the country”, the director states.

“Sol Mansi means ‘dawn’. At present, the studios of Radio Sol Mansi employ 22 men and 11 women.

At the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, Radio Sol Mansi “assumed a very important role – the director adds. With the churches closed, the Holy Mass, prayers and catechesis in two dioceses were provided via radio. Socially, we are continuing to work in the front line in awareness and prevention of the coronavirus”.
The director makes no secret of the pressure exercised, especially by politicians. He says: “Pressure comes mostly from the political class and the government elite whose strategy it is, on the one hand, to create fear among the journalists and, on the other, to keep them under observation. We had to keep silent only during the coup by the military on 12 April 2012. In effect, all the radio stations were shut down by the military coup organisers for 48 hours”.
At present, the studios of Radio Sol Mansi employ 22 men and 11 women. The station also has a network of 50 correspondents all over the country, “who enable it to be the voice of those excluded from the circle of communication”. Half of all news is broadcast in Portuguese and half in Creole (the language spoken by more than 90% of the population). Radio Sol Mansi also has a team of “child journalists who go out and conduct interviews and commentaries” intended for the young.

Radio Network
The Catholic Radio Network of South Sudan and the Nuba Mountains (CRN) is a network of nine community radios (Bakhita Radio, Juba; Radio Voice of Peace, El Obeid; Radio Emmanuel, Torit; Radio Saut al Mahaba – Radio Voice of Love, Malakal; Good News Radio, Rumbek; Radio Easter FM – The Voice of Truth and Love, Yei; Radio Anisa – The Voice of Truth and Peace, Yambio; Voice of Hope, Wau; Radio Dom Bosco, Tonj), that reach more than seven million people.

“The original idea was to have a medium-wave station broadcasting from Kenya since, at that time, Sudan would not grant us a licence”, explains Father José Vieira, one of the founders of Radio Bakhita. “It was only in 2005, after the peace accord, that we managed to make progress but we abandoned the idea of the medium wave due to the intense heat during the day. We had to broadcast in the mornings and in the evenings so we decided to create a radio network in each of the dioceses of the South and in the Nuba Mountains, an area occupied by the SPLM-N rebels”, (North Sudan Liberation Movement). After a feasibility study carried out in 2005, training was begun for young people, many of whom had been in the refugee camps in Uganda and Kenya.

Radio Bakhita is based in the capital Juba with its ‘multilingual journalists’.

At first, Radio Bakhita consisted of just “two containers, one parallel to the other and joined by a wall. The one on the right housed the broadcasting studio and the one on the left the editorial office; between the containers there were some desks used in making programmes”, Fr. Vieira explains. “It really was a rudimentary structure”.
Afterwards, soundproof studios were built in cement. “We went on the air on Christmas Eve 2006, experimentally, but the first proper official broadcast was not made until the day dedicated to the first Sudanese Saint, 8 February 2008, Saint [Josephine] Bakhita’s Day”. The woman who was once a slave was canonised by Pope John Paul II in 2000.Today, the entire network of nine stations, each with ten to fifteen journalists, is the property of the Episcopal Conference of South Sudan.One of the great qualities of the network consists in having been able to utilise synergy. “We organised news programmes covering the whole of the country at practically no cost, since each one shared whatever they had”.

Another policy that gained the support of the public was to broadcast in different languages. The ten million inhabitants of South Sudan belong to 64 ethnic groups (the largest of which is that of the Dinka, followed by the Nuer, Shilluk, Azande, Bari, Kakwa, Murle, Mandari and others) and they speak more than sixty languages. Radio Bakhita, for example, based in the capital Juba with its ‘multilingual journalists’, broadcasts in English, Simplified Arabic, Bari, and Dinka; the other community stations broadcast in Tira, Otoro, Lera, Muru, Otuho, Madi, Acholi, Didinga, Topasa, Shiluk, Nuer, Balanda, and Zande.

Radio Yei. Women Programs.

Speaking of The Catholic Radio Network of South Sudan and the Nuba Mountains (CRN), the general director of the Network Mary Ajith notes, “It is founded upon four pillars: evangelization, information, education and entertainment”. “We continue to open the broadcasts with the Rosary and Morning Prayer followed by news and various other programmes. The programmes with most listeners are Holy Mass and those concerned with peace-making. In uncertain times, people want to know if their villages, many of which are very remote, are safe and sound and the radio is often their only means of communication”.
“Censure and insecurity are our greatest challenges but we do not spare ourselves”, insists Bogere Charles Mark Kanyama, 35, director of Radio Bakhita, a station that has more than a million listeners and has a range of 300 km. “In 2015, our station was shut down simply because one of our journalists had spoken with Riek Machar, the then leader of the opposition”. “The popularity of Radio Bakhita is due to the fact that it is the only radio station that is concerned with social and political questions”, says the director. “Today, censorship prevents many journalists from operating freely. As a Church institution, we cannot refrain from creating forums where people can freely express themselves”.

