Missionaries of Africa
Fr. Raphaël Deillon Assistant General
Visit to confreres in Mali

Reading
The signs from God

Raphaël Deillon invites us to visit Mali with him. The first MAfr arrived in 1898. Today about fifty confreres live and work there. There are six dioceses.

Two Malian confreres have already died: Prosper Kamara of Ségou (1902-1961) and François Diallo of Kana, Bamako (1911-1996). Two young Malian confreres have joined the Society in recent years: Cyriaque Mounkoro, Nigeria, and Antoine Dambelé, Oath 2005, Toulouse. Six other MAfr candidates are in formation. 11 Msola Sisters live in Mali in 3 communities. One Malian Msola is studying in Bukavu, DRC.

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José Moralès Provincial, Raphaël Assistant General, Patient Nshombo Assistant Provincial

I left Rome for Bamako with some days of delay due to back trouble. Once in Mali, with the help of the heat, my back began to get used to it. However, I could not go as far as Kayes to visit the confreres there. Bishop Joseph Dao of Kayes came to Bamako to sign the formal agreement between his diocese and the Society. It had been agreed to sign formal agreements between the dioceses and the Society during my visit to Mali.

In Bamako, an unforeseen circumstance delayed the signature. The vicious bulldozing of a part of the major seminary by a dishonest land claim shook the whole diocese. Even the chairman of the Muslim Associations went to Archbishop Zerbo of Bamako to demonstrate his solidarity against the despoilers. Our meeting was postponed as a result. Archbishop Zerbo said, "You are family; I know you will understand that by priority I need to receive this guest who has come to support us in this unfortunate business." We therefore signed formal agreements with the dioceses of Kayes, Mopti and Bamako.

Confreres first
However, the prime reason for the visit of the Assistant General is of course to become acquainted with confreres and their missionary projects. Thus in Bamako, with Jupp Stamer, Alain Fontaine and Élie Arrivé, we looked into the cradle of the Christian-Islamic Training Institute. The IFIC has indeed seen the light of day. It has a home to welcome it, the Faith and Encounter Centre, but it is still looking for adoptive parents. Things are making headway.

Sunday 27th November: The confreres of Bamako region met for a fraternal get-together. Patient Nshombo, Assistant Provincial, went to represent the confreres of Mali on the 40th anniversary of Nouakchott Diocese.

Tuesday 29th Sikasso direction: I left with José Morales, Provincial, to visit confreres, firstly those of Fantarela, a village stuck in the middle of nowhere. The mission is formed of small houses from which emerge Ange Le Merrer, Fridolin Bogenrieder and Fernando Sanzberro. One has the impression of three partners bonded by the same concern to penetrate Senoufo culture in all its forms in order to bring it the Gospel. We continue towards Sikasso with them and meet Emilio Escudero and Gilles Graffin from Koutiala, along with the three musketeers from Dyou, Oskar Geisseler, Christian Nkulu and José Marques, accompanied by Dominic Dery, stagiaire.

The next day, St. Andrew's, we had a recollection together to see the signs God is making to us today. I noted this, "At Dyou, language is the problem. The people speak Senoufo among themselves and we speak Bambara. The temptation is great to uproot towards Kadjolo and Segma, but should we not continue and persevere where we are? Justice and Peace: we cannot limit our pastoral action to liturgy or jubilee celebrations. It has to overflow into the lives of the people. Injustice covers with the cloak of custom outdated habits affecting relationships between men and women, parents and children, husbands and wives. How can we develop mentalities tied to very unstable social and economic circumstances? Our presence can help. We can be there for the people to know them more, to love them better and in union with the local church, help them to evolve in the right way.

Before our departure, we had the privilege of a guided tour by Emilio of the Senoufo Cultural Promotion Centre. This Centre, with its frescoes and figurines of jesters in the pure Senoufo tradition conserves the memories of a culture down the ages. Before leaving Sikasso, we paid a visit to Bishop Jean-Baptiste Tiama.

 

Thursday 1st December: we took the road to Koutiala with Gilles Graffin. We visited the family of our confrere Antoine Dembele there; he is finishing his formation in Toulouse. In San, we met Bishop Jean-Gabriel Diarra and spent the night at his residence there.

2nd December: we left for the Catechists Training Centre at Dobwo. Joseph Verdeyen showed us around the Centre where ten or so couples are in residence with their children. Training lasts two years. The director is a diocesan priest and lives with Joseph in community. At Mandiakwi, we were unfortunately too late to go and see the family of Cyriaque Mounkoro, on mission in Nigeria.

Alberto, Yves and José Moralès, Provincial, at Bandiagara, Mopti diocese.

Dogon Territory
Saturday 3rd December: We leave for Sévaré and Mopti, passing by the junior seminary of Togo where Gérard Chabanon did voluntary service overseas in place of military service from 1970 till 1972. We arrived at Bandiagara at the end of the afternoon. On the mission plot near the church, there were two flags flying, one of Mali and the other of the Vatican. Yves Pauwels and Alberto Rovelli, two hardy survivors from these parts who have seen so many confreres passing through, were waiting to welcome us with broad smiles.

They make a team with the Sisters, bonded in faith and deep conviction in their apostolate in Dogon territory. As soon as I arrived, I was landed with the homily for Sunday Mass the next day. I did it in French through an interpreter. At the end of Mass, the parish council came to be reassured that the formal agreement signed with Bishop Fonghoro is definitely renewable. The parishioners appreciated our presence.

That same evening we left for Sévaré, invited by Brother Wilfried, a generous and outspoken man. I confess I learned more in an evening than all I could have read in several days on the history of the Society, the geographic and socio-economic situation of the region, solidarity, the sense of duty…

Ewans Kapungwe Chama, Zambian, stagiaire, along the River Niger, in the middle of the desert, near Gao.

