Caroline went off this morning on her new baisikeli. Final rehearsals for graduation are becoming tense; nuns throwing shoes, children crying; but still they find time to serve Caroline with a bowl of rice specially saved for her. She is the elder after all.
We cycled to the University – actually St Augustine’s Catholic University, to give it its full title - for lunch. Lunch is served in a huge wood and concrete gazebo. It comprises the standard Tanzanian fixed menu which we seem to find everywhere – rice, a small amount of fish or meat in sauce, beans, cabbage, fruit – all served in separate compartments on a prison-like food tray. At the University, this ample, freshly cooked and very tasty meal costs 1000 shillings (that’s 40p to us!)
As we ate our lunch I reflected on the massive impact the Catholic Church has had on this country. In the week that the Pope has issued some welcome remarks on the condom I paused to think of what my dad told me about such things. What goes on under the bedsheets is a private matter – between you and God; not so, the state of Africa and the world’s poor; that is a very public matter. Those liberals in Europe who would condemn the Catholic Church might want to reflect on this. I can only comment on what I’ve seen around Tanzania, but from kindergarten to university; from hospitals, hospices to homeless shelters, if the Catholic Church should remove itself from this country, the country would implode. The lives of so many millions of people are inextricably tied to and dependent on the Church.
Back home, this evening, our lives have become quite quickly much simpler than they were in Leeds. A bike ride, a swim, a beer and home for supper. Aubergines, beans, onions and rice – all grown locally; these vegetables are plentiful, yet expensive for so many who have so little. Being rich in a poor country brings dilemmas hitherto unforeseen. Tomorrow morning, I will have Italian coffee for breakfast, which now seems inappropriate, perhaps morally reprehensible. On the other hand, Mum has sent us loads of chocolate. It’s mostly FairTrade, but Ratty isn’t fussy. I’ve hidden it well. We’ll see if Ratty finds it.
I reflect most days on the possible relation between the Catholic Church and the incidence of poverty and oppression in many parts of the world. The relation cultivated by the Church seems to be one of deliberately induced fatalism and dependency - this does not enhance human well-being or remove poverty. Charity, as a disempowering cloak for such dependency, is the age old seductive trick. The fact that the wealthier parts of the world are mired in materialism is no reason to lie down in submission to an authoritarian power structure. I still love the liturgy, and I can imagine the chanting in Africa is mesmeric; but, as my Dad also used to say, the devil always had the best tunes!
ReplyDeleteIt's not about the tunes Michael and its not about the Church nurturing dependency. We made Africa like it is today. Thank goodness the Church didn't abandon it.
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