The Bishops Will Be Our Voice

FIFTEEN years after the first special assembly of the Synod of Bishops of Africa, the continent has seen great changes. There have been many positive ones, but almost an equal proportion [or even more] of the negative variations.

According to the Catholic News Service (CNS), positive changes usually go unnoticed, because Africa – it has come to be known – is a continent synonymous with hate, violence and conflict. According to the working document (Instrumentum Laboris) for the Second African Synod (October 2009), to be held at the Vatican, in Africa there has been a release of people from the yoke of the dictatorial regimes, and this is heralding a new era!

More nations have seen some gains with established democratic principles. Some have had elections, which have been comprehended as free, fair, and widely accepted by the people in those respective countries.

For example, after the fall of belligerents in Liberia, then torn by civil strive in the 1990s – conflicts that spilled into neighbouring Sierra Leone and Ghana – we see justice catching up with some of the perpetrators, including Charles Taylor. In November 2005, as some political sanity returned
in that part of West Africa, Liberians handed Ellen Johnson- Sirleaf, not only the honour of being the first female head of state in Africa, but also the chance to return their country to the rule of law.

Quoting the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes, CNS reveals that thirty-two out of the fifty-three African states experienced some form of violent conflicts between 1991 and 2005. But since 2002, more than half of those countries have implemented or attempted to
implement peace, usually through negotiations.

Rwanda, whose genocide that flamed a few days after the Synod had opened in Rome, is today considered one of the countries with a vibrant economy. Burundi, its neighbour, whose history is marked with over twelve years of ethnic bloodshed, shows great signs of continued recovery. The two, are today part of the East African Community, which originally integrated only Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.

But Somalia, in the horn of Africa and Darfur in western Sudan, continue to poke the nerves of Africa’s stability. Zimbabwe’s economic slump, the general widespread poverty, as well as rampant drought and starvation are questions whose answers cloud the continent in the obscurity of its natural riches of minerals and oil, upon which most countries bask.

The gap between the rich and the poor people is just widening in Africa, just as it is, between the continent and those of Europe and North America. The wealth of most political leaders in Africa is exorbitantly non-proportional to their entitlements, while their people go without basic needs, nor social amenities.

In trade, which is seen as a driving force to sustainable development, Africa, in today’s tightly inter-woven global political economy, remains at the bottom of the food chain. Its national economies, widely liberalized for the expensive high-value-added products, cannot compete with the ones tightly protected and heavily subsidized, in the West.

As if with less regard to their people, many African leaders are even parceling out tracts of land to foreign ‘investors’, almost always forcefully evicting poor local tenants and leaving them landless and more dependant. From Madagascar to Ethiopia, and Sierra Leone to Angola and Mozambique, Uganda and Congo; an aggressive wave of ‘land grabbing’, supported by governments that ‘clothe’ it in the guise of national interest, is sweeping across Africa, like no one’s concern.

There is need for experts on such matters, to brief our bishops on possible solutions that could be presented at the Synod, for the benefit of the continent. The bishops, who should be assisted to get true and relevant information to present different issues affecting Africa, at this rare convocation, shall sound our voices.

Today, we must return to that beginning,” said Francis Cardinal Arinze, in a homily he delivered for Pope John Paul II, at the Mass of the conclusion of the Synod, at St Peter’s Basilica, Rome, on May 8, 1994. “We must present ourselves in faith before the Father… if this process is accompanied by crises, it is usually a question of crises of growth, from which people normally emerge more mature.”

Because the Church in Africa is young, in terms of historical chronology, its youthfulness entails freshness; a kind of vitality with which it can help the continent overcome its trials, Cardinal Arinze observed. He said, “All this has been the subject of our work during the Synod.

“In its phase of reflection and discussion, the Synod has taken place here in Rome, near the tomb of St Peter. Now, we await the right moment to transfer its fruits to your continent. We have, in fact, decided that the concluding part of the Synod will be held in selected places in Africa, in order to familiarise the People of God, with the conclusions reached by the Synodal Assembly, and to begin to introduce into the life of the Churches of Africa the decisions taken.”

October is yet another chance for Africa to retreat and examine the challenges its peoples are facing today. It will be another moment to find solutions to Africa’s problems – to foster reconciliation, justice and peace. And the lay people, just like their bishops, have a lot at stake.

In the Lineamenta (document to bring out views of the faithful, for the Synod) it was stated that the Church could not lose sight of its faithful. “They share the joys and sufferings of people, today. To fulfill her mission, that is, to make the Kingdom of God present in history, calls for the Church’s solidarity with all creation,” the Bishops stated.