1960 HAS BEEN called the Year of Africa, since
in that year 17 African countries gained their independence from
European rule—14 from France, two from Great Britain and one from
Belgium. Cameroon became independent on the first day of
the year, followed by Togo, Madagascar, Somalia and the Democratic
Republic of the Congo (DRC). August will mark the anniversaries of the
independence of nine other countries, Benin, Niger, Burkina Faso, Ivory
Coast, the Central African Republic, the Republic
of Congo (Congo Brazzaville), Gabon and Senegal. Three more
anniversaries will follow later this year, those of the independence of
Mali, Nigeria and Mauritania.
Asking him to reflect on 60 years of
independence in Africa, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) spoke with
Father Apollinaire Cibaka Cikongo, a Congolese priest, who serves as
dean and Professor at the University of Mbuji-Mayi in DRC. He
is the author of many books and articles of theology, social commentary
and literature.
ACN: 60 years after independence, Africa
continues to suffer so much conflict and unrest. You referred to 60
years of failure that have turned Africa into the continent of violence.
Is that not a very harsh analysis?
No, it is the truth. The current state of Black
Africa is not the fruit of a positive dynamic but rather of a dynamic of
violence caused by the Western conquest of Africa—the treatment of
Negro slaves, colonialism, the false independences,
the Cold War, the dictatorships and the apparent democracies. Activated
both from within and from without, this violence is a constitutive
feature of Black Africa, to the extent that it has become a geopolitical
entity built upon violence, suffering from violence
and living from violence.
Why is this?
The physical violence continues each year, and
pitilessly, costing the lives of thousands of people. There are three
key factors causing these wars to break out. First, the conflicts caused
by “failed coexistences,” the result of artificial
geopolitical configurations, the result of internal and external power
interests which manipulate and create conflict between the different
African peoples. Secondly, there are wars caused by greed and
covetousness, by the economic interests of certain indigenous
groups and international powers. The struggle for the control and
exploitation of continent’s immense human and natural resources is
costing many human lives in Africa. And finally, there are religious
wars by means of which certain peoples and cultures are
being forcibly converted and which currently, in the case of Islam,
have assumed an expression of violent terrorism, blind, absurd and
gratuitous in the name of causes that have nothing to do with the vital
interests of the African people.
Why is this still the case after 60 years?
Our economy is built around the interests of the
major powers which subjected us, and likewise by the new ones coming
from Asia. These powers still get more benefit from the continent’s
resources than the African nations themselves due
to the unjust rules of a cruel market system. In addition, the economy
has been unable to develop or diversify; it has not gone beyond the
extraction, transport and sale of raw materials. Afterwards, we have to
buy back these goods at high prices in markets
controlled by others. It is also the result of mismanagement and theft
in the countries themselves. What little is left in the country is not
managed for the good of all citizens, but according to the wants and
whims of those who flaunt the power of the state
and its elected representatives.
Some of ACN’s project partners complain of a
“social subjection” in relation to their culture. Many NGOs, including
even the international aid agencies, impose conditions designed to
change the worldview, the way life of the African
people. Is this true?
It’s a form of cultural violence exerted by
external powers and interest groups who deny the deep-rooted African
cultural values with the aim of imposing ideologies that are alien to us
and very often contrary to natural law. This happens
principally in matters relating to life and the family, through the use
of economic, diplomatic, political and cultural pressure; it is also an
anthropological form of violence, because it deprives us of the right
to freely determine our lives, a right which
belongs to every human being. This is the principal legacy of the slave
trade, which transformed Africa into a veritable hell and in which
black people have suffered centuries of denigration, not merely from
outside, but also from a sort of “auto-racism” through
the interiorization by the Africans themselves of their condition of
being “less than human.”
What role has the Catholic Church played these past 60 years?
The Church functions better than any other
institution. Despite the failings and the difficulties, it is the only
one of all the institutions inherited from the West that actually
performs. In many places, such as DRC, for example, you
could say that the Church is the state, without which there would be no
life, no hope, and no future. This can be seen in many areas, notably
in the field of education and healthcare.
In the absence of a state that looks out for the
education and health of its people, the Church is responsible for around
50 percent of all the schools, formation centers, hospitals and health
centers, with some among them the best in the
country. They are often the only ones in all those towns and villages
forgotten by the state.
What are the difficulties for the Church in this respect?
The Catholic Church is carrying out its pastoral
and social work in the face of internal fragility and external hostility
which constantly threaten to undermine or ruin its work. We suffer an
internal fragility on account of the laity,
who have little sense of commitment to their secular vocation; the
social commitment of the Church rests on the bishops and the episcopal
conferences, and this weakens her. Additionally, we lack the material
resources and depend on generosity from outside,
for without this help the African Church would be unable to survive and
serve.
Finally, we are facing a situation of fierce
religious competition from the evangelical sects and Christians are
decreasing demographically, because we have not succeeded in renewing
our approach to the Christian apostolate.
What it the nature of external hostility to the work of the Church?
Because of her social work, the Church threatens
many private interests and for this reason undermining her influence is
the objective of many such actors, especially the politicians. The
Church is inconvenient, hated and even persecuted
by some states which, rather than facilitating her work, instead try to
silence her voice, using violent and intimidatory methods to suppress
every expression of criticism of the status quo.
One of the strategies used to weaken the Church is
to create division among Christians, and the other is fomenting
corruption of the “religious world” through the multiplication of new
Christian Churches, many of which are purely money-making
schemes. In the case of DRC, during the past 30 years the state has
granted juridical personality to around 17,000 so-called Christian
Churches. To put it another way, an average of three new Churches have
been created every two days. The same thing happens
through the state’s social promotion of Islam.
What can Catholics do not to be a part of the problem but rather a part of the solution?
Only a Church that is faithful to Christ and to the
Gospel, through contemplation, humility, service, exemplary behavior
and commitment on the part of all its members can be equal to its
spiritual mission within society. It is the one thing
that Christ asks of the Church, so that she may be the temple and
instrument of his love and his grace.
—Paulo Aido
With picture of Fr. Apollinaire Cibaka Cikongo (© Emmeric Fohlenz-ACN)
Editor’s Notes:
Directly under the Holy
Father, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they
are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic
charity - helping to bring Christ to the world through
prayer, information and action.
Founded in 1947 by
Father Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An
Outstanding Apostle of Charity,” the organization is now at work in over
145 countries throughout the world.
The charity undertakes
thousands of projects every year including providing transport for
clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding
for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians.
Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 43 million Aid to the Church in
Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.
