August 9, 2013
Africa blogger "Bakhita"
Previous articles
LETTER TO THE POPE: INVITATION TO
AFRICA!
Your
Holiness, Most Holy Father,
On
behalf of
Africa
, I take this opportunity, though belatedly to sing praises to the most high on
the occasion of your appointment as the Pope. Good leaders come from up above.
We all believe that this is your appointed time to make connections to all the
dots and traces of good work that you have done all these years, with all sorts
of challenges that you faced and will continue to face and that for the period
that God wills you to serve, the meek will be strong and the down trodden will
know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
I
will paint a picture of
Africa
for you and at the end of this letter; I hope you will find a little room in
your busy schedule to respond to our request.
First,
Africa
is a continent comprising of about 53 countries.
Africa
is said to be the most beautiful continent in the world. This is the continent
where it all began. It is said to be the cradle of mankind, though we Africans
believe that God sat here while He molded and painted and weaved and sprayed and
created the heaven and earth, the animals the plants the skies, the seas and man
(of course and woman).
When
you come from the North, you will find the
Maghreb
and the
Nile
valley. This is the great
Sahara
desert, which covers approximately 8.2 million square kilometers
from the
Atlantic
on the west to the
Red Sea
on the east, from the
Atlas
Mountain
and the
Mediterranean
on the north. The Northerners will
think that I did not do them justice if I forget to mention the breathtaking
sand dunes. Many movies have been acted in this region, including the Passion of
Christ, the Gladiator, Star Wars just to name a few. We are proud to be
associated with this part of
Africa
.
What
most people do not know is that God in His artistic way, mirrored the very same
in the South. In the South, you will find the great
Kalahari Desert
, which has more than four other big deserts within it. The
Namib Desert
is one such desert in the Kalahari. When you are in
Namibia
, in this southern part of the African region, you will experience God’s
wonderful creation. This artistic
and amazing magical wonder of God’s creation comprises of both the sea on one
side and on the other a vast dune sea with some of the tallest and most
spectacular dunes of the world, ranging in color from pink to vivid orange. In
this very Southern Region, God was most generous to this part of the region.
Underneath the earth’s surface, the land is extremely rich with minerals,
Gold, Copper, Uranium, Oil, diamonds, cobalt, magnesium, and the list is
endless. And where are the largest falls in the world? Yes, the spectacular
Victoria Falls
on the
Zambezi
River
, both in
Zambia
and
Zimbabwe
, still in the South.
When
you come back up from the South, you go through eastern
Africa
and here you will get the
Nile
River
, the World’s longest River,
Lake Victoria
which is the largest
Lake
in
Africa
and the second largest fresh water lake in the entire world, Mt Kilimanjaro,
the tallest free standing volcanic mountain in the world. We also welcome you to
experience the annual wildebeest migration from the Serengeti in
Tanzania
to the Maasai Mara in
Kenya
that has been termed as the 8th Wonder of the World!
When
you move into the western part of the Continent, you meet some of the world’s
greatest rain forests; this rainforest in the Congo Basin is actually second to
the Amazon Forest (World’s largest). The forest is also home to two thirds or
66% of the world’s animals and plant species! The
Congo
basin also has the world’s richest mineral deposits
The
above is but a fraction of the inventory of our God given wealth which we
sometimes appreciate but haven’t quite learnt how to use sustainibly.
This however does not mean that we are without problems. Africa has suffered
some of the worlds worst disasters- from what we consider as minor ones like
road accidents to major ones like famine, flooding, malaria, HIV and AIDS and
even illiteracy, ignorance and poverty! Some of the problems we face are because
we refuse to head the Word. We refuse to see God’s face and we refuse to
acknowledge that we were created in Gods image.
Pope
Benedict XVI visited
Africa
just once (
Cameroon
and
Angola
) in the year 2009, during his reign. (Which is considerable as he had a short
reign and was dodged with illness hence couldn’t do many travels). Pope John
Paul II visited many countries in
Africa
at least once during his reign- his visits were equitably distributed across
the world. The Blessed John Paul II was known as the African Pope. He was the
First Pope to visit
Africa, in 1980, and as little as I was, the pictures are still etched in
my memory. I think all the countries in the continent came out to scrub the
streets clean. It was song and dance and I think we had a month long
celebrations! Whatever the Pope taught was the Word and Law at the same time.
Christians believed and followed the teachings.
After
this, in all honesty, we in
Africa
feel as though we were cut off and are wondering in the desert like sheep
without a shepherd.
The
purpose of this letter is to invite your Holiness to
Africa
. We welcome you with open hearts and assure you that our home is your home. We
beseech you to bring us back in the fold. We ask that you come and bless this
land that was once considered the Garden of Eden because you can see that it is
evident, God made it in a wonderful way - we have the largest of most of the God
given features. We want to restore our oneness with the Church and we think that
by you coming to our land, you will shown that we are forgien, through Christ,
for the many acts of commission or omission that have led us to sin against God
and against man and have made us fall short of God’s glory.
I
know it will be up to you to visit the countries that you choose, but it will be
nice if you could spend a month or so going around the various regions in
Africa. Big wish, but not impossible
In
the many African languages, which are more than 300, we simply and humbly say Baba/
Papa/ Dade- Welcome to
Africa
!
Very
Respectfully, We remain Your humble children
Africa
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