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The Sahel. “Poverty nourishes jihadism”.

Monday, 1 March 2021 8:00

An unstable region. “Young people abandoned to themselves find a solution to their problems in Jihadism. Jihadism feeds on injustice, poverty and misery”. The words of Father Arvedo Godina of the White Fathers who has spent over fifty years in The Sahel.

The Sahel is one of the most unstable regions in the continent of Africa. Armed Jihadist groups move through the territories of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso aggravating local tensions and undermining the foundation and cohesion of Sahelian societies. Illegal trafficking (drugs, arms, people) proliferate in an area where borders are porous and unguarded. “Jihadism is nourished by injustice, poverty and misery. Thousands of unemployed young people look for hope in an extreme form of religiosity that leads them to take up arms against anyone who does not profess their faith”, says Father Arvedo Godina, an Italian member of the congregation of the White Fathers who has been in Mali for 53 years, outlining the set-up of the Islamic extremism that has inflamed the Sahelian countries for almost a decade.

The missionary continues: “Jihadism has emerged in recent years but the problem has its roots in history. Some of us priests and our bishop often ask ourselves where Mali is going, and what answers are being given to the people at large. We have before us a sad situation. Each year, in Mali, ten thousand boys and girls finish school. Of these, only one thousand succeed in finding a job immediately. The other nine thousand are left unemployed. They angrily enter one public competition after another, often knowing their chances are minimal. Many of them emigrate. Nobody can say their future looks bright”.
On 18 August last, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was overthrown in a coup organised by the armed forces. The military then formed a government together with exponents of civil society who wanted more efficacious economic policies and a zero-tolerance fight against corruption. “Politics cannot provide answers to the needs of the people – Father Arvedo continues – Corruption is widespread and is an obstacle to the social and economic growth of the nation”.
Besides all this, general criminality is becoming ever more powerful. Over the years, Mali has become a crossroads for international drug trafficking. Drugs (cocaine, tramadol, hashish) are sent from Latin America to the Atlantic coast of Mali and are then sent by the traffickers over desert roads, to Europe.

The United Nations estimates that the business amounts to around 26 million dollars per year and that it increases corruption, violence, despair, and drug addiction. “Up to a few years ago – the White Father emphasises – very few people connected to drugs were being arrested. Nowadays, they are as many as ten every day. Often they are small fry, young drug pushers who are caught with just a few grams of a substance. There is a widespread belief that the people at the top get away scot-free and that it is increasingly more difficult to catch them due to the immense riches they have accumulated”.
As well as arms and drug trafficking, there is also a huge business connected with immigration. For the local populations, the migration economy constitutes an important source of revenue and so for survival, in which many former Tuareg rebels are engaged. The North of Mali represents the main crossroads where the Sub-Saharan migratory streams meet as they flow towards Europe. The migration streams follow two main axes, that of Mali which leads to Gao, in Tuareg territory and then proceeding to Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Libya, and that of Nigeria that crosses Mali and goes towards the region of Agadez and then to the central Mediterranean. Father Arvedo adds: “The traffickers have shown a remarkable degree of adaptation to the geopolitical situation of the Sahel region and North Africa, choosing whichever route suits the circumstances.

Training of Catechists
During all his mission years, Father Arvedo has always worked at the service of the diocese of Bamako, first as a curate in Kati parish and then as a professor and rector of the seminary of Koulikoro. Since 1992, he has worked at the formation centre called after Monsignor Pierre Leclerc, near the mission of Kati. Here he is providing a fundamental service to the local Church: the training of catechists who work in the parishes of Mali. The formation is complete, with spiritual, cultural and professional aspects (including lectures on agricultural techniques). “It is a demanding course – the missionary emphasises – lasting three years. Every year, future catechists stay at our centre for six months. Together with them, we live community life consisting of prayer, study, and work. The local Bambara language is the linguistic medium”.

Father Arvedo Godina with a group of catechists.

When they return to their communities, they become the right-hand man of the parish priests. It is they who visit the various villages scattered along the savannah. In turn, they engage in the professional, cultural and spiritual formation of the people. They celebrate the liturgy of the Word and take Holy Communion where necessary. “Besides being an undeniable help to the priests – Father Arvedo continues – these laypeople unquestionably become reference persons for the whole community as regards matters of work, justice, and peace. Being rooted in the local culture, they are attentive interpreters of the local values. In my opinion, they represent the future of the Catholic Church. I was really taken up by the debate within the Amazonia Synod on the role of the laity and the possibility of having married clergy. At the moment, the time is not ripe for this step but I believe that the Western Church will soon recognise an important role for married priests like those already to be found in Oriental Churches (in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, etc.)”.

Acceptance and Tolerance
Father Arvedo also stresses the importance of relations with the Muslims who represent 95% of the population. “Among the Bambara – Father Arvedo explains – there is a saying: ‘The first hut to be built in a village is that of the kitchen and then that of the mosque’. This means that respect for people and dialogue with them comes first and then the differences in beliefs. The local culture is founded on this attitude of welcome and tolerance. I recently calculated that, in the community of Kati, as many as 49% of married couples are mixed with a Christian husband or wife and a Muslim spouse. This mixture gives rise to mutual acceptance. The real dialogue takes place in the families and therefore has deep roots”.

This mutual respect is, however, threatened by Islamic extremism. Father Arvedo, in his work as a chaplain in the prisons, came to know many militiamen: “Many young people with no hope threw themselves into the arms of the Jihadists. They are looking for something on which to vent their frustrations. They say they are fighting against the West and against Christians since they are the cause of their misery. I repeat: Jihadism can only be beaten by first defeating the widespread poverty. This applies especially in such a poverty-stricken region as the Sahel. In Mali, then, the eternal question of the Tuareg has to be faced. This population has always refused to submit to the central power of Bamako. They have led numerous revolts. At present, their rebellions are linked to those of the Jihadists.

The Great North has become their base and that of their allies among the Islamist militants. It is a land of conflict that even the intervention of French troops succeeded in bringing under the control of the state authorities”. While visiting the prisoners, Father Godina tries to approach and to help militiamen. “I talk to them and try to keep their spirits up. I get medicine for them when they need it. I explain Christianity to them and help them to understand it and to dialogue – he concludes – I have become a close friend to some of them. Some of them, however, refuse to dialogue and take a radical stance. They read and re-read the Koran and draw from it its most extreme teachings. This means that, when they leave prison, they will be ready to return to the field of battle”.

(M.L.)

Music. Santrofi, the sound of pan-Africanism.

Monday, 1 March 2021 8:00

The Ghanaian band Santrofi demonstrates that Highlife music is still a rich and vital force.

Artistically speaking, Highlife is the music of modern Ghana; a mix of pop and jazz not without ethnic influences imported from Nigeria in the first decades of the nineteen hundreds and exported to the world after the end of the Second World War, thanks to the worldwide success of a giant of Afro music, Fela Kuti.
Breathless sessions with penetrating guitars, hypnotic rhythms and colourful singing characterise the sound, based upon a handful of notes that not only immerses us in the typical panoramas of this splendid portion of Africa but even makes us feel an immediate instinct to sway or dance to these splendid songs so pleasing to the western ear.

While the unchallenged head of this school of music is the late lamented E. T. Mensah (who died in 1966), one of the best-known groups today is certainly the large ensemble of the Santrofi, a group of musicians and singers well known in the west due to their participation in a large number of western festivals of world music, including the Womad of Peter Gabriel, the best known of all. Led by bassist Emmanuel Ofori, the nine Santrofis export the modern soul of Ghana and a philosophy of a life that is simple but full of values.
In Akan mythology, Santrofi is the story of a rare and precious bird, identified by its lively colours and its four wings. It is so unique that it was forbidden to hunt it; if held in captivity, it was a bad omen; if seen and allowed to fly away, a great treasure would be lost.
Santrofi is venerated for the clarity of its vision and its transformative beauty together with the power of its singing: the band aims at exemplifying all these traits in their innovative interpretation of the vintage Highlife sound of Ghana.

