Inculturation of Salesian Charism in Africa – 1
SALESIAN PRESENCE VERSUS PRIVACY IN AFRICA
Note: This is in no way a scientific work, but only a journalistic writing, originally written for Harambee (AFE newsletter) in 1993. There are two parts to this reflection.
Ndalani is a small Akamba village in Machakos district in Kenya. Last May I had the opportunity to stay in this village for four full days. I stayed and slept in a hut, which was part of a larger homestead. I ate their food (muthokoi). I bathed in the river. I went visiting some families in the village and shared their food and friendship. On the first morning of my stay, my Capuchin friend accompanied me to the river to bathe. When we reached the river, he showed me the place where I could bathe. Then he told me that while I could be bathing there, he would go about 200 metres away to have a bath himself. He also said that though only age mates could be found bathing together, it would be still strange for the people to find two seminarians bathing together. Later, while I was almost through with my bath, I saw a man carrying his bicycle on his shoulders and walking through the shamba. It was very evident that he was trying to avoid coming close to me. In fact, coming out of the water I discovered that the foot path meant for cyclists was passing near the place where I was bathing. How sensitive of that gentleman not to intrude into my privacy!
In all, my “live-in experience” in the village, my visit to Tanzania, my learning Kiswahili, my teaching experience in Dodomaand Moshi, my informal conversations with our Salesian Seminarians, and my own readings about African culture have very strongly convinced me that African people place a lot of importance on privacy. It is true that African society is communitarian to the extent of saying, “I am because my Society is.” But at the same time, the African social structure does have a means of respecting the privacy of the individual in a way that is rare to find in most other societies.
Youth between the age of 13 and 18 in most traditional African societies (I prefer to use the term “society” or “people” instead of “tribe”) undergo some form of initiation. This initiation ceremony marks their passage from Boyhood to Adulthood. Once the youth is initiated, he enjoys all the privileges and rights of the adult while fulfilling the duties which are proper to adulthood. What is important for our discussion here is that in most societies the young-adult builds a house of his own or at least is given a part of the homestead for himself. (I could list the societies, but it could go on endlessly). And in almost all of these societies, there are very stringent taboos regarding the right to privacy of the young adult. No one, not even his father, could enter his room without the former’s consent. Exceptions may be tolerated only when he is sick.
Also the Kiswahili word “hodi”, with no English equivalent, brings out an unique aspect in the E.African culture. It is used whenever one has to break into another’s privacy, for instance, when approaching a homestead or while entering another’s room, when breaking into a conversation, or when one has to pass a footpath along a river, etc.
In my informal conversations with several of our present and past pupils of our educational institutions and seminaries in E.Africa, the point that featured more than often is the incompatibility between the African Culture (with a special reference to the value of privacy) and with the Preventive system, and particular the aspect of Presence. “Don Bosco worked with street urchins, hence they needed to be “watched,” but we don’t need it!” some would say. And moreover most of them would assert, “We are “men” by African standards. We are older than some of the Salesians themselves.” “Once we are initiated, our parents and elders would respect our opinion, would entrust us with responsibilities, and would not just come after us doggedly,” others would say. These statements may sound a little naive. Nonetheless these reflect their legitimate reaction.
In this context what should be the proper place of Salesian Presence? Doesn’t Salesian presence appear to be an intrusion into the privacy of our students? In other words, should the Salesian assistant be always present among the young men, in the dormitories, wash-place, refectory, in the work-place…? Some Salesians, particularly those who have been “Assistants” inAfrica, do acknowledge the lack of clarity in this regard. They assert that as educators of the young it is our duty to inculcate in our boys values like cleanliness, order, punctuality and the like. And this cannot be achieved without our continued presence in all places. However, they also admit that much depends on how one does his assisting. That is, is he like a “detective police man” who catches the boys doing wrong, or is he like an elder brother who observes everything, overlooks most of them, and corrects the essential? In any case, doesn’t the cultural difference between the Salesian assistant and the boys create misunderstandings? In my opinion, we, the Salesians here in E.Africa, have not made much effort to answer questions such as these. And often even efforts made are only by certain charismatic individuals and not as policies on the level of institutions or the province. These brave prophetic Salesians who on their own try to understand and practise the preventive system in the African context, invariably put themselves at odds with the rest of the community and meanwhile lose their impact among the boys.
This being the state of affairs, most young men in our educational institutions and particularly in our seminaries inE. Africa, are a little apprehensive about Salesian Assistance and Presence. Am I seeing a problem where there isn’t any problem at all? Should we then just continue to practice the preventive system in our own way without making an effort to contextualize it? And in the bargain, wouldn’t we just watch our Seminaries not producing any dividend proportionate to the money, effort and personnel we invest therein? And should we just let our future indigenous Salesians curse and blame us? In any case, in writing this, I am convinced that we should not let the status quo just be as it is. We have to try to understand the meaning of the preventive system and particularly the aspect of Salesian Presence or Salesian Assistance in the context of a society which places much importance on Privacy.
What could we immediately do about this? Let us suggest here, three principles that could prove useful in the current situation. I don’t claim the list to be exhaustive. You could add your own.
1. AWARENESS
On our part, there is an urgent need to be informed about the E.African culture. This could be done individually, at the community level and at the provincial level. The learning process could be done informally (through conversations, visits to families of our boys, etc…) and formally (through reading, seminars, etc…). We may often tend to stop with our knowing the culture at an informal level. This could be dangerous. We would be tempted to make over-simplifications and naive conclusions. Hence the importance of a collective effort to be informed. Our efforts in our mission work could never be useful, on the other hand they could be even harmful, if we do not know the context in which we work. Is our main concern is just keeping the institution going, or is it really helping the young people?
2. EDUCATION
There is also a need to educate our teachers and pupils (particularly our seminarians) about the Salesian system. We need to help them get rid of certain myths and prejudices which they might have gathered about our system. In doing so we need to be honest not to justify what we do, but to expose the mind of Don Bosco. And this process of informing our educative community about the preventive system must be done in a spirit of dialogue with a willingness to listen to them too.
3. INCARNATION
Having informed ourselves about the context and our educative community about our Salesian system, we need to adapt the particularities of the system to suit the context. “Though He was in the form of God,… Jesus emptied himself”. The Christian message could be truly incarnated only when our style of conveying it is adapted suitably. We need to be also a little courageous to say good-bye to certain aspects of our Salesian system, which may be alien to the context of E.Africa. Only by shedding the totally meaningless and by adapting the irrelevant that the preventive system can be made workable.