Fr Hugh Seenan WF
For the first time since I was ordained in 1989, I am back living in Britain. Most of that time I was in Mozambique. Even when I was in Malawi for the last three years in our Philosophy House I was always in Mozambique during the holidays. When I was in Mozambique it was rare for somebody to get in touch with me about what was going on there, it would be just about how I was keeping. When I came back last August, I thought that it would continue like that. I had been closely following the atrocities taking place, but it is only in the last few weeks that this has changed. One Friday night I got a phone call asking if I had seen Sky News. I watched the next Bulletin and saw Pemba. Since then if I am not seeing, listening or reading about Cabo Delgado somebody is getting in touch to tell or ask me about it.
It all takes me back to December 2016. Konrad Millanzi, a Tanzanian Missionary of Africa, was going to be ordained in the very south of Tanzania. He had been with us in Nazaré Formation Centre in Beira for his pastoral training for two years. He invited me to attend and I decided to go via Cabo Delgado. I went from Beira, two hours by plane to Pemba. I had the great pleasure to stay the weekend with Dom Luís Fernandez, the Brazilian Passionist Bishop of Pemba and great friend of Nazaré. Pemba, the capital of Cabo Delgado, was booming because of the gas finds off the coast of Cabo Delgado. It no longer depended on tourism along its white sandy beaches. On the Monday I set off for Moçimboa da Praia, a comfortable seven-hour bus journey along the coast on a brand-new road to supply the gas fields further north. Moçimboa da Praia, the last real town before the border like Pemba had many new buildings fuelled by the gas finds.
I was welcomed by four Benedictine Monks from the great Ndanda monastery in southern Tanzania. In the afternoon I went down to the beach and had a walk around the bay with its white sands, light blue waters, many fishing boats and a small place to sit and have a cold beer. The parish was on one side of a palm-lined square, the other sides being the Town Council building, the police headquarters and the Sport and Social Club, a typical Portuguese arrangement. I remember saying to myself “there are worse places you could be a missionary!”
Mocimbao da Praia Beach
The next morning, I set off to the border, the Rovuma River, going through Palma. Going across the river was another adventure. It was low tide and as the ferry could not move, we went by canoe among the hippos with a long stretch in the middle of walking on sandbanks before a final canoe journey. It was then a short journey, only four hours to Nyangau for the ordination. The journey back was more of the same except that I spent an hour in Palma waiting for local transport to Moçimboa da Praia. I enjoyed the whole experience and I never tired of telling people about it.
It came as a great shock therefore in early October 2017 to read that Islamist militants had attacked Moçimboa da Praia occupying the square and its buildings, destroying the police station. I was worried about the monks but thank God they had been able to escape. Not so lucky, all the others especially police who were killed. Last week I was shocked to see bodies lying in the streets in Palma where I had waited for transport on my return journey.
It has been like that for over three years now, stories of Moçimboa da Praia being reoccupied by the government and then the Islamists coming back. They have been in control for months now. Stories of people having their heads cut off, the vast majority being other Muslims became normal news. All the parishes have been closed, some destroyed, with all the sisters, brothers and priests coming to Pemba. Pemba is no longer a tourist destination but a giant refugee camp. The latest official figure is 607,000 having to leave their land - settling everywhere from Pemba southwards.
Dom Luís in a peace meeting with the President Filipe Nyusi after Pope Francis’ phone call
Here it is only in the last few weeks that we have heard about all this. In Mozambique if you are depending on government media for news, you still would not know about it. One of the few to spread the news was Bishop Luís Fernandez. He was outspoken and was Person of the Year for some independent news outlets in Mozambique in 2020. He went in fear of his life often threatened by people close to the Frelimo Government. If he is still alive today Pope Francis is the reason. He phoned Dom Luís in the worst of those times and invited him to the Vatican to see him just before Christmas 2020.
To understand more about the complex situation in Mozambique I recommend the newsletters of Joseph Hanlon, an expert on Mozambique, ex Professor in the Open University and SOAS. His latest one dated 30 March is excellent (http://www.open.ac.uk/technology/mozambique/sites/www.open.ac.uk.technology.mozambique/files/files/Mozambique_532_30Mar21_Palma_Total-out-again_Gas-gamble-lost.pdf.)
The people of Cabo Delgado have been carrying their crosses for over three years. May they not be forgotten after this short time in the news, especially in our prayers during Holy Week.
Fr Hugh Seenan, Missionary of Africa. Provincial Delegate since 2020.
Fr Hugh at his Silver Jubilee in 2014 in Beira, Mozambique