It is the desire of the group to fuse the musical culture exported to Africa from the West with autochthonous music: without counter positions but instead by nourishing its own music with a sincere desire for sharing and universal brotherhood, without ever forgetting the great themes and the great challenges to which Africa is called to respond to today. These include the ecological equilibrium that must be restored, the need for authentic human relations and last, but not least, the dream of a new pan-Africanism, to the extent that the album also contains the voice of the first president of independent Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, one of the most charismatic personalities of post-colonial Africa.
Santrofi’s debut album of last April ‘Alewa’ captures the influence of epochs that are separate but intertwined, of the journey of the Highlife music of Ghana, unlike anything seen before, either in recent years or long ago. It is interesting to note that ‘Alewa’ is also the title of one of the tracks on the album.
The metaphor of a local black-and-white-striped sweet representing the symbol of independence, of harmony, of the multi-instrumentalist Sanofi that alternate both their places on the record as well as on the stage of progressive musical liberation. ‘Alewa’ is also a metaphor that alludes to the need to recognise, accept, tolerate and embrace racial diversity to build a world of love and unity.

On bass guitar is Emmanuel Ofori, electric lead guitars, Dominic Quarchie (Ghana’s Music Awards’ winner of instrumentalist of the year 2018), on the rhythm guitar and lead vocals Nsoroma, Bernard Gyamfi on trombone and shekere, Norbert Wonkyi on trumpet, Flugelhorn and bells, Prince Larbi on drums and vocals.
Emmanuel Boakye Agyeman on organs, fender rhodes and vocals, Victor Nii Amoo on percussions, and Kofi ‘IamBeatMenace’ as the co-producer, audio engineer and brands Coordinator.
One characteristic of the band seems to be that they have found a winning formula of elegant dance steps, easily learned songs to be sung with rhythm guitar accompaniment, drums and melodic harmonies. With musical influences that range from Highlife and Afrobeat to straight old-fashioned funk, the music of Santrofi is impressive, besides being spectacular entertainment, all of which allows us to hope for future tours and their next album to be released this year.

Franz Coriasco

Africa. To Share fraternity.

Monday, 1 March 2021 8:00

In his last Encyclical, “Fratelli Tutti”, (“Brothers [and Sisters] All”), Pope Francis is calling for a new world society, characterised by fraternity and social friendship. Africa has much to contribute to the shaping of the future of humanity.

The African sense of fraternity begins with motherhood. In most African societies, all grown up women are given the title ‘Mother’. In fact, you can call any lady ‘mother’ without any risk or offending her. The idea behind this is that, when a woman gives birth for the first time, it is not only her womb that opens, but also and above all her heart, so that everyone born of a woman may find a place in it.
Such motherhood, which belongs to all women, automatically creates a sense of brotherhood. If all women are ‘our mothers’, it is not difficult to conclude that we are all brothers and sisters.
The following Chewa proverb fits well in this mentality, extending it to sonship: mwana wa mzako ndi wako womwe (“the child of your neighbour is your child, too”).

In fact, in the past, in many villages, children used to be educated by the whole community; every grown-up person had the right to punish the children of his or her village, if they found them doing wrong. In some traditional villages, this custom continues even today.
In African languages, the terms mother, father, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, grandfather, grandmother, cousin, niece, nephew… are very wide in meaning. In Congo and Zambia, for example, following the history of neighbouring tribes, you may find a whole tribe in which all male adults are your ‘uncles’, and they have an important role to play in your family, especially in times of difficulties, such as funerals. This type of brotherhood breaks the borders of tribes.

Blood pacts
Traditional Africans are builders of fraternity. In African villages, it is very difficult to know how a person has come to call another person ‘father’, ‘mother’, ‘son’, ‘daughter’, etc. These relations, which were created by the ancestors, hold for generations. Some of these are the result of blood pacts made generations before. In some ethnic groups, the blood pact is the model of both brotherhood and friendship.
The word munywani – which means ‘friend’ for many Bantu speakers in Eastern Africa – comes from kunywa (‘to drink’) and it denotes the one with whom we drink. But it is not a question of drinking beer, but each other’s blood, in a blood pact. Also, in the Nilotic Lwoo language of the Alur (an ethnic group that inhabits the northern shores of Lake Albert, both in western Uganda and north-eastern DR Congo), a friend is called jarimo (rimo means ‘blood’), literally: ‘someone-connected-to-me-by-blood’. This is how friendship is transformed into brotherhood. Where tribes carry out initiations into adulthood by age groups, the people who have been initiated together become real brothers or sisters.

Sometimes, this brother-sisterhood is taken more seriously than blood relation is, because there are very serious taboos attached to any particular age group. Practically, this strong bond will be seen in the obligation for mutual help, starting from a few people and extending to entire families. During initiation ordeals, the neophytes are told: “If you cannot prevent your brother (in the Western world the word used may be ‘companion’) from falling, fall with him”. No neighbourhood without fraternity; African fraternity is seen especially when there is a funeral in a village. All people, without exception, are supposed to go to the home of the deceased and stay there until the rites are over.

For agriculturalists, it is forbidden to go to cultivate fields when there is a funeral. This taboo is still in force in many places. For the burials, Africans congregate without regard for clan, tribe, religion or political affiliation. The same applies to weddings. All this clearly shows the African way of avoiding creating neighbourhoods without fraternity. Indifference is very much condemned in African society. All families, somehow, are connected to each other, including those who came from outside the tribe. Among the Lugbara of Uganda, lopunoo is a process by which a stranger is incorporated into a given family. Among the Baganda, a person can be incorporated ritually into a given clan. In both cases, the former ‘stranger’ – with his entire family, if any – becomes a real member of the group with all the rights and duties.

Social conscience
If Africans were to stick to this sense of fraternity, there would not be any person who has no relations at all. Today’s phenomena such as street children, abandoned elderly and disabled people are both modern and artificial. In traditional Africa, it was not difficult for the crippled, the deaf and the blind to get married. The family or clan would ‘marry’ for them! It will take time for African countries to build special houses for the elderly. In the homes, they are still seen as a blessing.
Social conscience stems from this sense of fraternity that is common to African societies. There are practices that show that the sense of community was the norm in Africa.

Among the Baganda and some other ethnic groups of Uganda, if you find out that a swarm of edible grasshoppers has settled in the village, you cannot start collecting them, before making the ululation that informs other people of the phenomenon. In the same way, there is a kind of mushroom that grows in large numbers, whose importance is not only nutritional but also ritual: you cannot start collecting it, without informing your neighbours. In village life, a family cannot take meals behind closed doors. Whoever is hungry is invited to share the family meal. The Baganda say: Oluganda kulya – ‘Fraternity is eating (together)’, or ‘food sustains kinship’.

Shared happiness
Individualism is repugnant in African culture. If you build a large house, you cannot live in it with your wife and your few children. Your relatives will send you their children to fill it. You have no right to be happy alone. Julius Nyerere, in his Ujamaa – Essays on Socialism (1968), noted that, in ancient African societies, there were no millionaires, because the more you had, the more you were obliged to share. Sometimes the abundance of wealth led to polygamy, which did not only increase the population of the family, but also created alliances with many other families.

In the Chewa/Nyanja language of Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique, when the prepositional suffix – ira or era – is added to a rather negative verb, the verb becomes positive. This suffix denotes an act performed on behalf of another person. So, if kupempha means ‘to beg’, kupemphera expresses the idea of ‘praying’; if kukwata means ‘to have sex’, kukwatira stands for ‘marrying’; and if kulanda means ‘to snatch’, kulandira expresses the concept of ‘receiving’.
It is the ‘social aspect’ of the verb (‘doing something for others’) that makes it positive, as if what you do for yourself is suspicious, while what you do for others is more acceptable.

