African summit promotes education, advocacy

By David Eck

DAYTON DEANERY — A key message of a summit on Africa Sept. 29 at St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Dayton was simple: Africa needs partners, not pity.

About 170 people attended the summit, which was designed to help people understand the cultures of Africa and to meet Africans.

CT PHOTOS BY TONY TRIBBLE

Deacon Royce Winters speaks at the African Summit at St. Charles Church in Dayton

The day featured about 10 workshops covering everything from African refugees to African immigration issues to parish twinning. The workshops were typically led by Africans who shared their stories, or vowed religious and missionaries who have worked on the continent.

"We hadn’t done anything like this before," Gable said. "We were hoping for 50-70 (people). We had to turn people away.’’

The summit was co-sponsored by the archdiocesan Mission and African American Catholic Ministries offices.

Education in turn leads to advocacy and solidarity, officials said.

"We, especially in the Catholic tradition, will respond to a crisis, but the advocacy edge is not that sharp for us," said Xaverian Missionary Father Rocco Puopolo, who has worked in Sierra Leone. "The real strength of something like this summit is to find out the beauty and strength of the faith that we share."

In his keynote address, Franciscan Father Mike Perry, a senior technical advisor for peace-building with Catholic Relief Services, told of a visit to the Darfur region of Sudan about three years ago. The story, while sad and tragic, is also a story of courage and hope.

"Darfur is one of the most unwelcoming of geographical regions in the entire world," said Father Perry, who worked in Africa for nearly 10 years. "Even under the best of circumstances, after the war and conflict, many parts of Darfur provide few opportunities for individuals and communities seeking to live, work, survive and thrive."

Katie Guliano sits in one of the youth workshops at the African summit at St. Charles Church in Dayton.

"She was 14 and a few months when I met her huddled under a flapping piece of torn plastic held up by long, twig-like branches the size of a large round table in one of our banquet halls in the United States," he said. "Iesha and her siblings were literally on the run."

They and other families were chased from field to field as planes dropped bombs overhead and helicopters fired into the village.

Iesha cried as she told of the humiliation and murder of her father, two uncles, three other neighbors and her favorite cow, Father Perry said. She also spoke of the horrific rape and murder of her mother.

"She could not understand why such hatred and humiliation existed," Father Perry said, "why it was turned against her and her family."

Despite that, she remained focused on caring for the needs of her siblings and other neighbors.

"Her story, tragic as it sounds, is a story of an act of courage. It represents a concrete example of the practice of solidarity. Despite the trauma and hurt that she bore, Iesha was not caught up in hate mongering, nor did she expound on the geopolitics of Darfur," Father Perry said. "In the midst of horror, terror, shame and fear, there arose in her an indomitable spirit of courage, resistance, resilience as she reached out to siblings and the children of neighbors and demonstrated prophetic solidarity."

And that’s the lesson.

In order for Africa to grow, we need to encourage companies to invest in the continent and enter into transparent business dealings with African governments, he said. We need to demand quality leaders in Africa, and we need to welcome Africans into the local and world community.

"Change in nature and practice of political and economic relationships are required if both the nations of Africa and the rest of the world are to create conditions for integral human development," Father Perry said.

An example of the economic practices that harm Africa can be found in the Niger-Delta region of Nigeria. Oil was discovered in the farming community in 1956, but with little governmental oversight, oil companies are damaging the environment and ruining the economy, natives of the area said at the summit.

"Now we have the oil companies extracting oil, polluting the land," said Father Isaac Ebeigbe, a priest of the Archdiocese of Benin City. "Agriculture cannot be done anymore. Fishermen cannot kill fish because they are all in polluted water, and the people are drinking polluted water."

Oil companies hire few, if any, local people, so youths in the area are turning to crime to survive or leaving the area altogether.

"Money came, (yet) so few people are getting rich at the expense of the general (population)," Father Ebeigbe said. "You have the very rich, powerful political leaders or military rulers who work for the oil companies. They are the only ones enjoying the wealth."

Those attending the summit included women religious, students and parishioners active in social justice issues.

Carroll High School junior Erin Bittner came as a follow-up to a talk on Darfur she attended at school last year. She enjoyed a workshop that brought together African, African-American and white American youths.

"As a group, we really broke down some of the barriers that existed," she said. "A big conversation that we had was about the social barriers put up between African-Americans and Africans. We also got into (the barriers between) African-Americans and white Americans."

She said the summit motivated her to become an advocate for Africa and to encourage other Carroll students to do the same.

"It was a real big eye-opener," she said. "There has to be something that can be done to change what’s going on. It kind of lit a fire that we really want to try to get something going."