Radio Ditunga
In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a country ravaged by years of armed conflict, food insecurity and various epidemics – cholera, measles, Ebola and now Covid-19 – a radio station in the province of Eastern Kasai seeks to bring ‘holistic comfort’ to its listeners as described by its founder and director Father Apollinaire Cibaka Cikongo.
“Ditunga Project [PRODI] is a non-profit association founded in 2006. The homonymous station began broadcasting on 17 July 2010. It is on air, without a break, from 5:50 to 23:00, in Chiluba (80%), one of the four national languages of the DRC, and the most widely spoken in Eastern Kasai, and in French (20%).
Thanks to “the altitude – 805 metres – and powerful transmitters”, Radio Ditunga, with its sixteen journalists both local and national, may be listened to within a range of 350 km.

Radio Ditunga began broadcasting on 17 July 2010. It is on air, without a break, from 5:50 to 23:00.

Father Cikongo estimates that the area has about 5 million inhabitants. Over a period of eleven years, the station “reinvented itself in fidelity to its ecclesial and community identity. We have succeeded in creating a series of programmes that correspond to the expectations of the complex and heterogeneous public”.
No subject is taboo, says Father Padre Apollinaire Cikongo, who leads a Sunday programme in French and Chiluba in which he tackles “all the social and actuality questions”.
The important role of the Cikongo radio station became evident during the Covid-19 pandemic, especially in 2020, with all the social distancing measures. For three months, it was the primary and secondary school for many students, a school of health and hygiene but most of all a connecting link between communities and the chapel for Catholics and non-Catholics alike”. “It is not easy to work freely” in the DRC, states Father Apollinaire Cibaka Cikongo.
“In the past, it was common for us to be interrogated by the local and provincial authorities and the security services. There was, at its worst, danger during election campaigns with the threat of closure or death directed against one or other of the journalists. We are thankful to God that they were nothing more than threats and intimidation”.
The Radio is part of a great project that includes agricultural cooperatives, schools, and health centres. Father Apollinaire Cibaka Cikongo concludes: “Ours is a dream in which no human being is illiterate or at the mercy of destruction caused by ignorance, superstition or manipulation; a dream in which all human beings, fully responsible for the political destiny of their villages, enjoy their rights and duties”.

Margarida Santos Lopes

 

 

Urban Markets.

Approaching the market of any African city, the visitor is immediately involved. The eyes are struck by the gaudy colours of thousands of objects, clothes, fruit of all kinds piled up everywhere, the continual sounds of people speaking or shouting, pleasant and obnoxious odours all mixed together, people bumping into each other, brushing by or shoving one another to gain some room.  

One has the impression of being in the middle of a river in flood with nothing to hold onto or any way out but to let oneself be transported by an invisible current. Unlike the rural areas and villages where the rhythm of social life is measured by weekly markets, in the cities, every day is market day.  The beating heart of every city, large or small, is in the area set aside for trade but whether it consists of a network of permanently crowded streets or anonymous sheds built of cement and iron sheets, the urban markets in Africa almost never have well-defined borders. Also, around the ‘official’ area, a crowd of small traders with a few objects set out on the ground or precariously balanced on their heads, occupy the roads and pavements, ready to move quickly wherever the opportunity for new business is to be found. Any free space may be useful for setting up temporary stalls or coloured umbrellas from the forecourts of the fuel distributors to incomplete building sites.

The street market of Bulawayo in Zimbabwe. ©hecke/123RF.COM

The organisation of the urban market follows a strict sub-division according to the type of goods: foodstuffs, spices, utensils, animals, second-hand clothes, fabrics and much more to the extent that, in some places, one seems to be going back in time to pre-industrial days with trussed chickens or heaps of loose grain. Then, just around the corner, one comes upon places covered in LED lights with deafening stereo loudspeakers blaring out music at top volume.
Globalisation has flooded the African markets with new products replacing the local products with shabby consumer goods. To the forefront are the goods ‘made in China’, which have completely flooded the African markets.
The largest urban market on the African continent is called, it goes without saying, Merkato: an entire area of Addis Ababa has kept the name assigned to it in colonial times and was a large dusty spot where animals were bought and sold. Some say it covers more than a hundred hectares while others say it covers twice that, something like three hundred football fields crowded with people and goods: impressive dimensions that once again evidence how much these places represent the true essence of the African cities.