Human solidarity and fraternity
In many African cities, the person who is caught stealing or molesting another person, is killed by mob justice, if the police do not come quickly enough. This act, however condemnable it may be, shows lack of indifference to the suffering of another human being – indifference that, instead, can be seen in many Western cities and towns, where the sense of human solidarity hardly goes beyond dialling the police phone number on your personal mobile. If a woman gives birth in a street of a Western metropolis, the best a person may do is to call an ambulance.
In Africa, on the other hand, all the women who hear the woman’s moans will rush to her help, build a ‘house’ around her, and assist
her to the very end.

There is a Bantu word that sounds bene (or bendi, or bandi), always preceded by the affix wa, to make wabene. The meaning of this expression is “of the other”. It is used to call for respect due to persons and property that do not belong to you. In extreme cases, it is used to refer to the chief, or the king, or God himself. People belong to ‘another’ – their traditional leader and God. So, they are all related. No one belongs to himself or herself, or just to their parents, or clan members, not even the unborn: they all belong to bene, who commands respect and responsibility. The ‘other’, then, is not defined by ‘I’, but by bene, the common source of people and things. Africans, therefore, share a fraternity that extends to all people, to nature and to the entire cosmos.

Kanyike Edward Mayanja

How Giraffe acquired his Long Neck.

Monday, 1 March 2021 8:00

Long, long ago, Giraffe did not have the long, elegant neck that he has now. In those days his neck was short and squat, resembling Rhinoceros’s powerful neck.

It was a time of drought and famine. The waterholes had dried up, the land had been scorched by the sun and the grazing was threadbare. The grass that remained was dry, brittle and tasteless. One day, when he was out looking for grazing, Giraffe met Rhino and said: “The grass everywhere has turned bitter. I long for the sweet pastures that grow after the rains.”

“You are right, Giraffe – conceded White Rhino, plucking a tough clump of grass from the ground in front of him with his strong muscular lips -. But it has been too long since we have seen rain.”
“ Too long,” agreed Giraffe. “There are too many animals grazing this land and there is nothing left” observed Rhino -. It would be so good to be able to eat the fresh young leaves that grow on the top of that tree over there.” “ We are far too short to reach them,” observed Giraffe.
“Yes – said Rhino -. But I have a plan. Let us find Man and see
if he can help us.”

So Giraffe and Rhino travelled through the savanna lands, grazing by day and resting by night until they encountered Man. Resting in the dappled shade of an acacia tree they told him their problems and waited impatiently as he considered their dilemma.

“I think I can be of assistance to you – said Man -. Come back here tomorrow at noon and I will give you some herbs.” Giraffe and Rhino went their separate ways. Rhino travelled far in search of grazing, while Giraffe remained nearby.

The next morning, the sun rose in a dry sky and when it was directly overhead, Giraffe presented himself to Man. Looking at Giraffe’s coat, which resembled blotchy patterns of dark brown leaves, Man said to him, “Where is Rhino?”

But Rhino did not return at the appointed hour, so Man gave all his herbs to Giraffe telling him that the herbs would enable his neck and legs to grow so long that he would be able to reach the tallest trees.

Giraffe ate the herbs and watched in awe as his neck and legs began to grow longer. He was amazed by the fact that his limbs just continued to grow longer and longer just like the growth of his neck. As his neck stretched, he moved further and further away from the dusty, hard earth and he was so delighted when he was able to twist his long tongue around the tender shoots that grew at the top of an acacia tree nearby.

From that moment, Giraffe became a browser, preferring to eat the young branches and leaves of trees and shrubs, rather than graze the grass on the ground.It was his long neck that now enabled
him to do that.

Rhino arrived late, long after midday. “Where are my herbs?” asked Rhino indignantly. “You are too late – said Man -. I have given them all to Giraffe. See how his neck and legs have grown, Rhino.” Giraffe continued browsing, relishing the sweet leaves of the thorn tree.

Rhino kicked up the dust with his thick, heavy legs and demonstrated his anger. He was so angry because he thought that Man had deceived him. In fact, he lost his temper completely. To this day, Rhino has a very bad temper and when he sees Man in the bush, he charges him.

Folktale from Kenya

What Next ?

Monday, 1 March 2021 8:00

The Russians are the ones who, having taken a direct military role alongside Damascus in 2015, have done most to defeat ISIS and perhaps, more importantly, the other rebel forces.

The Turks will want to ensure that they can maintain a military presence in northern Syria to watch over Kurdish separatist ambitions. Israel keeps the Golan and Iran wants to ensure their Tehran-Baghdad-Damascus-Beirut axis is strengthened.
This is the part which Israelis, Americans and Saudis will find problematic; and this is where the next conflict could probably begin.

Russian forces patrol near the city of Qamishli, north Syria,

Russia will agree to what guarantees stability, but its interests do not coincide entirely with Tehran. Russia appears to have received the White House’s go-ahead over Syria’s integrity. President Trump agreed with Putin that Syria should not split up into parts, which would compromise the already delicate regional equilibrium. After all, it was ISIS which was trying to re-draw the region’s map, scrapping the Sykes-Picot agreement. Moscow has managed to overcome Syria’s total collapse.
The Russians have learned from the Americans’ mistakes – and those of the Soviet Union – in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thus, they see the need for the winning forces not to act too greedily. The Americans failed in Iraq because they dismantled the Baath and the Iraqi army, forcing them into hiding and resistance.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

By compromising with some of the opposition groups, especially the Kurds, Bashar al-Assad could have a better chance of weaving a ‘peace’ through incentives rather than encouraging the opposition to remain in the shadows, seeking to carve out their own zones of influence. Russia will keep its bases in Syria at Latakya and Tartous. That was always one of the goals of its intervention.
The Gulf monarchies, Saudi Arabia heading that group, backed and encouraged the war against Assad (and Hezbollah, Iran). They have lost. They might get some stale leftovers, not even scraps, should there be UN negotiations. Finally, Putin’s diplomatic chess managed to secure Turkey’s backing for the Russian plan.

Alessandro Bruno

Ghana. Being a priest in the Venice of Africa.

Monday, 1 March 2021 8:00

A Sunday with Father Anthony Assebiah, Parish Priest of Beyin in Kengen, Southern Ghana.

As soon as we reached the pier, we boarded an old rowing boat. Rowing powerfully and confidently, Stephen, the young catechist, brought us to the Island of Nzulezo in Lake Tandane. The voyage lasted almost an hour. As we approached the island, we began to see the painted houses on stilts. These houses are made of branches of raffia palms. Nzulezo reminds us of a less elaborate version of Venice, in Italy.
Nzulezo takes its name from a local language, Nzema, which means ‘water surface’. There are more than 500 people living on Nzulezo where all the daily business, from preparing meals to taking the children to school, is carried out on the water.
According to legend, the first inhabitants of Nzulezo migrated from Mali in the XV century, after a war with the Mande of Western Africa, fought over their fertile land and its gold. The legend says that the Nzulezo ancestors were led by their god who appeared in the form of a snail in Lake Tandane. The spirit told them to build their houses on stilts above the water for safety.

Father Anthony Assebiah, Parish Priest of Beyin in Kengen, Southern Ghana. ( photo: Fritz Stark)

Having disembarked, we stopped a while to talk with Agyei, one of the inhabitants who noticed us and told us: “Each family on Nzulezo has its own street and the street takes its name from the head of the family. Every family member has a canoe: one for the father, one for the mother and one for the children. This is not surprising since it is the only means of transport here”.
Nzulezo is also noted for its rare species of turtles, monkeys and crocodiles. The village on the water is also known for its locally-produced gin called Akpeteshi, that attracts people from all over the world who want to taste gin made from raffia. In passing, the catechist greets Thema who is preparing ground nuts for the midday meal. Behind her we can see the smoke of the fire on which she will soon cook cassava puree. Since wooden platforms are not fireproof, women use traditional clay ovens to cook, such as those on the mainland.

