Building and rebuilding

 

La nuova cappella di Bokongo
La nouvelle chapelle de Bokongo

Building and rebuilding

After a few months of work, tomorrow, Saturday September 12th, we will bless the new chapel in the village of Bokongo.

Here, a few years ago, thanks to the generosity of good people, we dug the well, and built a beautiful school. Again thanks to the generosity of another person, a priest, we were able to build a beautiful church.

Rectangular, with an iron cross-bell tower on the front, to create a covered space, the church measures 12m by 7m. Very bright and airy, it is built with stabilized earth bricks (a new technique, here in Central Africa).

Inside there are benches for the people, and the area of the Eucharistic celebration has a wooden altar.At the end there is a cross, and a terracotta bas-relief, which represents the Holy Family (to whom the chapel is dedicated).

This village, 15 km from Bozoum, will thus have a beautiful place to pray and celebrate.

In this village there are also 200 families of Peuls (nomads, ranchers) who have returned. These are nomadic tribes, whose only wealth is the breeding of cows. They were here in February, and we had already tried to help them then. The village welcomed them without too many problems. They then tried to go further south, but have now returned here.

They are a very ancient peoples, with very ancient traditions, the Peul come from Chad and from countries such as Nigeria and Cameroon. They have been in Central Africa since the beginning of the twentieth century, and for them borders and laws are rather abstract concepts.

But in these years of war and disorder, they have lost almost all their livestock. So they are forced to move, in search of a permanent place. They are often the victims of abuse and oppression, both by the various rebel movements (such as the 3R, which use them as shields to justify their existence, and then use and rob them), and by the authorities.

Just a few days ago the Prefect sent me the list of Peul, asking me to assist them, which we will, and gladly. However, it is sad to see that, while the authorities are asking Caritas to help these people, the authorities themselves are taking advantage of it. They forced all the Peuls families to get an identification document (which has practically no legal value), and they got paid. The sum paid to the prefect (5,000 francs, equal to 7.5 euros) is enormous, for those in need and have practically nothing left.

It hurts to see that those who should really protect the population take advantage of them to get rich.

 

A scuola
à l'école

Peuls à Bokongo