A chara, – I’d like to concur with Dr Carmel Gallagher and her article “Irish Missionaries’ heroism and selflessness abroad is often overlooked today” (Opinion & Analysis, August 11th).
In the years 1967 to 1974, I had the experience of working in Charles Lwanga Teachers’ College on Chikuni Mission in Zambia. While the co-ed college was run by Irish Jesuits and Irish Sisters of Charity, I was very much aware of the contribution of other Irish religious congregations in the areas of education, health, community development and spirituality.
Canisius College was the Mission Secondary School run by Irish Jesuits and had President Kenneth Kaunda’s sons as students. At this time a local young boy, who secured a school place by default, developed a computer as a science project. His tutor, the late Fr Donal McKenna, said that what the student accomplished was astonishing. The Christian Brothers ran a trades school to teach building, plumbing, electrician skills, as well as a secondary school.
There were three secondary schools for girls. They were spread out over a wide area. They were run by Sisters of Charity in Chikuni, Holy Rosary Sisters in Mazabuka, the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary /The Ferrybank Sisters in Chivuna. One of the girls of St Joseph’s Chivuna represented Zambia at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
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The Holy Rosary Sisters ran the local hospital, while some distance away another hospital was run by the charities. Both groups held clinics out in the bush to support the villagers.
Next to Bishop Corboy’s house in Monze town were the offices of the Community Development Programme. This programme included the introduction of credit unions, building a shared cattle dip, purchasing a tractor for communal use, the organisation of women’s groups, young farmers, etc.
The spiritual development was a very important part of the work of the missionaries. Church services meant a lot to the people. Local catechists helped prepare people for the sacraments or conducted religious services in the absence of the priest. Choirs practised regularly and musicians were there to play the drums and other instruments. With singing dancing and a long sermon (very important), Mass could last two hours and more.
Among the Jesuit Community in Charles Lwanga College was an anthropologist, a psycholinguist, and an ethnomusicologist. These men were the authorities on the local Tonga people, their language, their music and their cultural traditions. No one else had the inclination or expertise to carry out the research and collect the jewels of a fast disappearing culture that had been battered by years of colonialism and disdain.
Their legacy to the Tonga people and the nation of Zambia will be as valuable to them as the Book of Kells is to us Irish and the world. – Is mise,
DÓNALL Ó MURCHÚ,
Teach Gót,
Co Loch Garman.
Sir, – I was interested to read Dr Carmel Gallagher’s opinion piece. And yet, I wondered why this was being published in The Irish Times, as it was a completely uncritical article and even quoted religious texts in support of an argument.
Of course Irish Catholic missionaries did much tremendous work in the fields of education and health. But the primary and overriding purpose of these missions was to convert as many people as possible to the Catholic faith, which meant displacing local religions and traditions.
Many people would now regard such missionary work as a form of cultural imperialism.
Catholic morality was also effectively imposed on some societies, to the detriment of local family, marriage and cultural traditions. And to the detriment of thousands of Africans at risk of HIV/Aids. – Yours, etc,
EUGENE O’DONOVAN,
London.