Nzulezo village (CC BY 2.5 it/Chiappi Nicola)

In the distance we can see a boatload of tourists. “Tourism began here twenty years ago – Stephen informs us – ever since Nzulezo was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO”.
Tourism has brought some benefits for the inhabitants of the island while televisions, radios and smartphones bear eloquent testimony to their increasing prosperity. As Sedinam said, “ Tourists have also brought us a lot of rubbish”, and it is difficult for the 500 inhabitants to put up any resistance. Floating under the platforms of the simple huts are the many plastic bottles and bags left by visitors.
“The once-perfect symbiosis of man and nature, the impressive flora and fauna of the surrounding humid regions and the fragile ecosystem are in danger”, Father Anthony objects.
Now we have arrived at the ancient church of Christ the King. Today is a special day for the community as thirty children will receive their First Holy Communion. The waiting people greet the priest and us as well with broad smiles and much curiosity. The little church is full and the children are excited and dressed in festive clothes. A choir of young people accompanies the liturgy. The two hours of the Mass seem to end all too soon. Then the priest greets each of the faithful and stays a while to speak with some of the leaders of the community.

But now it is time to go. Father Anthony asks Stephen to take the boat back to Beyin where other duties await him. On the return trip we pass close to a village where some people originally from Nzulezo have settled where they can make a better living from agriculture than fishing. Father Anthony points out the house of a well-known healer Mame Nwiah, who is 81 years old. Father Anthony often works with her as they both believe in the power of prayer. “Mame Nwiah knows her limits and knows when she can help and when people need to go to hospital”, the priest tells us. The diseases that Father Anthony and Mame Nwiah are able to treat successfully are mostly spiritual. Father Anthony spends a lot of time praying with people. He blesses them and lays his hands on them. “As priests, one of our most important duties is to give people hope and pray for their good health”, Father Anthony says. He continues: “I do not see myself as a miraculous healer but I truly believe in the power of prayer”. He is convinced that faith and prayer increase the body’s ability to help itself, and he also adds: “I do not trust only in the power of curative prayer. My deeper aim is to build a hospital next to the parish. With medical consultations and nurses on hand, one day we will be able to help many more people”. He also points out that the nearest hospital is 90 Km away in Sekondi-Takorad.

The Parish of Mary in Kengen has 22 chapels, each one led by a catechist. Father Anthony strongly emphasises the importance of the catechist as a leader of the community life of the people. Together with Father Anthony, there is also Father John Kofi Allu, 32. As we introduce ourselves, the phone rings. Father Kofi tells us how the phone is always ringing as there is always a catechist or someone in need of help, especially in this time of the Coronavirus. “Everyone is afraid of everyone else – says Father Anthony. The Corona pandemic has changed the life of our communities. People don’t go outside. All parish activities have been suspended. While observing proper procedures, we decided to visit our communities and pray in their homes. We visit our parishioners and pray for them and for their sick. As priests, we are often their only contact with the outside world. Many people believe God protects the priest from infection”. At the end of February, Ghana counted 75,850 cases of infection and 540 deaths.
As we were about to say our goodbyes, the phone rang again. A catechist wants a priest to go to one of the chapels to anoint a sick person. It is a journey of two hours but Father Anthony does not delay, even for a moment, and is soon on another errand of mercy.

Franz Jussen/Kontinente

Ivory Coast. Contemporary art in the city of Abidjan.

Monday, 1 March 2021 8:00

The pandemic forced it to close just a week after it was officially opened and did not allow it to reopen until last August. The people’s district of Abobo hosts the first Ivorian museum of contemporary art.

The democratisation of art was taken into consideration when the famous Ivorian architect Issa Diabaté was charged with designing a modern and ambitious building so that the citizens could contemplate and share the various contemporary disciplines.
The imposing structure, a space covering two exposition halls, a conference hall, a dance hall, a media centre, a library, an archives centre and various workshops, was for some time ready to be inaugurated and its doors were opened on 11 March last year.
MuCAT was born but, that very day, the Ivorian authorities confirmed the first case of Covid-19 in the country. Precautions were imposed
and the museum closed.

The million or more people of the working-class district of Abobo – known for having been the hiding place of the pro-Ouattara rebels who, in 2010 and 2011, fought against the forces of former president Laurent Gbagbo, and for having looked after a considerable number of street children – had to wait a further four months to see sculptures and paintings for the first time in their lives.
Sixty per cent of the population are under twenty and schools and institutes lost no time in booking visits to the museum which soon recorded an average of 200 visits per day.
“By constructing the first museum in the country dedicated to contemporary culture, my father corrected an anomaly”, said Bintou Toungara last year to the daily Le Monde. The artistic director Yacouba Konaté, who is also director of the festival Market for African Performing Arts (MASA), is committed to reopening the museum and, right from the start, to providing creative assistance to visitors to understand the exhibits and collections of the museum.

Adama Toungara (whose initials make up the name of the Contemporary Museum, MuCAT), former minister of Oil and Energy, who is one of the major collectors of the country and was mayor of Abobo for twenty years, decided to leave his collection to the inhabitants of the district.
As his descendants emphasise, “Abobo is a nest of artists who deserve to be recognised”. This is the intended purpose of the workshops which provide new creative artists with opportunities to develop their talents. Despite living in a large city, they lack the means to go to the financial district to visit the Museum of Civilisations of Ivory Coast, the largest in the country and where exhibits of their history and traditions are preserved.

Passion for art
Adama Toungara left his passion for art to a community which believed it was worthy of it and this is why his family members have realised his dream – to bring art to everyone interested in new forms of expression – without skimping in the construction of a building with 3,500 square metres of space, with multifunctional sections that make the museum much more than a place of exhibits but also one of encounter and creativity. It is an edifice dedicated to art which will eventually become a bridge between the visitors and the world of culture.

During the first month after it was opened, it was students and researchers who first appreciated that space which is in no way inferior in its structures and media to any European cultural centre whatsoever. This was evident in the social networks of the country where artists and spectators praised every last corner of the MuCAT. This place, centred both upon entertainment as well as education, has as the start of its tour a workshop of storytelling for the younger visitors and a display of portraits of families and anonymous people of the city district which helps visitors to take possession of the space and feel that the MuCAT belongs to them.

Culture as the order of the day
The Ivorian government has given due importance to the MuCAT with the presence, on the day of its presentation, of Dominique Ouattara, wife of the President of the country who made a detailed tour of the exhibitions and saw the possibilities that the spaces in this exceptional centre have contributed to the culture of the citizens. The MuCAT, in fact, is located in front of the Town Hall of Abobo and, in the first months of its existence, generated murals created by spontaneous artists, some of whom were supported by the MuCAT; these can be seen on the facades of many nearby buildings.
The idea is to spread interest in contemporary art, which is not limited just to painting or sculpture but also allows the artists to liberate their imagination in a very limited environment. For this reason, entrance is free and regulations have been established with centres of education to make sure art is available to all.

“People said my father was mad and some tried to dissuade him from opening a museum in this part of the city”, Bintou Toungana explains, recalling the determination with which his father had spoken of the project, and of the need to carry it out.
Ivory Coast is following the example of other African states which have important contemporary art museums that have a strong artistic tradition. The idea behind this museum is that those Ivorian artists who had to go abroad for their artistic education and have developed their careers, may have the opportunity to return home and exhibit their work in public places – not only in private galleries – that are accessible to the vast public who feel that art is capable of transmitting experience.

Carla Fibla García-Sala

Israel. From the Semien Mountains to Mount Sion.

Monday, 1 March 2021 8:00

The difficult journey of the Ethiopians of Jewish origin towards complete integration. Unifying music may help avoid discrimination.

Hidden among the Semien mountains in the north of Ethiopia, north-east of Gondar in the Amhara region, the Beta Israel or Falashas – as Ethiopian Jews were known – remained hidden from the rest of the Jewish diaspora until 1950. It was not until after the state of Israel had been created that they first heard talk of Zionism. Their isolation not only separated them from what was happening around them but the rest of the world had not even heard of them, which generated various theories as to their origin. On the one hand, the Christian version says that the Beta Israel are descendants of Melenik I, son of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon. The Jews, on the other hand, believe they come from the tribe of Dan, one of the twelve tribes dispersed after the destruction of the second temple in 70 A.D. The Beta Israel were not officially recognised until 1975 after intensive research by the great Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.

