The Sahel: “poverty nourishes jihadism”
An unstable region. “Young people abandoned to themselves find a solution to their problems in Jihadism. Jihadism feeds on injustice, poverty and misery”. The words of Father Arvedo Godina of the White Fathers who has spent over fifty years in The Sahel. The Sahel is one of the most unstable regions in the continent of […]
Reflection: the virus that took over the world
The human species thinks that it the smartest that ever evolved on this planet. We think we are smarter and more powerful than all other species. Have we now met our match by non-living entities, pathogens no less? They need a host to replicate and so they invade the cells of plants, animals and humans. […]
Comboni Brother Pietro Laffranchi: Desiring to Empower the Workers
He was born in 1899 in a small village in the region of Brescia, Northern Italy. Feeling the Lord was calling him to the mission, he insistently asked to join the Comboni Missionaries. He entered the novitiate in Venegono Superiore in 1925, making his first profession as a religious in 1928. During these first years […]
Oral literature: the Rabbit and the Tortoise
There was a frightful drought. The rivers after a while dried up and even the springs gave no water. The animals wandered around seeking water, but to no avail. Water was nowhere to be found. A great gathering of animals was held: Lion, Leopard, Hyena, Jackal, Elephant, all of them came together. What was to […]
Bolivia: the textiles of the Andes
The textiles of the Andean Valley stand out not only for the technical complexity of the weaving process or for the beauty of their colours and figures, but also because their artistic symbolism reveals the socio-political, cultural, economic and spiritual worldview of the Andean people. Once the wool is obtained from the sheep, alpaca, vicuña […]
Ethiopia: the Guji, a people in transformation
The Guji are an ethnic group of southern Ethiopia. They belong to the great family of the Oromo. Traditionally semi-nomadic, today they live more from agriculture than cattle-raising. A glance at some aspects of their life and culture. They are around five million people scattered around the most southerly area of the immense territory called […]
Benin: “The Man with the Golden Hands”
On the edge of the on the border between Niger and Burkina Faso, the Fatebenefratelli friars have been providing medical services to the people of Atakora plateau. Brother Fiorenzo Priuli, director of the St. Jean de Dieu Hospital spoke to us about his experience as both a missionary and an orthopaedic surgeon. The city of […]
Comboni Brother John Giori, Captain of the Redemptor
“I am a farmer by profession, self-educated for anything else.” With this candid statement, John Giori, a native of Sacco di Rovereto, near Trent in Northern Italy, introduced himself. John decided to enter the Institute founded by Comboni after meeting him in Limone sul Garda. After taking the vows, as one of the first group […]
DR Congo: at the side of the people fighting to live and to resist
The Democratic Republic of Congo continues to be afflicted by most serious political and social tensions, conflicts in some of its regions and endemic poverty despite its infinite riches. This is our topic as we speak with Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, Archbishop of Kinshasa. The government of President Felix Tshisekedi which came to power in the […]
Cameroon: Cardinal Christian Wiyghan Tumi, not just ‘passing through’
A fierce opponent of the regime of Paul Biya, he energetically promoted dialogue between the central government and Anglophone separatists. Last November he was the victim of an as yet unexplained kidnapping. They called him Wiyghan, which means ‘one who is passing through’ because his mother had lost her first two children. Born on 15 […]