From 31st of January to the 5th day of February, 2023, the Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church, His Holiness, Pope Francis, embarked on a weeklong visit which he referred to as a ‘Pilgrimage of Peace,’ “aimed at promoting reconciliation in the conflict-ridden countries, as well as promoting their independence from foreign interference.” Among the countries visited by the pope were the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan, two conflict-afflicted countries. One of the outcomes of this papal visit is the now popular saying, “Hands off Africa! Stop choking Africa: it is not a mine to be exploited, or a land to be plundered. May Africa be the protagonist of its own destiny!” pronounced by the Holy Father on his first day at the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Just yesterday, the 22nd day of May, 2023, Joseph Tulloch writing for the Vatican News announced the release of a new book from the Holy Father, entitled, Hands Off Africa! According to Vatican News, “Today [22nd May, 2023], the Vatican Publishing House announced the release of a new book – written in Italian and entitled Hands off Africa! – collecting all the Pope’s speeches during the trip, as well as those from his visit to South Sudan immediately afterwards.”
Vatican News observes that the crucial aspect of the book is its inclusion of, not only the pope’s voice, but also the voices of “those he met during his journey” – testimonies of the direct victims of the war and conflicts.
It is interesting and delightful to learn that the preface to the new book was written by the feminist Nigerian author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who wrote that the book “brings me a small sliver of hope for Congo, and for the beloved and broken-hearted continent that I call home.” Adichie went further to observe that the message of the Holy Father “is not merely that Congo – and, by extension, Africa – matters but that it matters for one reason only. Not for its resources, which the global North depends on, not for fear that the continent could become again the scene of Western proxy battles as happened during the Cold war, but simply because of the people. Africa matters because Africans matter.”
We consider this a big win for Nigerian Literature (and African Literature in general) and African writers that a Nigerian writer is the one saying this truth to the world in a book by, arguably, the most important figure in Christendom considered by Catholics all over the world as the Vicar of Christ. We await the release of the English translation of the work to see how the book will drive the discussion ongoing on the issue of neo-colonization and re-colonization. As an aside, we also wait, in studied patience, to see what it will mean for the Church, especially in its relationship with women, that a feminist author has written the preface to the Holy Father’s new book.
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