Memorial to the Ethiopian community on Mount Herzel, Jerusalem.

From that moment on, the Mossad and the Jewish Agency began to consider how they could save them from the drought and civil war that was then devastating Ethiopia. The first large-scale operation, known as Operation Moses, was organised in 1984. Due to Soviet influence in Ethiopia which forbade any aid from Israel, the rescue was carried out in absolute secrecy between the government of Israel, the United States and the Sudanese security forces where thousands of Ethiopian Jews were waiting in refugee camps.

Roni Akale, director of the Ethiopian National Project (ENP).

Over 45 days, 6,364 people were moved from Sudan to Israel. A further 1,000 were left in Sudan after the Arab countries rebuked the government of Khartoum for helping Israel and around 4,000 of them died during the journey from Ethiopia to Sudan.
Operation Moses was certainly the largest epic migratory movement ever, even though it was not the one that moved the largest number of people to Israel. According to the Jewish Agency, since 1948 around 92,000 Falasha took part in initiatives such as Operation Solomon (1991) or Operation Alas de Paloma (2010-2013). At present, there are 150,000 Jews of Ethiopian origin in Israel.

Integration and education
To narrow the gap between the Ethiopian community and other Israelis, in 2001 the Ethiopian National Project (ENP), an organisation whose main aim is education, was set up.
“About 80% of the Ethiopians in Israel are under forty years of age. We are a young community and education is the only way to change our situation so we can contribute to the development of our new country”, states Roni Akale, director of the ENP and of Ethiopian origin.
However, the struggle for equality is not confined to educational and professional matters but also concerns culture and religion. In their isolation in the mountains, the Falasha remained anchored to their ancient Jewish customs and were not aware of modern celebrations. “The first time in my life I heard any mention of Hanukkah – known as the Festival of Lights – was in Israel”, explains Daniel Sahalo, who together with his family left his village in Ethiopia and went to Sudan.

A Kessim explains to young Ethiopians the origins of his community and the journey to reach Israel.

It is also true that the Falashas have retained some of their feasts which, after much trying, they succeeded in introducing to Israel. In 2008, the festival of Sigd, during which the Ethiopians renew their devotion to God, was recognised, followed in 2018 by the figure of the kessim, equivalent to that of a rabbi.
Despite everything, the gap between the Ethiopian community and the rest of the Jews is still evident. Some Falasha born in Israel feel discrimination because of their colour. Their main complaint is that the police use unnecessary force against them which has led to many protests in recent years. Racism is clearly present in Israeli society. Sahalo believes that “young Israelis do not understand that this is the first time that such a large number of Africans are welcomed in the West as brothers and not as slaves”.

To the rhythm of the music
There are, nevertheless, some things common to all. Such as the fact that other Israelis know very little about their community and the change that could help to eliminate racism. Atakilt Tesfame, from Gondar, believes that all they know is some stereotypes that do not correspond to reality, while Roni Akale complains that people only talk about Ethiopians when there are disturbances or when they appear in the newspapers. Nevertheless, some changes are taking place. Gastronomy – Ethiopian restaurants are to be found everywhere in the streets of Israeli cities – and especially music are creating ties between the two groups. Whereas until recently Ethiopian artistes were barely able to make a living on the Israeli musical scene, today they are among its leaders.

Yael Mentesnot, a 28 year-old singer.

“The first generation of people coming from Ethiopia occupied a very marginal niche in Israeli society but that very difficult situation, as well as the cases of racism that we suffered for years, made us all the stronger. The second generation has succeeded in carving out a very broad niche in the world of music”, explains Yael Mentesnot, a 28 year-old singer. He is just one of the many artistes of Ethiopian origin such as Gili Yalo, Aveva Dasa and ADL who became stars in Israel in general and especially in their own community. “Ethiopian children and youth regard us as their idols and have great respect for us. They know all our songs and want to make it themselves”, Mentesnot says. Despite this, he insists on the fact that his music is not aimed at the Afro community but the whole world because “my movements follow different styles and my lyrics speak of everything: the body, money, love … and the world can identify with them”.
In the same vein, the singer explains that even if some composers use music to condemn the situation of Ethiopians in Israel, she prefers to sing about love and to get everyone to dance. Her aim is to create ties and establish contacts between the two sides and this seems to get results: Israeli society seems to become daily more receptive to hearing Ethiopian performers.

Irene Ramírez

The War and its Protagonists.

Monday, 1 March 2021 8:00

On 6 March 2011, a group of teenagers wrote anti-government graffiti on a school wall in Dara’a, a Sunni-majority city in the south of the country, suffering from a long drought and poor harvests.

During the following days, the regime reacted with arrests and one of the students was found dead. But instead of fear, the opposition spread throughout Syria. On March 15, 2011, protesters organized in the capital Damascus to demand “a Syria without a dictatorship”. The protesters were bold enough to destroy a statue of President Hafez al-Assad, which had been an unthinkable act just a few days earlier. The protesters replaced the statue with a banner demanding an end to the regime, and they set the local Ba’ath party headquarters on fire.
To quell the protests, Bashir al-Assad announced the release of some 200 political prisoners in the hope of quelling the wave of protests. The move failed. Tensions continued to rise and calls for the overthrow of the Ba’ath regime in Syria proliferated on ‘Facebook’ and other social media. The violence in Syria escalated quickly. In May, the government deployed the army in the streets. Many troops started to desert. The deserters joined the rebels to form the first armed militias. The civil war had begun. In July, a deserting officer who found refuge in Turkey announced the creation of the Free Syrian Army (FSA). The FSA would also include some Islamist groups.

2012: Damascus under Fire. In July 2012, the rebels attacked Damascus. The government would keep control of the capital, but it would lose control of peripheral areas such as Ghouta.

2013: Hezbollah. In April 2013, Hassan Nasrallah, general secretary of Hezbollah (a key ally of Syria and Iran) deployed some of his guerrilla warfare-trained military units in Syria to back the al-Assad government against the increasingly radicalized Sunni rebel forces. In August 2013, an alleged chemical weapons attack against two rebel bastions in Ghouta (in the outskirts of Damascus) killed some 1,400 including rebels, civilians and children. The United States threatened to retaliate directly against Damascus. But Moscow manages to thwart the attack by guaranteeing Damascus’s willingness to destroy its chemical arsenal. Meanwhile, Kurdish fighters established an autonomous territory in the northern areas of Syria: Rojava

2014: ISIS. During 2014, Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which had gained control of Mosul and key areas of northern Iraq, crosses the border into Syria, establishing its capital in the city of Al-Raqqah. The presence of the Islamic State turns Syria into a global proxy battlefield, attracting overt interventions (direct and indirect) from the United States, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, France and Turkey. By September 2014, President Barack Obama organized an international coalition to challenge Isis. The US relies on the Kurds to carry out ground operations, which were successful against the Islamic State. The Kurds would take Kobane in 2015. But, in 2014, the various rebel forces start to inflict significant defeats at the expense of the Government especially in north-central Syria and around Aleppo, while ISIS continues to dominate in the north.

2015: Moscow Intervenes to Rescue Damascus. In September 2015, Russian aircraft launch attacks against ISIS as well as other Islamist Groups. The Russian raids would prove indispensable in helping Damascus take back the country.

2016: Turkey Makes a Direct Move. Ankara, which backed the Free Syrian Army and facilitated the transfer of various fighters to join the militias fighting against Assad in Syria, makes a direct move. In August, following a series of terror attacks in its territory, President Erdogan orders the deployment of troops to target the Islamic State as well as Kurdish fighters, which Ankara claims are affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party or PKK.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Meanwhile, thanks to Russian help, the Syrian army advances north from Damascus. In the autumn, it lays siege to Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city. And by Christmas of that year, Syrian regular forces break through to take the eastern part of town. The various rebel groups shift to the western side or start moving north. Turkey does not view the fall of Aleppo with favour, given it had backed many of the rebels there. But, at the end, Ankara, Tehran and Moscow agreed to allow for an evacuation of both civilians and militiamen. Most would go to the area of Idlib. The Aleppo evacuation marks a major turning point in favour of Damascus. The rebels have suffered a significant blow, and they are in retreat.