The spontaneity, frivolity and ingenuity of informality that characterise the cities of Sub-Saharan Africa reach their highest levels in these ephemeral spaces which, in the space of a few hours, can fill up with tens of thousands of people and move tons of goods using an invisible and undecipherable system of organisation.
Just as they quickly come to life, these places depopulate with equal rapidity when evening falls. Night comes quickly and it may be a long way home. The market quickly becomes a shadow of itself: the deafening sounds are muted, the bright colours of the vegetables and trinkets give way to the grey skeletons of the empty stalls with just the odd vendor staying on late in the hope of some final deal while a carpet of rubbish covers the streets. A few people come poking around in the hope of finding something to eat.
The truce lasts but a few hours. Already at crack of dawn, the deserted streets begin to come to life and fill with the voices and colours of a new, frenetic day.

Shopping Centres
The rapid increase of the middle class that has tripled over the past thirty years, according to the African Development Bank, has created a larger volume of consumer commerce and the consequent necessity to build proper places to accommodate the new consumers. And so, thanks to investments by private persons of investment groups, in all the main African cities new shopping centres are multiplying.

Among the first of these for their size and influence, we may indicate the Arabia Mall in Cairo, Egypt. Classified as the largest business centre in Africa, it occupies a total of 267,000 square metres. It belongs to a Saudi organisation called Fawaz Al Hokair and has parking space for 9,000 cars. Located in Piazza Juhayna, it has 12 entrances. South Africa hosts several shopping centres. Canal Walk shopping centre is located in Cape Town. It covers 141,000 square metres and has more than 400 outlets with a vast selection of household goods, luxury goods and jewellery. Again, in South Africa, covering an area of 131,000 square metres and with room for 6,500 cars, the Mall of Africa is to be found in the cities of Waterfall, Midrand, and Gauteng.
It is valued as the largest monophasic commercial centre in Africa and is owned by the Atterbury Property group.

Young girl shopping in a supermarket. 123RF.COM

Situated in Nairobi, Kenya, the Two Rivers commercial centre takes its name from the two rivers that cross it. It covers 65,000 square metres of 1,700,000 square metres of land that has modern residential houses, world-class hotels, and an amphitheatre with 3,600 seats. The commercial centre, just 29 kilometres from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, opened its doors in February 2017. It is the largest business centre in central and eastern Africa.
The West Hills Mall, located about 30 minutes outside of the Accra CBD in Ghana, is one of the largest malls in West Africa. West Hills Mall covers over 93,000 square metres.  The mall also has a large entertainment and recreational gallery that can host open-air concerts and theatre shows. The West Hills Mall was opened in 2014.
The Morocco Mall business centre, instead, covers 70,000 square metres and is the supreme destination for shopping and entertainment. Located in Casablanca and counted among the five best centres in its category, the ambitious project implemented by the AKSAL and the Al Jedaie groups has become a monument of pride for Moroccan youth who see it as a symbol of the rebirth and innovation of the country. (Open photo: Outdoor goods stalls at Kaneshi market in Accra, Ghana. ©waldorf27/123RF.COM)

Federico Monica – Francis Olowu

 

 

Central African Republic. Working together for peace and stability.

Christians and Muslims work together to prevent Islamic radicalism from taking hold in the country. We met some religious leaders.

Abdoulaye Ouasselegue, currently Imam of the Petevo mosque in Bangui, quoted the prophet Muhammad during a Friday prayer sermon and exhorted his faithful to keep their teeth clean. I had heard that Muslims revere the tooth relic of the prophet, but I never would have imagined that the Qur’an would recommend dental cleaning, nor that many spiritual considerations surrounding this topic could arise.
In another corner of the central African capital, in the central mosque of Kilometre Five, the well-known PK5, inhabited mostly by Muslims, I listened to another Imam, Modibo Beshir who exhorted to patience. He addressed himself, above all, to young people and, in order to support his words, he quoted Surah 123: “My God, I implore your mercy. Do not abandon me. I know that you can change my situation in the blink of an eye”. Before the hypothesis that the Islamic radicalism might take root in CAR, it is reasonable to rule out that a Muslim faithful may become a violent jihadist militant by listening to sermons about the importance of cleanliness, as it is considered to be a part of faith,
and about patience.

