Zamaswazi

 

ZAMASWAZI

 

ZAMASWAZI

‘It is as easy to deceive ourselves without noticing it as it is hard to deceive others without their noticing it.’ A Jesuit who worked in KwaZulu Natal at the time of heightened tension when Mandela was being released and the Inkatha party felt threatened by the seemingly unstoppable progress of the ANC, quoted these words of De La Fouchefoucauld in his reflections about what happened. People who lived peacefully together and who prayed in the same church, suddenly found themselves the prey of those who demanded they support their side.

Horrific events unfolded. I was particularly touched by the story of Zamaswazi Kunene. She was a little girl aged seven, asleep with her sister Lindiwe and cousin Delisile on a night in February 1988, when a petrol bomb was thrown into the store room next to where they were sleeping. The parents rushed to take them to safety and then tried to dowse the flames which involved going out of the house to fetch water. As they did so they were met by a hail of bullets. Two of the children and their mother died and Zamaswazi was shot in the neck immediately paralysing her. She was taken to Edendale Hospital where the medical staff did what they could and she was even allowed home for a wonderful Christmas that year. But it was a brief respite. When she returned to the hospital, she developed pneumonia and shortly afterwards died. A month later her father hanged himself.

This account of Zamaswazi was accompanied by a photo of the little girl in a hospital bed with the most infectious smile on her face. One is left pondering the mystery. The people who destroyed her family thought they were serving some cause and they deceived themselves into thinking they were doing something good. But no one could look at such killing and destruction without being aware how much the opposite was true. ‘War is always a defeat’, says Pope Francis repeatedly. But people still pursue war with passion and continue to deceive themselves.

On Sunday we shall read the account of the death of Jairos’s daughter, only a little older than Zamaswazi. Jesus raised her from the dead as a sign that all the Zamaswazis of the world are loved by God and destined to enjoy life with him. Time is running out for the perpetrators of evil.                                                   30 June 2024        Sunday 13 B     Wis 1:13…24   2 Cor 8:7…15 Mk 5:21-43

 

 

THE DREAM

 

THE DREAM

‘There is a dream dreaming us’, is a saying of the people of the Kalahari. I take it to mean there is something far greater than we can imagine accompanying us on our journey. ‘I will plant a noble cedar on the high mountain of Israel’, says Ezekiel, ‘and it will sprout branches and bear fruit.’ We are hardly conscious much of the time about what is happening within us and around us. Yet we are part of a drama, a cosmic one!

A priest, who had become the first locally born pastor of a rural mission, was telling us during the week of his experience when he was no longer able to afford the wages his foreign-born predecessor used to regularly pay the workers. They took him to court and gave him a gruelling day trying to answer questions before the magistrate. Having ‘tortured’ him till sunset they nicely came to him and begged for a lift back to the mission! His comment was, ‘nothing they had been saying all day entered into them.’

It was as though they lived their lives in compartments which could be lived separately. They felt no inclination to relate one area of their lives to another. One could push for what one wanted without any consideration of the implications on others. This fragmented morality has implications which always surface later. Our decisions always have an effect on others whether we pay attention or not. I may think it harmless to throw a plastic bag out of a bus window. But somewhere along the line my decision will have an effect.

So much for the negative aspects of our decisions. There are also the positive ones and there are ‘gentle’ parables that speak of the long-term good effects of what we do. ‘A farmer throws seed on the land. Night and day, while they sleep or are awake, the seed sprouts and grows; how, they do not know…’ We have all had experience of being told, ‘something you said, something you did, had a great effect on my life.’ We have no memory of saying or doing anything. But it made an impact, an impact that will last.

We are part of something far greater than the little world we think we inhabit. We may be insignificant but we are part of a dream, a dream of God, God wrestling with us as he did with Jacob, God ‘groaning’ with us (Paul in Romans 8) to build a better world.     

16 June 2024    Sunday 11 B                 Ez 17:22-24                 2 Cor 5:6-10                 Mk 4:26-34

 

OVERWHELMED BY THE TRIBE

 

OVERWHELMED BY THE TRIBE

Between 1885 and 1887, forty-five Christians, 23 Anglican and 22 Catholic, were burnt, beheaded or cut to pieces by Mwanga, the Kabaka of Buganda. Among them, the names of Charles Lwanga, Joseph Mukasa, Andrew Kaggwa, Mathias Mulumba and a boy of 14 called Kizito are among the best known.

There were political and religious reasons. The Germans and the British were competing to gain influence and control. Islam was expanding into the interior and even among the Christians there was competition between the churches. All these could be said about other parts of Africa. What made Uganda special?

The kabaka realised Christianity brought a new outlook to people. It threatened to undermine his absolute power. The cause of Mukasa’ execution was that he objected to the kabaka’s killing of Anglican Bishop Hannington without giving him a hearing. The kabaka was furious at being questioned and had him beheaded.

Charles Lwanga took over from Mukasa as leader of the group preparing for baptism and he tried to protect them from the kabaka’s sexual abuse of them. Knowing the danger they were all in, he requested they be baptised by missionary Fr Lourdel. The king determined to get rid of the Christians altogether and had most of them burnt to death at Namugongo on June 3^rd 1886.

The question arises; where did these young men – one only a boy – find the strength to make a stand? Why were they not ‘overwhelmed by the tribe’ (Nietzsche), that is, the pressure to conform to the traditions of their elders? Where did 14-year-old Kizito find the confidence to shout to his friends as he was led away, ‘Good-bye! We are on our way’?

We know the answer – even if it sounds well-worn. They were not alone. ‘I am with you always’. The early disciples experienced this, as we read in the Acts. And in the persecutions in North Africa in Roman times, Perpetua and Felicity showed the same courage. But that is too easy – to say we know the answer. Where do we find courage today? The news is full of people ‘overwhelmed by the tribe’, that is, keeping their head down and hoping the trouble will pass.

It doesn’t. It has to be faced. If not, it overwhelms us. Deep within us we know our courage lies struggling to assert itself. We are terrified by what it might mean if it does break free of the tight hold we keep on it. But if we allow ourselves to be free, who knows what might happen. We might begin to be fully alive.

Uganda Martyrs    9 June 2024    2 Mac 7:1…14   Rm 8 31-39    Mt 5:1-12