2017-2018: ‘Peace’ and Chemical Weapons. ISIS is weaker, but it continues to fight and control much of northern Syria. The Russians – and the other militias and foreign armies – focus on Al-Raqqah, the ISIS capital. By April 2017, Syria has gained back key areas of the country under its control. The fighting and attention shift to Idlib where many rebels from Aleppo have found refuge. But, a chemical weapon attack once again – as in 2013 – threatens to draw in direct military intervention from the United States. On April 4, The Americans accused Syria (and Russia) of launching rockets with sarin gas from aircraft against a medical facility in the village of Khan Shaykhun, near Idlib.
This was the second most serious chemical attack in Syria
after that of Ghouṭa in 2013.
On April 7, 2018, believing the accounts of the White Helmets, the Americans accused Syria of having launched another chemical attack. Once again, the attack took place in Douma, a peripheral area still under partial rebel control, outside Damascus. In the alleged attack – many have expressed credible doubts about it – the Russian and Syrian air forces were targeting Jund al-Islam, one of the radical Islamist factions that were hiding in the outskirts of Damascus from where they launched missiles and mortars against the capital. On April 14, the United States France and Great Britain bombed Syria with cruise missiles, targeting the facilities alleged to have developed and produced the chemical agents.

2019-2021: Partial Peace and Idlib

Syria witnessed major developments in 2020. Among some key developments, however, were the Idlib deal with Russia and Turkey agreeing to share security control, even while the respective strategic goals remain different. Turkey wants to obstruct the Kurds, while the Russians and Syrians want to capture those still hiding.
On March 5 2020, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin to discuss the situation in Idlib. They announced a ceasefire and joint Turkish-Russian patrols along the M4 highway. Meanwhile, Trump decided to withdraw the majority of the US troops from the war-torn country. Russian troops replaced the U.S. troops in some of the military bases in north-eastern Syria.
As for Russia and Turkey, they have an agreement to challenge the remaining ISIS fighters. But, Turkey maintains forces in the north, which support Hayʾat Taḥrīr al-Shām – HTS (which in turn is fighting against ISIS) and other rebels in Idlib, against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to cut them off from potential attacks in Turkey.

2021: Biden is sending US troops back to northern Syria. In his inauguration speech, Biden said that the United States needs to take on a “protagonist” role in the world. (A.B.)

Mexico. Taxco. An inspiring Holy Week.

Monday, 1 March 2021 8:00

Holy Week in Taxco involves one of the most moving and impressive liturgical ceremonies to be found in Mexico. A fascinating and creative religious syncretism.

The crowd observed total silence as they waited for the imminent arrival of the procession. The frightening, uneasy silence was gradually broken by an impressive staccato noise.
In the distance, one can hear the terrifying sound of chains being dragged along the dismal, stone-paved streets of Taxco, stained once again by the sweat and blood of the penitents.
This is Taxco, a city in the north of Guerrero State in central-southern Mexico, now trembling and vibrating with the overflowing and overpowering faith of its penitents. Holy Week in Taxco involves one of the most moving and impressive ceremonies to be found in Mexico.

The city of Taxco in the north of Guerrero State in central-southern Mexico.

During Holy Week, an event lasting from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday, as many as ten processions are held, four during the day and six at night. Holy Week in Taxco has been celebrated this way since 1598. It is thought to have originated in its celebration in Cadice, Spain. It seems that the indigenous Mexicans, used to celebrating the great sacred feasts of their ancient religions embraced with extraordinary energy and fervour the public representations of the Catholic Church, combining them with their rites and beliefs, thus producing a fascinating and creative religious syncretism. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Holy Week are dedicated to the processions performed by three great religious confraternities:

The Bent Ones (Las Animas), the Crucified Ones (Los Encruzados) and the Flagellators (Los Flagelentes) whose members spend the week doing penance and therefore are called ‘penitentes’, inflicting themselves with pain.
All the penitents wear long black robes tied at the waist with a horsehair belt, and a black hood with slits for their eyes. The penitent Animas have chains tied to their ankles which they drag along as they walk. Bent 90 degrees at the waist, they carry small crosses and lighted candles. For this reason, the members of this confraternity are called ‘bent’. The Encruzados carry in procession a bundle of canes tied across their bare shoulders. The bundles may way from 40 to 50 kilos. The Flagelantes walk bare-chested a carry a large wooden cross in the crook of their arms.

Along the roads
Starting from the church of Tehuilotepec (a town near Taxco), the Taxqueños and the Tehuiltecos bring a donkey with an image of Jesus Christ to the parish of Saint Prisca and Saint Sebastian, in the centre of Taxco. The schedule of the first Sunday of Holy Week begins at 6 am with the so-called Procession of the Palms, from the church of Tehuilotepec and along the road that joins the two towns as far as the arches marking the entry into Taxco where they are joined by 12 people representing the twelve apostles. The procession then continues until it reaches the parish church of Saint Prisca and Saint Sebastian. At around 11am, the solemn Mass of Palm Sunday is celebrated.
On Monday of Holy Week, at around 9.30 pm, the so-called procession of the Virgins begins, preceded by the image of the Virgin of the Nativity venerated in the church of Guadalupe. The Virgin is carried from the church to Saint Nicholas Tolentino Square where the procession proper begins, passing along the so-called ‘Via Corta’. The Virgin Mary presides over the procession while the white image of Saint Michael the Archangel, dressed in white clothes, takes the lead and opens the way. Other statues from the other Taxco churches also join the procession: The Virgin of the Candelaria, the Virgin of Fatima, the Virgin of Lourdes, the Virgin of the Conception and the Virgin of the city of Tanda. Each statue is accompanied by a group of women dressed in white (the more common colour) or in black, barefooted and wearing lace veils on their heads, carrying candles and swinging thuribles to purify the air.

Animas penitents. Animas must walk in silence, carrying candles and dragging chains, while bent at the waist. (RNS photo by Irving Cabrera Torres)

On Tuesday of Holy Week, the procession of the chained ones is held with both men and women allowed to take part. It begins around half past nine in the evening and is dedicated to the ‘Souls in Purgatory’. It is presided over by the image of San Nicola Tolentino. The confraternities of the Bent Ones (Animas) and Crucified Ones (Encruzados) also take part. On Wednesday of Holy Week, at about three in the afternoon, in the parish of Saint Prisca and Saint Sebastian, the ‘Garden of Olives’ is constructed using laurel branches, flowers, caged birds and a statue of Jesus. At around nine-thirty, the Procession of the Holy Trinity commences. The procession is led by an image of the Most Holy Trinity. It sets out from the Square of Saint Nicholas Tolentino and follows
the ‘Vía Corta’.

The Liturgy of the Passion
Holy Thursday begins at around nine in the morning with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. During the course of the day, the Taxqueños and their guests visit Gethsemane. At mid-day, there is the reception of ‘Los Cristos’ (the ‘Christs’) in GarÍta Square. The ‘Christs’ are images brought from nearby towns such as Sochula, Landa, Tehuilotepec and Zacatecolotla. The images of the churches of Taxco such as those of Chavarrieta, Ojeda, Pedro Martín, Huizteco, Los Plateros and Los Encruzados are also received.
At around five o’clock in the afternoon, in the parish of Saint Prisca and Saint Sebastian, the Solemn Mass of the Last Supper is celebrated with the ‘Washing of the feet of the Apostles’.