A few days later after listening to his sermon, I met Imam Modibo Beshir at his house. Former minister and historian, in his early 70s, he is considered a ulama – an expert in Islamic religious sciences. He tells me he is very concerned about the situation of young people in the country, who feel angry and frustrated: “Many of them spend months, years, looking for a job, but in vain, they are poor and cannot finish their studies or get married. But true Muslims have to control themselves and have faith in God. He will reward them”.
Both Ouasselegue and Beshir reject Saudi Wahhabism. And both say that it has had dire consequences in other African countries like Nigeria or Mali, where radicalism has taken root. “The Islam we practice in Central African Republic is not aggressive like that which is practiced in other parts of the continent”, Ouasselegue explains.

Imam Ouasselegue represents Central African Muslims in the ‘Interfaith Platform for Peace’ since the death, in December 2020, of Imam Kobine Layama, who since the beginning of the crisis in 2012 had worked alongside Cardinal Dieudonné Nzapalainga.
In the context of the dramatic civil war in the Central African Republic that broke out in 2012, Imam Kobine and Cardinal Dieudonné Nzapalainga played a role in calming down the spirits, denying that the war had religious motivations, and many believe that the two contributed to avoid a religious conflict between Christians and Muslims between 2013 and 2014. Imam Modibo Beshir underlines the moderate nature of Central African Islam and affirms that a jihadist movement would not find followers among Central African Muslims: “According to the Qur’an, establishing an Islamic state would make sense in a country with a Muslim majority, but here we represent only the 15% of the population. We just want to have our space in society”.

A tradition of coexistence
Many priests and bishops share the same opinion and highlight the tradition of peaceful coexistence between Christians and Muslims in CAR. Father Aurelio Gazzera, an Italian Carmelite priest who has been working in the diocese of Bouar for three decades, talks about a chapel in his parish in Bozoum, which they inaugurated in 2020: “Many Muslims attended the ceremony, many of whom contributed to finance the building of the chapel”. While I was listening to Father Aurelio Gazzera, I remembered that Imam Ouasselegue told me that a few years ago Cardinal Nzapalainga collected money from the Christians of his diocese to help rebuild the Petevo mosque. Furthermore, the reconstruction of the mosque in the Lakouanga neighbourhood in Bangui was completed thanks to a committee of Muslims and Christians. Others, however, are more cautious in ruling out a possible jihadist threat.

The bishop of Bambari, Monsignor Richard Apora, recalls that when the Seleka, an alliance of rebel militia groups whose members were mostly Muslim, occupied the city in December 2012, its militiamen attacked the cathedral. Monsignor Apora also recalls that, in 2018, two priests were murdered by the rebels of the UPC (Unity for Peace in Central Africa), a splinter group which refused to join the FPRC’s Séléka reunification attempt, whose combatants belong to the Peúl ethnic group. The UPC was also responsible for an attack on a camp for displaced people in the Alindao bishopric compound in November 2018. More than 120 people died, including two priests who were killed when they tried to stop the madness of the attackers. The bishop of Bambari, however, is reluctant to generalize and points out that the Imams of this city have always condemned the UPC.

External influence
Despite the fact that there is no evidence of any jihadist group in the CAR territory, the geographical proximity of radical groups in other African countries raises worries. Between 2014 and 2019 the jihadists have increased their attacks throughout large areas of sub-Saharan countries.  Many political analysts point out that, after the defeat of the Islamic State in the Middle East – especially in Syria – the Islamist groups turned their eyes to Africa.

Before that, thousands of its militants arrived in Libya where, taking advantage of the chaos that followed Gaddafi’s death, they had access to huge quantities of weapons and reached several countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Since then, fighters of the Islamic State and Al Qaeda have been operating in Somalia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Kenya and Tanzania have some sleeper cells, while Chad and Cameroon have suffered raids by Boko Haram, although both countries have been able to keep them at bay. Other countries bordering the Sahel region, such as Benin, Togo and the Ivory Coast, fear becoming the next targets of Islamist groups, while the province of Cabo Delgado in Mozambique is already a target of jihadists’ attacks and threats.

