The other Africa

Reconciliation, justice, peace, evangelization - these themes signify the challenges and hopes of the African continent, the subject of the next Roman Catholic Bishops Synod, and it is around these themes that the experience of the Focolare Movement in Africa has developed.

In January, 2009, the new President of the Focolare, Maria Emmaus Voce, visited Fontem in the sub-Saharan forest of West Cameroon to take part in the celebration of the ‘Cry-Die’, an ancestral African ceremony which marked the end of the period of mourning for Chiara Lubich, founder of the Focolare, who died on 14 March, 2008. The event was characterized by a commitment to continue living Chiara’s legacy of love and unity.

The Cry-Die
The Cry-Die was an explosion of joy, a hymn to life expressed through colourful dances and songs by the Bangwa and neighbouring peoples on the large open space in front of the royal palace of the Fon of Fontem.
For the Bangwa, Chiara is the ‘Mafua Ndem’. (‘queen sent by God’) This  title, conferred on her during her last visit to Fontem in 2000, placed her amongst the ancestors, pillars of African culture, perpetuating her memory and recourse to her.
On the 10 January thousands gathered in front of the palace. Many had come from far away, and many had travelled for hours on foot. The Fon, Dr Lukas Nijfua, presented to Maria Voce and to Giancarlo Faletti, Co-President of the Focolare, a large lighted torch, symbol of the unity and light brought by Chiara. They were then clothed with traditional royal garments. ‘Now you are part of the Bangwa people and culture’, said the Fon, ‘guardians of Chiara’s legacy’ of maternity, development, and evangelization.

Reconciliation and Peace
In reply Maria Voce recalled the meeting in the same place in 2000, the Jubilee Year of  reconciliation. At that time Chiara’s proposal of ‘a strong binding pact of mutual love which commits us to being always in full peace with our brothers and sisters and to re-building peace whenever it is broken’, had been taken up by the Fon of Fontem and the Fon of Fonjumetaw and their peoples. Maria Voce thanked everyone for having co-operated in the spreading of this fire of love and for putting it into practice in all areas of life. She expressed her joy that eighteen other Fons had now committed themselves to spreading Chiara’s Gospel legacy so that peace would always reign amongst the peoples of the area. The ‘vocation’ of Fontem, she said, is to be ‘the city on the hilltop’ which spreads ‘the light kept burning by fraternal love in God’s name’.

Development and Evangelization
The day before, two thousand people had participated in a mass in St Clare’s church, in a liturgy enlivened by vibrant African dance rhythms. Archbishop Verdzekov of Bamenda, who has witnessed the developments at Fontem since the beginning, noted how the Fon and local dignitaries, who are ‘guardians of the expression of traditional African religion’, have shown that these traditions are not an obstacle to Christianity and have embraced ‘the project of the new evangelization’.
This organic project was agreed by Chiara and the Fon of Fontem in 2000. On that occasion the Fon had stated that the spirituality that the Focolare had brought to his people was more important than the material help. As a consequence of living this spirituality there had been a marked reduction in disputes over land, in divorces and criminality, and an increase in respect for authority and for older people.
The project is sustained by teams made up young people, adults and families working in close collaboration with the local tribal leaders. It is a slow but deep process of evangelization. Only a minority have become Christians, but many are drawing close to the God of Jesus Christ. On returning to Italy after the Cry-Die, Fr Fabio Ciardi commented that the practice of asking God for the death of wrongdoers has been replaced by praying to God to convert their hearts. The distant God has become ‘God who is love, the God who is near’ with ‘the features of the God of Jesus Christ’.

Inculturation
The process of inculturation has not been easy. The wounds caused by colonialism were still fresh when the Focolare first arrived in Cameroon. In addition, what was required from Western focolarini was a radical love which was able to leave behind a Western mentality and a certain unconscious feeling of superiority, and welcome and understand the culture of the local people, working with them in their development. The Focolare school for inculturation was established in Kenya in 1992 to promote this understanding. A Bangwa focolarino, Martin Nkafu, who teaches in Rome, commented, ‘The miracle of Fontem is precisely this: those differences, which previously seemed to be obstacles, become riches which make up the mosaic of a new people’.
An area related to this is inter-religious dialogue.  In the days preceding the Cry-Die a meeting was held at Fontem, attended by one hundred and fifty representatives from various African countries,  on the theme ‘nature, a place for meeting God’. It was noted that traditional African religions have a monotheistic faith which includes adoration of the one God, creator of heaven and earth, and not adoration of nature.