The brotherhood of the Flagelentes. (RNS Photo: Irving Cabrera Torres)

At seven o’clock, there is the ‘March of the Roman Soldiers’ led by Judas Iscariot who is seeking Jesus on the main streets of the city. At eight o’clock, a Solemn Holy Hour is held in the parish church of Saint Prisca and Saint Sebastian. At nine, the ‘Arrest of Jesus’ by the Roman soldiers takes place at the entrance to the church followed by the Procession of the Divine Prisoner, which goes from the church to the chapel of San Nicola Tolentino where the prison where Jesus is represented in prison, has been set up. An all-night vigil is held to venerate the ‘Divine Prisoner’. At eleven o’clock, at the church of Santa Veracruz, there is the Procession of the Christs of the various churches, with the Christ of Santa Veracruz at its head. It takes the so-called ‘Vía Larga’ and arrives back at its starting-point at four.

The church of Saint Prisca in Taxco.

This procession is joined, at the quarter known as Los Jumiles, by the Christ of Huizteco, the Christ of the Specchio, Guadalupe, San Miguel, the Christ of Landa, that of Cazahuates, of La Cima and that of Minas Viejas, which will return to their original chapels at about six in the morning. The confraternities of Las Ánimas, Encruzados and Flagelantes take part in this procession.
On Good Friday, at about six in the morning, there is the Sermon of the Flagellation of Jesus at the chapel of Saint Nicholas Tolentino. At eleven o’clock, the Procession of the Three Falls starts at the same chapel of Saint Nicholas Tolentino. At mid-day, there is the Sermon of the Three Falls in Borda Square and then the procession continues as far as the church of the former convent of Saint Bernard of Siena.
At three in the afternoon, there is the solemn liturgy of the passion and death of Our Lord Jesus Christ at the parish church of Saint Prisca and Saint Sebastian followed by the adoration of the Holy Cross.
At five in the afternoon, at the church of the former convent of Saint Bernard of Siena, there is the sermon of the Descent of Our Lord Jesus Christ followed by the Procession of the Sacred Burial, which follows the path of the ‘Via Corta’ and is joined by the penitents and flagellants.

Encruzado penitents processed through the streets of Taxco, Mexico, during Holy Week. ( RNS Photo: Irving Cabrera Torres).

At eleven in the evening, at the former convent of Saint Bernard of Siena, there is a solemn Rosary and a sermon of condolences to the Blessed Virgin of Sorrows. At midnight, the solemn Silent Procession starts, led by the Blessed Virgin of Sorrows. This is followed by an all-night vigil at the church of Saint Bernard.
On Holy – or ‘glorious’ – Saturday, people bring containers of water to be blessed (the water of glory), which will later be sprinkled in the form of a cross at the entrance to houses to keep away the wicked and the drunks. At ten in the evening, there is the Great Paschal Vigil at the parish church. At midnight, the solemn Mass of the Resurrection of Our Lord is celebrated in the parish church of Saint Prisca and Saint Sebastian. On Easter morning, at the same church, another Mass is celebrated and Our Lord Jesus Christ is dressed in white. After this Mass, there is a children’s procession along the ‘Via Corta’. At five in the afternoon, the solemn Procession of the Resurrection is also held along the ‘Via Corta’, starting at the convent of San Bernardino de Siena and ending at the church of San Miguel. This celebration marks the end of the great event of Holy Week.

Pedro Santacruz

Philippines. The Black Nazarene. A Question of Quiapo Faith.

Monday, 1 February 2021 8:00

Even though the grand procession of the image of the Black Nazarene has been canceled this year due to coronavirus, the devotion to the centuries-old icon of Jesus Christ is unique in the world. We trace the origins and developments of such deeply-rooted Filipino tradition.

The devotion to the Black Nazarene started in a sort of accidental way. According to a popular tradition that cites the Cronicas de la Provincia de San Gregorio by Fray Juan San Antonio, the Black Nazarene arrived in the Philippine shores on May 31, 1606, during the time of the Galleon Trade (1565-1815).Back in 1578, Quiapo itself was only part of the Franciscan mission town of Santa Ana de Sapa (literally St. Ann of the Creek), which extended all the way to the south of the Pasig River.

Quiapo got its name from the water cabbage called kiyapo which abounded in its estuaries and rivulets that ran through the islets. The district became a town on its own right on August 29, 1586, when Governor-General Santiago de Vera granted the petition of the Franciscan Prelado Superior Pedro Bautisa (who was later martyred in Japan in 1596) to make Quiapo a separate town.
The Prelate designated Antonio de Nombella as the first curate of this new parish dedicated to the Sweetest Name of Jesus. Its first structure rose in 1592, made of nipa or thatch and bamboo.
In 1598, the Franciscans relinquished control of this extramuros parish (that is, outside of the walled city of Manila proper) to the Archbishop of Manila, who turned it into its Secretariat and made St. John the Baptist
its titular saint.

Artistic excellence
Trade picked up partly as an offshoot of evangelization initiated by the Franciscans, succeeded by secular priests, then for three years by the Jesuits, and henceforth carried on by diocesan priests. Religious sculptures, paintings, engravings, and books were produced by the people in the vicinity, building a reputation for artistic excellence and prestige. Other inhabitants of Quiapo also became wage-earners in Intramuros across the Pasig River, imbibing its culture and sharing
its economic fruits.

Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene or also known as Quiapo church façade.

Centuries have seen the church rebuilt as a sturdier church of stone after the thatch and rattan structure was gutted by fire. But this too was demolished in a major earthquake in the 1880s.Three more calamities saw it rebuilt, like the one by Philippine National Artist for Architecture Juan Nakpil in the early 1900s after another fire. Nakpil also donated the canopy or baldachino over the Black Nazarene. The present structure, renovated in 1987, has had its nave expanded designed by Architect Jose Maria Zaragoza, a disciple of Nakpil. The church is now also designated asthe Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene.

Augustinian Recollects
The Black Nazarene came on May 31, 1606, from Mexico. Again, popular stories have it that when a galleon ship got stranded in Mexico due to inclement weather, its officers and crewmen (Spaniards and Filipinos alike) prayed in a church where the Black Nazarene was. But since it was hard to convince its crew to sail back over the Pacific Ocean, the captain asked the parish priest of the church to allow his men to bring with them the statue of the cross-carrying Christ so they would be accompanied through the squalls and dangers of the Pacific Ocean.
The church could have been entrusted to the Order of Augustinian Recollects (OAR) as ten or so friars from that order brought the Black Nazarene officially. Upon reaching the ports of Cavite, the Augustinian Recollects took care of sheltering the statue in what was to be their initial evangelization territory, Cavite Puerto, where the galleon ships docked and where trade was brisk.

When they brought it to Manila, it first found its niche in a church dedicated to St. John the Baptist just outside Intramuros in Bagumbayan (now Luneta). After two years, it was transferred to the OAR’s grander church inside the walls dedicated to San Nicolas de Tolentino.
The Recollects were also recorded to have brought other images from the stations of the cross, like the Agony in the Garden, the Scourging at the Pillar, and the Crowning with Thorns. But apparently, the Nazareno or this Cross-carrying Christ is the one that got popular attention and devotion.
The Black Nazarene is a life-sized statue of Jesus Christ usually genuflecting on his left knee, with his right shoulder bearing the cross. He is robed in brocaded maroon (or even the intricate estofadong burda, literally stuffed embroidery) or velvet with collar and sleeves accented with white or yellow ruffs reminiscent of the court of Philip II.
On his head is a crown of thorns with three potencias of beaten gold suggesting divine radiance. The image is of dark hardwood made even darker through years of wiping with rose oil and perfume. The original image could well be of dark mahogany or ebony (ironwood or kamagong), or black mesquite, which was prevalent as material for sacred images in South America.

One of the more dubious claims is one from a website on Philippine festivals and Wikipedia that it was of ivory when it sailed from Mexico but got to Philippine shore as black as it is now after supposedly surviving a ship fire. The statue is not of ivory but of dark ironwood like the Philippine kamagong.
Within two decades of its arrival, the Recollects had promoted such a lively devotion to the cross-bearing Christ. On April 20, 1621, Pope Innocent X authorized the veneration of the Black Nazarene. In 1650, the Pope subsequently recognized the Confraternity of Our Lord Jesus of Nazareth (Cofradía de Nuestro Santo Jesús Nazareno). On January 9, 1787, Bishop of Manila Basilio Sancho de Santas Junta y Rufina had it transferred to Quiapo Church or Parish of St. John the Baptist.

