IRISH JESUITS IN CHIKUNI, ZAMBIA: "HANDLE WITH CARE"

Fr. Patrick O´Brien, S.J. in northern Zambia in 1961. Source: flickrhivemind.net.

By Gundhramns Hammer

April 27, 2015 
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They were tough cookies. They were the first Westerners to cross the highest mountains on Earth: The Himalaya.

They were the first Europeans to get deep into the Jungles of Congo. They came along with the Portuguese explorers and "esclavistas" (slaver) to West Africa.

Also, they were amongst the first Old World people to explore the jungles of South and Central America and Southeast Asia. 

They were the first Europeans to get to China where they revived local folklore and used it to mould and penetrate into this Oriental empire by inventing a famous character we now know as "Confucius" in the West. 

At least this is what Dr. Lionel M. Jensen (1997) says regarding "Confucianism". Something contested by Professor Nicolas Standaert (1998). 

We will leave this academic dogfight to them.

Perhaps with the exception of Antarctica, if we are to believe their stories, the rest of the continents have been (and still are) part of their missions.

You name it and they have been there. And they are still there.

We are talking about the Jesuits, "God´s marines".

So it is not surprising that they are in Africa today where they have an active mission in Zambia, for example. This mission became a Jesuit Province in 1969.

Here, they are engaged in "educating Zambians" for the "development of their own country".

The Ambassador of the Republic of Ireland has summed up in a few words what the Jesuits have been doing in Zambia:

"Unquestionably, the Jesuits have been a very, very significant contribution to education here in Zambia. Their education centre in this southern province St. Ignatius has educated thousands of young Zambians who possibly would not always have received an education and as a consequence many of these people have now become ministers, senior officials, doctors, nurses, the sort of people that are required to build their country. And that is the contribution that the Jesuits have made to the development of Zambia."

H.E. Mr. Tony Cotter

Irish Ambassador to Zambia

Let us see what "God´s marines" are up to in Zambia (Video 1):

Video 1. History of the Irish Jesuits in Chikuni, Zambia.

What do you think, mon Capitaine?

Mon ami, as someone has said: "Handle with care".

References

Carmody B.P. (1992). Conversion and Jesuit Schooling in Zambia. Studies in Christian Mission 4. E.J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands. 180 pp.

Jensen L.M. (1997). Manufacturing Confucianism: Chinese Traditions and Universal Civilization. Duke University Press, Durham, NC,USA. 444 pp.

Murphy E.P. (2003). A History of the Jesuits in Zambia: A Mission Becomes a Province. Paulines Publications Africa, Nairobi City, Kenya. 504 pp.

Parker P. (Ed.) (2013). Himalaya: The Exploration and Coinquest of the Greatest Mountains on Earth. Foreword by P. Hillary. Anova Books, London, UK. 192 pp.

Russell-Wood A.J.R. (1998). The Portuguese Empire, 1415-1808: A World on the Move. Jihn Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD, USA. 289 pp.

Standaert N. (1998). The Jesuits Did NOT Manufacture "Confucianism". EASTM 16 (199): 115-132.