CAR’s past
The Central African conflict, which reached its climax between 2013 and 2014, might have opened the door to jihadist groups in the country, but several circumstances avoided the danger. “In our society we have a very strong tradition of peaceful coexistence between Christians and Muslims. You can find faithful of the two religions in the same family”, says Cardinal Nzapalainga. The cardinal recalls that, when in 2014 there were attacks against Muslims and some jihadist radicals posted videos on internet calling for revenge, Imam Kobine Layama responded that in CAR, Christians protected Muslims from the attacks of the anti-Balaka.

Cardinal Nzapalainga, who for more than a year hosted the Imam and his family in his residence, mentions numerous cases of Catholic parishes that became a safe refuge for many thousands of Muslims. Many Christian priests put their own lives at risk to save those of Muslims.
In 2014, as a result of internal divisions and competition for the control of natural resources over the national territory, the Seleka started to split up into smaller armed groups, which included Muslim fighters, and which were not characterised by ideological or religious criteria.  
However, many political observers warn that it is better not to be too optimistic. At the end of 2020, in the run-up to the general elections in the Central African Republic (CAR), ex Seleka factions joined forces with former enemies, anti-Balaka groups, in a new alliance called Patriots’ Coalition for the Change, CPC in short, in order to oust re-elected President Faustin-Archange Touadéra.
The Army and its allies, the Russian mercenaries of the Wagner group, regained a large part of the national territory during the first months of 2021, but in many cases they committed serious abuses against Muslims, who were accused of collaborating with the CPC. The news about all atrocities committed, which the UN has documented in a lengthy report, is sparking enormous resentment among young Muslims, including the thousands languishing in refugee camps in Chad. Opportunistic leaders might take advantage of these feelings of anger and resentment and fuel the desire to take revenge. If young Muslim people fell into the trap of jihadist groups, CAR would have to face a dark future.
(Open photo: Archbishop Dieudonne Nzapalainga and the late  Imam Omour Kobine Layama of Bangui pray together during a tour to spread the word of tolerance and reconciliation. Photo: Sam Phelps for CRS)

José Carlos Rodríguez Soto

Music. Mina, ‘the veiled rapper’.

Everything was against her. Aminata Gaye – Mina ‘the veiled one’ is her stage name – was raised in a traditional Senegalese family, when she realised that music made her a self-confident person, she knew there was no way back. She started to fight for her dreams and for a better society.

“I cannot be easily manipulated. I go my own way and nobody can stop me”, said Mina in an interview with the BBC in 2019. She has been wearing a veil since she was a child, as it is part of her identity, and she is proud of this garment that often stirs controversy. She points out that just like some rappers wear glasses, or a cap, or shave their hair, she feels comfortable wearing the veil.

In the early stages of her career, the backlash from the public was very harsh and demeaning. Many people felt as though a Muslim woman rapping in a veil was inappropriate, but those opinions could not stop Gaye. “In my first three singles I tell my story: what the veil means to me, and how everybody was against the idea of a rapper wearing the veil. They all suggested to me that I did not wear it because they were convinced this garment was incompatible with music”, says Mina in a firm voice, being confident that she has made the right choice.
Mina is also a member of Genji Hip Hop, a group of approximately 70 women that includes Senegalese rappers, singers, DJs and graffiti artists who hold regular concerts and workshops addressing important issues such as social taboos surrounding women’s rights, family pressure, early marriages and physical and verbal rape. You can feel the strength and determination in Mina’s lyrics and rhythm. “When I sing, I am someone else – she says -. I don’t feel anything anymore. I feel invulnerable, powerful, and happy”.

“Shame is what the rapist, not the victim, should feel. Yet his shame is transferred to the victim”, the ‘veiled rapper’ underlines, addressing women especially those who have chosen to wear the veil and who are increasingly numerous at her concerts. Mina got married three years ago. Her husband is also a rapper and completely understands and supports her passion for music, and does not complain when Mina comes back home at dawn after giving a concert.
Both her family – who stopped insisting that she dedicate herself to something else rather than music after seeing her determination – and her husband understand how important music is in her life. “I spend two or three days at my husband’s house and then I return to my place. I am a rapper, and I need my space”.

Aminata Gaye has become one of the most popular woman rappers and hip hop singers in Senegal, despite her having to sometimes face a harsh backlash from social media. “They have even defined me as the incarnation of Satan and a desecrator of religion”.
But Mina ‘the veiled rapper’ does not shut up, does not give up. No matter what her critics say. Through her music, she hopes to encourage women to see the ways in which they can oppose structures of abuse and violence by using their voice and finding strength in their image. She believes in women’s power, “We, the women, are strong, and we have always been so, we have been able to influence rap and break taboos by rapping about women’s rights”. That’s Mina’s style. (Drawing: Tina Ramos Ekongo)

C.F.G.-S.