Monday 5th December: journey of almost 600 km to Sévaré-Gao, stopping halfway to greet Sister Anne-Marie, doctor of soul and body. At Gao, we were welcomed by the 'quintessence of the Society', as the dean said. The community consists of Jean-Pierre Delpech, Maurice Cadilhac, Didier Sawadogo, Anselm Mahwera and Ewans Chama, stagiaire. It is a highly coloured artist's palette of characters. An evening meeting enabled everyone to have his say. The next day, from Gao we went to join the confreres of Bandiagara at the foot of Mount Hombori for a recollection and Eucharist. How better to celebrate the 8th December? We shared our pastoral concerns and projects coming to the surface.

Parish of Bandiagara in Dogon territory : after the mass

Bandiagara community is concerned about the issue of child trafficking. In some Koranic schools, marabouts gather children in their homes to educate them. Far from their families and villages, they are sometimes made to beg for the benefit of the marabouts and become victims abuse .

NGOs are worried and the government has taken steps to restructure Koranic schools and investigate marabouts. In addition, fundamentalist Islam is coming from outside and seeks to destabilise much more popular traditional Islam. To combat the nightmare lived by these children, Bishop Fonghoro of Mopti is advocating the creation of food and accommodation shelters for them. Yves and Alberto as well as the Sisters would like to work on this project in collaboration with the Christian community and existing associations. The Christian community also needs to know its faith better as well as the faith of Muslims to avoid syncretism, misunderstandings and mixtures.

'You follow the rules'
Gao community: Like Bandiagara, the confreres' priority is to deepen the faith of the Christians. Faced with Islam, they need to feel strong in faith to dialogue in everyday life, at work and in cases of mixed marriages.

Justice is another priority. "I was hungry, a stranger and in prison…" How can they contact the network of immigrants and those turned back at the borders, the female prostitution rackets? Another crying injustice is the gulf between town life and life in the rural areas. How do they support educated people who are in the age of the Internet and respond at the same time to emergencies in families trying to survive? Our confreres in Gao were given heart by a group of Muslims who came to request the mission to distribute medicines coming from a French association. "We came to you because you follow the rules…"

Freddy, Raphaël, Wim and Darek meeting at Kolongotomo Mission, diocese of Ségou.

Friday 9th December: José and I returned to Mopti. We visited Bishop Fonghoro and signed the formal agreement with his diocese. At midday we were welcomed by the confreres of Kolongotomo: Darek Zielinski, Freddy Mwamba and Wim Schakenraad. We were expected and the table was laid. In this oasis of coolness, water flows abundantly in the paddy fields.

On Sunday José took the Mass at Fana and Wim preached in Bambara. Freddy went to Kolongo whereas Darek took me at breakneck speed to Macina for Mass in a little chapel attended by about twenty parishioners. Mr Vincent, the chairman of the parish committee invited me to visit the nearby prison. In an instant, the forty inmates of this building decided to go for broke and came out to shake hands. Many of them are awaiting trial and among them is a child of thirteen.

When leaving, Darek left a mattress for a sick prisoner. Darek, Wim and Freddy are well aware that this prison a few kilometres from them is also the Gospel challenging them, "I was a prisoner and you visited me." Freddy came across it first when he had to go and sample it for some nights in an incredible case of mistaken identity in an otherwise unserious accident. The matter is since closed, but Freddy saw 'the plight of his people' and shared his concern in community.

Monday 12th December: we left the paddy fields watered by the Niger on to Bamako where we arrived with the mileage at 3,250 kilometres. Patient Nshombo accompanied me on the visits to the last but not least communities. I was recording this on the road to Falajè parish and language centre. There is a brand new team at the parish comprising Michel Robin, Jean Bevand and Ascensio Iguaran. New wine in new skins! At the language centre, Vittorio Bonfanti gives lessons in Bambara to Patrick Odhiambo a Kenyan confrere from Burkina, Alphonse Adropeni and Didacio Mwanza, stagiaires, a Jarumal Missionary and three Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary from Senegal.

Ascensio Iguaran and the church of Falajé

At Kati, I meet Yves Jaouen, John Asanyire and Jesús Martinez. After opening schools, they have just built shops along the roadway, a practical way of self-financing, I am told. Arvedo Godina came to join us from the Ntonimba Catechetical Centre.

Bamako-urban

Bamako-urban was left to the last. Our visit to Djalibougou was cut short, as Rudi Pint had to leave for health reasons. I was able to see the work that the team consisting of Rudi, Jan van Haandel and Pierre Landereau take on.

I saw Jean-Pierre Bondue fully involved in catechesis at Badialan. I spoke with Aldo Giannasi about the dozen or so secondary schools around Bamako of which he would like to make the Diocesan Cultural Centre aware.

Back at the Provincial house, I learn about the services: Manolo Gallego, Treasurer, Michel Côté, spiritual counsellor, and Charles Bailleul, a doctor in Bambara whose knowledge has not yet been completely recorded in his works and whom everyone consults with respect.

I also met White Sisters, firstly on the outskirts of Bamako at a community buzzing like a beehive with young professed Sisters and students. Then, living in a working-class district, two other Sisters who warmly welcomed me.

I admired all the work of the confreres in Mali for their approach to the people and cultures in often-difficult social and climatic conditions and in regions so cut-off that the isolation calls for a well-anchored faith. Thank you to the confreres for having read the signs from God for us today in Mali!

May God bless them abundantly! Not only did they do everything to make my task easier and the journey instructive, the perfect twosome of José and Patient inspired confidence and invited the Assistant I am to be their advocate in high places of the expectations they formulated for their Province.

Raphaël Deillon