Justice
Chiara’s dream has always been that of a world united in fraternity. In Africa a commitment to realize this dream has been a question of justice, paying back to Africa the debt owed by the West. Justice is also equality, an exchange of riches, a discovery in African culture of values that have been lost in the West. Maria Voce commented, ‘What struck me most was that Africans know how to live together. Community life for them is natural. I was also struck by their religiosity; for them, liturgical celebrations are life, their whole life is a celebration.’
Focolare representatives from other parts of sub-Saharan Africa were present at the Cry-Die celebrations. Their sharing of experiences illustrated the spreading of this particular Gospel spirit in the most diverse parts of Africa: in refugee camps, in cities, in isolated villages. Seeds of reconciliation and development have been sown, for example, in Ethiopa, Congo, Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and South Africa. And this wave of evangelization has its roots in Fontem.

Fontem and the Focolare – the history

1965 – Why has God abandoned us?
This was the cry of desperation of the Bangwa people who, because of a 90% infant mortality rate caused by sleeping sickness, were heading for extinction. The leaders of the Bangwa appealed to the local bishop, Bishop Peeters for the prayers of Christians to help them in their plight. When Bishop Peeters was in Rome for the Second Vatican Council he met Chiara Lubich and asked if she could offer any help.
February 1966
The first focolarini arrive in Fontem, including doctors and nurses. The first dispensary is opened in a wooden hut.
June 1966
Chiara visits Fontem to lay the foundation stone of the new hospital. She is welcomed by all the people, the majority of whom are followers of the traditional religion, with songs and dances, in thanksgiving to God for his response to their prayers.
January 1969
Chiara returns to open the first ward in the hospital. She expresses her recognition of the values she has found in the Bangwa people: ‘Never, in any other place, have I found such kindness, goodness, such profound human values, so much love and faith as here is Fontem.’ She also shares an intuition with the people: ‘Here a town will spring up. It will become known, not so much for its material wealth, but because here a light will shine which will be a fruit of fraternal love, kept burning amongst us in the name of God.’ It is from here that spirit of unity was to spread throughout the continent of Africa.
1992
Chiara founds a school of inculturation at Nairobi, based on the Focolare spirituality of unity, to give value to ‘seeds of the Word’ present in African cultures.
May 2000
Chiara goes once again to Fontem, which now has a school, a hospital specialising in tropical diseases and with an AIDs ward, a power station. New roads improve access to Fontem, which has now become an official district of Cameroon with eighty thousand inhabitants.
Chiara is invested with the title ‘Mafua Ndem’, Queen sent by God. She addresses the people, the majority of whom are not Christians: ‘Everyone is completely free to follow other faiths,’ but, she adds, with great conviction, ‘you are not free not to love, because religions, as a rule, require that.’ Chiara proposes ‘a strong and binding pact of mutual love,’ to all those present.
This acts as a spark to set alight a new evangelisation whose first adherents are the leaders of the Bangwa and then the chiefs of other neighbouring tribes. The Fon pledges himself in front of Chiara to live the Gospel spirit of love and unity.

Some Facts and Figures

Cameroon borders with Nigeria to the West, and to the East with Chad and the Central African Republic. And to the South with Congo, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

The population of Cameroon is around fifteen million, composed of some two hundred and forty ethnic groups. Religions practised include: Christianity, Islam and traditional religions.

Fontem situated in South-West Cameroon, in the heart of the equatorial forest, is in the English-speaking part of the country. It is inhabited by the Bangwa people, an ancient civilisation that has preserved the richness of the most authentic African values: respect for life, hospitality, a strong sense of community, solidarity, fraternal warmth and wisdom.

In its social organisation, the collective aspect is foremost. Fontem is divided into nine ‘kingdoms’, each governed by a Fon, or king, accompanied by the Mafua, or queen, a sister of the Fon. Each village is led by a chief who, together with other chiefs, govern the whole tribe with their own Fon. This ‘monarchical’ language does not originate from the local culture, but has been based on that of the British colonisers.

It was Portuguese traders who gave the country its name when, in 1472, when Fernando Po’s ships dropped anchor in the estuary of the River Wouri which was full of crayfish. He called it ‘Rio dos Camaroes’, River of the Crayfish, hence the name Cameroon.

In 1884, Cameroon was occupied by the Germans who held it as a colony until 1916. After the First World War, in 1919, it was taken over by the French and the British and divided in two. In 1960 Cameroon became independent.