Nazarene in Quiapo
One of the legends that went around was how the Black Nazarene “chose” Quiapo church for his shrine. According to some devotees, in one of the New Year processions, the people were bearing the image when it rained. They waited inside the church for the rain to subside. But when they were about to resume the procession, the bearers were surprised to find the image unbearably heavy. Devotees concluded that the image refused to leave the church.
But of course, it was just one of those legends, almost as improbable as the ivory turning ebony black in a fire. Another recent discovery is a claim that the Black Nazarene in the Quiapo Church is but a replica and not the first one that accompanied the agitated galleon crew on the trip back from Mexico.
The Recollects supposed to have ordered a second Black Nazarene from Mexico, also of mesquite carved by a Mexican artisan, in order to leave one to the St. John the Baptist extramuros church in Bagumbayan. This was to be the one that would be transferred to Quiapo Church, which also happened to be dedicated to St. John the Baptist.

Celia M. Bonilla

Africa interprets “Fratelli Tutti” for the world. As sweet as Ubuntu.

Monday, 1 February 2021 8:00

“If I am because we are, then true fraternity leaves no one behind, because we are saved together and are responsible for the life of all”. Africa has something unique to offer to help reverse the ill-fated drift of modern world.

Fratelli Tutti, (“Brothers [and Sisters] All”) is the latest open letter of Pope Francis to the Catholic Church and the world. The Encyclical, as these official papal documents are called, is an effort to explain for everyone what is certainly the most fundamental principle of human and Christian existence: the requirement of love. Love constitutes a prerequisite of human survival. As such, it seeks and deserves constant interpretation and application in different contexts.

Sometimes, the process is rendered easier and more accessible to the human mind through systems of language, symbols, and ways of living (or cultures) of particular times and peoples. The route towards appreciating the mysteries of God, of which love is one, for the sake of meaningful human existence always takes this form of clarification.

Inculturating love
The process of translating the imperative of love, therefore, must continue with different cultures, supplying what is unavoidably lacking or defective in previous renditions. Such is particularly the case in our day. For Christians, as faith in Jesus Christ spreads and takes root in different parts of the world, the challenge of deciphering the concrete demands of Christian charity becomes more and more obvious. In Africa, the undertaking is needed for the benefit of the continent itself, but also for the rest of the world.

An important reason for this requirement in contemporary Africa immediately comes to mind. More than anywhere else, African Christianity is rapidly growing in numbers, and its contribution to the process of clarification of Christian faith dictates, therefore, is increasingly vital. For too long, lack of integration of African accounts into the official reception and expression of the faith has been detrimental to the Church globally.
The current critical question that the Pope is addressing in Fratelli Tutti – one that concerns the Church and the world at large – involves how the obligation of love can be transformed into action for the survival of the universe. In view of the current global political, economic and social environment that is destructive of love and, consequently, of human existence, what concrete forms should the call to love take?

Global fraternity
The Pope’s reflection has as its central goal to spell out the practical meaning of what he calls “social friendship”. His conviction is ultimately that sincere communion and companionship – or what he describes as global brotherhood and sisterhood, leading to collective friendship – is the only hope for the survival of humanity and the universe. This shared ethical stance of togetherness and mutual appreciation is what alone enables the moral attitude “that allows us to acknowledge, appreciate and love each person, regardless of physical proximity, regardless of where he or she was born or lives” (FT 1).

The Pope notes that current trends in the world forecast disaster, unless immediate action is taken to reverse them. He explicitly lists several indicators whereby the requirement of friendship as the hallmark of global survival is being radically eroded by routine behaviour hostile to mutuality. Included in the drift is the rising predisposition to senseless waste of resources, due to un- bridled consumerism. But there is also the related and more serious tendency toward disrespect or disregard of the humanity and dignity of some persons.
Implicated in this trend is the phenomenon of social neglect of certain categories of people: the old, the poor, women, children, the disabled, migrants, and strangers. In many ways, these people’s rights are being eroded, despite certain rhetoric to the contrary. Citing Jesus’ allegory in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), Pope Francis notes that these groups represent the man attacked by robbers and left for dead. These classes of people are literally abandoned “by the roadside” of modern life. They embody the ever-expanding gulf between the privileged and the poor in our societies.

Africa’s unique gift
Given this current scenario, Africa has something unique to offer to help reverse the ill-fated drift. Although for too long overlooked, in the Church in particular, there has been a serious review of this regrettable oversight in recent times. Since the end of the Second Vatican Council in the mid- twentieth Century, several official instructions of the Church have insisted on the importance and necessity of incorporating into the interpretation of the message of Christ some African values embedded in the cultures of the continent.

In Fratelli Tutti, Africa’s contribution to the project of worldwide friendship is easily discernible. African Catholic theologian, Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator, points it out in a perceptive reflection on the Encyclical published in the American news journal, Catholic National Reporter, of 6th October 2020. Orobator perceives the kernel of the Encyclical to be intrinsically linked with the central concern of the African worldview: namely, the non-negotiable value of human life, the safeguarding of which is described in various parts of the continent as Ubuntu. As Orobator asserts unequivocally, Fratelli Tutti, by any other name, would smell as sweet as Ubuntu: as “an African humanist philosophy based on a culture of sharing, openness, mutual dependence, dialogue and interpersonal encounter”, Ubuntu bears the ultimate promise for the future of humanity and the world.

Orobator explains: “In Ubuntu, human existence reaches fulfilment as part of whole, society thrives on a common humanity, and forgiveness and reconciliation are prerequisites for preserving social harmony”. In this sense, the Ubuntu worldview renders concrete the evangelical obligation of practical love exemplified by the biblical Good Samaritan. In the Ubuntu worldview, the question, “And who is my neighbour?”, finds the only accurate and concrete response.

Constant struggle
Ubuntu, considered from the point of view of Pope Francis’ Fratelli Tutti, leaves the Church and world in general with both the task of realising the demands of love and the challenge of implementing them. What actual implications in Christian life does comprehensive love imply? Specifically, in the contemporary global situation, how is it possible to actualise the values regarding this task as contained in the Ubuntu worldview? But it must be understood that, as is the case within African culture itself, so also elsewhere: the practice of Ubuntu as universal love is a constant struggle. The habit of “sharing, openness, mutual dependence, dialogue and interpersonal encounter… forgiveness and reconciliation”, as Orobator lists these active attributes of Ubuntu, is never a complete given in any human society. It is something to be continually striven for.

It goes a long way to approximate the objective of global brotherhood and sisterhood – or the goal of worldwide practical love – if this behaviour is institutionalised in clear structures of social character formation. Here is where the Ubuntu worldview is important as an inspiration to the world. Where institutions and structures of brotherhood and sisterhood already exist, they need clearer and stronger focus and emphasis, not merely as laws (legalism), but also as attitudes (internal convictions). In the Church, they must persistently be made explicit as part and parcel of the programme of Christian living in every locality, parish, diocese, nation and globally. Consciously and deliberately, they need to be made a constitutive feature of the model of Church we want, so as to promote the desirable world order.

At the risk of simplification on account of the brevity of this analysis, let us isolate only a few major areas in the Church that can benefit from an open infusion by the spirit of Ubuntu.
One thinks, for example, of the process of catechising neophytes, ongoing Christian instruction in homilies, and programs of theological formation for priests and religious. Further, it is urgent to initiate and continue sincere dialogue across cultures and religions worldwide. Structurally, in the Church, Small Christian Communities, as ‘a new way of being Church’, present places to carry out mutual exchange of ideas as well as other requirements of Ubuntu. If well structured, Small Christian Communities are ideal spaces where the sharing of material resources – a necessary obligation of true Ubuntu – can also flourish.

Laurenti Magesa
Hekima University College – Nairobi

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