West Africa. The Variety of the Markets.

In some rural areas of the Sahel such as the Mossi plateau in the north of Burkina Faso, or in the region of Atakora in northern Benin, one has the impression of never coming across a village.

There is nothing but dwellings scattered throughout the bush, apparently independent of each other; the country people live scattered over the land. Villages exist but they are not the same as a densely inhabited nucleus.
Also the Tangbas in northern Benin live scattered over the plain. The same can be said for the Betammari-be (also called Sombas) of the same region, or the Lobis in Burkina, whose houses are far from each other and do not constitute a structured habitation.
In such contexts, it becomes more important than ever to have a meeting point where one can meet relatives and friends and hear the news and gossip. One goes to the market to enjoy its social life. There is an analogous attitude among the Berbers (Morocco), in which commerce is explicitly considered of secondary importance, but no one must fail to appear on market day, even if they have nothing to buy or sell.

In the rural markets of western Africa, it is usually the women who do the selling while the men are somewhat more concerned with social relations. The testimony of Baba, an elderly Hausa woman from Karo (northern Nigeria): “On market day, the men of the nearby communities gather not just to sell their goods but also to meet their friends and relatives and discuss the more important topics with them. Many girls wishing to marry frequent the market dressed in their best clothes and many young men go to visit them and watch the dancing”.
The Mossi say that women leave tracks like those of an elephant – easy to find – but that those tracks are always more visible in the market.
In the past, at Zanzra, an important traditional market in the region inhabited by the Guro (Ivory Coast), the young men who wanted to take a wife were attracted by the markets. In turn, the villages would send their women, dressed in their best clothes. These women would go through the market in a sort of procession and show off their special hairdos, offering themselves to the admiration of the public while they sat on their reserved seats.

All around, suitors, friends and relatives would offer them money or cola nuts. These exhibitions often caused quarrels between the contenders.
At Gorom-Gorom, a village in the north of Burkina Faso, every Thursday a very colourful market is held. There is a great variety of costumes, ornaments and hairdos displayed by the women.
Gorom-Gorom is located in a bordering region between territories of different groups: Mossi, Samo, Bella, Dogon, Peul and Tuareg; it is the reference market for many villages of the area which, though they are close, are inhabited by peoples of different cultures. By bringing together different races, the market favours a process of integration, the exchange of information, the circulation of ideas, familiarisation and the birth of new social ties alternative to those based on kinship or ethnicity.

Tanguieta is an appendix of Burkina Faso, on the border with Benin. It is a village located about thirty kilometres south of the border between the two states and has become a fundamental reference point for Burkina traders. In Benin, prices are considerably lower than in Burkina Faso which has no outlet to the sea and receives a large part of its imports through the ports of Benin. For this reason, the women of Ouagadougou periodically go to Tanguieta to buy material, clothes, and food which they re-sell in their cities at prices lower than those usually applied to goods imported in the usual way. This coming and going to and from Burkina has made this apparently insignificant centre a place of integration not only between different ethnic groups but also citizens of different states. At Tanguieta, a language similar to Gourma is spoken and the time is an hour ahead of Benin since everyone follows the time in Burkina Faso. “It is the mountains that make the time change”, say the people of the place, indicating the rocky hills that close the horizon to the south; Benin starts there.

At Bagaji, in the region of Niger inhabited by the Mawri, it is on Wednesday – the market day – when most private sacrifices take place. It is not an isolated case; altars are often found close to markets and sacrifices of small animals are offered, whether to favour a good commercial outcome or to meet individual requests.
Among the Mossi, the market plays a fundamental role in rites of circumcision and funerals. In the first case, the young men, after they have been circumcised, are kept inside the houses of the circumcised for two or three months and have no contact with the population. Their re-entry into society always takes place on market day when the parents, dressed in their best clothes, parade with them in the square while receiving gifts from the vendors. When a chief dies, the announcement is made in the market.
The final funeral rite will also be held in the marketplace a year after the burial when the first daughter of the dead person buys in the market all the food her father used to buy during his life. Once the basket is full, the daughter and the other women start a procession to the sound of drums all around the market square. The round is repeated three times.

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