Our concern for Africa is shaped by long term relationsips between Maryknoll missioners and the people of Sudan and South Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Namibia. We honor their strength and wisdom and believe that African cultures and traditions often suggest solutions to seemingly intractable local and global problems.
In Africa our Global Concerns work is at times country-specific, focussing, for example, on the slow process toward peace between Sudan and South Sudan, or the genocide in Darfur; the political and economic collapse of Zimbabwe; the introduction of genetically modified seeds or the political situation in Tanzania; efforts to stop corruption in Kenya, among other issues. We also address transnational issues of great concern to all people in Africa: deep and endemic poverty; the HIV and AIDS pandemic; the call for the cancellation of illegitimate and overwhelming debt without conditions that worsen poverty; just trade agreements; the rights of women and children; and environmental degradation.
In early September, faith-based organizations issued a statement citing the “recent surge in violence in eastern Congo with the mutiny and rise of the March 23 movement, or M23,” and their alarm at UN reports revealing Rwanda’s role in supporting and perpetuating violence by orchestrating and bolstering M23 with both military and financial support. The following article was published in the September-October 2012 NewsNotes.
In late June, the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns joined with other colleagues in signing the letter below to the U.S. Senate; it asks the Senate to reconsider the increasingly militarized relationship the U.S. has been fostering with African nations. In the next few weeks we might learn more about the recent resignation of Scott Gration from his position as U.S. ambassador to Kenya; initial analysis points to Gration’s preference for a more conciliatory tone led to disagreements with the administration’s larger plan for the region.
Learn more about the ongoing conflict in the DRC and sign a petition at Change.org to urge Sec. Clinton’s response.
The scripture reflection for July 22 is written by Sr. Rebecca Macugay, who writes of her native Philippines and her mission home in Namibia: “How do we shepherd each other in the paths of justice, in our communities and in our home, planet earth?”
Sr. Roni Schweyen writes this week’s reflection, drawing on her years of mission work in Tanzania.
In 2002, Maryknoll Sister Kathleen Barbee, who has lived and worked in Africa for many years, and a Redemptorist colleague responded to the profound needs of Zimbabwean children living in poverty and established the Mavambo (“genesis”) Trust. Mavambo programs assist children who live in Zimbabwe’s Mabvuku, Tafara and Goromonzi districts; many of the children who…
