Making Africa Matter

Previewing the 2009 African Synod (October 2009)

When Africa grabs the attention of the world’s media, it is often for the most negative of reasons; the problems of HIV/AIDS, civil wars and violence, negative ethnicity, genocide, refugees, poverty and corruption all across the continent are but a few examples. Still, recent events are beginning to cast Africa in a more positive light, starting with 2009 being called the “Year of Africa” by National Catholic Reporter (NCR) correspondent John Allen and others. Then, in March of this year, Pope Benedict XVI made his first visit to the continent of Africa visiting the countries of Cameroon and Angola.

In addition to this historic trip, the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) is set to hold its 15th plenary assembly at Frascati, near Rome on October 3 which leads directly into the Second African Synod on October 4-25. In 1994 African bishops and other delegates met in Rome to discuss the Catholic Church’s work of evangelization in the first synod ever devoted entirely to issues concerning Africa. Now, exactly 15 years later, delegates will again meet in Rome in the Second African Synod to focus on the Catholic Church’s role in the process of “reconciliation, justice and peace” on the continent. This theme addresses some of the most burning issues for the survival, health and growth of Africa where, according to 2009 statistics, the general population has exploded to one billion people. In Kenya alone, the population has grown from 7 million people at the time of independence in 1963 to 39 million today.

This meeting also comes at a time of tremendous growth in the Church in Africa where Christianity is growing faster than in any other continent of the world. The Catholic population of sub-Saharan Africa ballooned from 1.9 million in 1900 to 139 million in 2000, a staggering growth rate of 6,708 percent. According to Vatican figures, the Catholic population tripled from 1978 to 2006, from 55 million to 158 million parishioners. The 2009 Statistical Yearbook of the Church shows that between 2000 and 2007 the number of Catholic priests in Africa rose 27.6% to 34,658. This is part of the huge shift in the center of gravity of the Church from North to South. It is not surprising, therefore, that in the space of only 15 years the popes have found it necessary to call two meetings to discuss the role of the Catholic Church in Africa. They realize correctly that what happens to the Church here is bound to influence the universal Church.

Against this background we recall Maryknoll’s deep involvement in Africa since 1946. Presently Maryknollers are working in Ethiopia, Kenya, Namibia, Sudan, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. At the beginning of September, 2009 84 people in the Maryknoll Family were doing missionary work in Africa: 34 priests and brothers in the Maryknoll Society; 36 Maryknoll Sisters; and 14 Maryknoll Lay Missioners. In addition there are short term volunteers connected to the various branches of Maryknoll who come for one month up to one year.



Africa continues to celebrate the election and inauguration of Barack Obama as the first Black president of the USA, an event that attracted worldwide attention. Obama’s election focused eyes on Africa because his father was African, more precisely Kenyan, from a very poor rural area called Kogelo. The president made explicit reference to his African roots and ancestry in his inaugural speech. For some this event begged the biblical question, in this case, of course, a rhetorical one: “Can anything good come out of Africa?” There is no doubt that Barack Obama as President of the USA has created new interest in Africa, although it is yet to be seen how this will play out in political and economic terms for the continent in the long run. Obama has hosted African leaders in Washington, DC starting with Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete in May. He made his first visit to Africa as a sitting president in June when he gave an important speech in Cairo, Egypt on US – Muslim relations (important to the reconciliation and interreligious dialogue themes of the Second African Synod). Obama also visited Ghana in July to encourage the peaceful development of multiparty democracy (another important synod topic).

Fifty years ago an article in New York Times on missionary work probably would have been called “Mission to Africa” about young American priests, brothers and sisters taking the Good News of Western-style Christianity to the African people. An article in the New York Times in April, 2009 was called “Mission from Africa” about evangelists from Nigerian-inspired Pentecostal Churches such as the Redeemed Christian Church of God proclaiming the Gospel in the USA. Similarly, a topic that will be discussed in the Second African Synod is how the Catholic Church in Africa is becoming a mission sending church with an increasing number of African priests and sisters working in the USA.

This is yet another sign of the vitality of Africa. The world cannot afford to ignore or run away from the African continent, the cradle of humankind. The destiny of Africa is also the destiny of the world. That’s why Africa matters.

Maryknoll Father Joseph Healey is from Baltimore, Maryland. Father Laurenti Magesa is an African Theologian from Musoma Diocese, Tanzania. Both teach in Nairobi, Kenya.