What policy for Africa? Advocacy for an African policy without violence.

A succession of twenty-two very short and well-articulated chapters helps the reader to enter a new dynamic of politics in general and African in particular, for today, starting from the observation of the excesses to the taking into account of challenges and to the proposal of “keys of salvation”. I choose to present each chapter for itself by regularly quoting the author.

The author begins by pinning the race for materialism as the root cause of contemporary malaise: “What we need to know is that the blind conquest of material has opened the door to the identity crisis of the human being.” Terrorism, one of the components of this crisis, “is the perfect expression of our humanity which has resolutely taken the path of violence”

In denouncing, with the bishops of France, the loss of the sense of service in politics, let us note that in Africa this led to “blind seeking and abusive manipulation of power, selfish and criminal attitude. a politician who swears by his interests [which] make human lives […] sacrificed “. Looking at the multiple causes of Africa’s elections, whether at the individual, social or global level, he quotes President Barack Obama as saying that “Africa does not need strong men, but strong institutions” then he emphasizes that “education is the key to salvation”.

Another opening would be “democratic alternation, peaceful, without bloodshed [while it remains for Africa] a major and crucial challenge” … “democratic alternation is a moral principle [… and] justice”. A straightforward appeal addressed to the leaders for their sense of service. But African cultures are themselves imbued with a sense of power that is hereditary and often leads to tribalism and all its destructive deviances. Can we not then think that “education and the formation of consciences in the light of evangelical values ​​remain the key to salvation for the African continent to overcome the virus of political illusion. “?

The first challenge is to fight the “power of the political mirage” by denouncing the collusion of politics and the media that enslaves the people. We must already get out of “political illiteracy” and evacuate the false hopes offered by opponents whose “reality of political power seems to be beyond their strength. Thus, to neutralize the manipulation exercised by the latter the only key “is fundamentally the formation of a political consciousness of the African populations, so that they are able to discern and decide, by themselves […]” to no longer to be “complicit in his own suicide, or even his own genocide. “

But faced with all the turpitudes of the political world and their agents how not to give up and allow “hope in a better tomorrow drowns continuously in the ocean of desolation. Indeed today Africa is the battlefield of deadly violence in all areas because it is “a universe that achieves in all its splendor the unheard-of plan of Satan …” which prevents us from building peace because his world is without God.

Here we are at the heart of the author’s reflection: “The essence of peace reaches its fullness only in God alone. God is Peace and Peace is God. Seeking peace means above all else, and above all, returning to God the source of peace. This perspective, this dimension, is sorely missed in all peace-seeking processes around the world. An example is the conditions that lead people to move, people to emigrate, and the result is still poverty, hunger, death. The Church has a very clear mission here, that of “deepening the Christian vocation […] to live, in the name of Jesus, reconciliation among peoples, and to promote peace and justice in the truth. (Africae Munus art 1). “Without the preferential option for the poor, the proclamation of the Gospel, which remains the first of all charities, risks being misunderstood or drowning in a flood of words. (Evangelii Gaudium art 199) “.

But in the face of all this violence and injustice, there is always the question of the identity of God and his project on humanity. Christians in the Church are invited to “repeat in a language of great hope that the humanity [it] wants for man is a humanity based not on violence but on love. It is a new type of Alliance-based relationship that God establishes between Him and humanity fully lived in Jesus Christ. By his incarnation he offers to man the object of his dream: happiness which is not in the material but which is in love. But love is eternal and “Christ leads humanity from the civilization of violence to the civilization of Love. “

Politics in Africa should be reborn of Love. Africans “deeply aspire to a political vision that embodies order and stability, and which in essence is the driving force for integral development. “The people must be able to elect and remove their elect in peace and without bloodshed. For this we need to focus on our education systems. “Education in Africa must be both universal and contextual, that is to say, by reviewing our respect for cultures and establishing the establishment of genuine democratic sharing.

So for politics to become everyone’s business, “we must teach in our families, our schools, our churches, our neighborhoods, our villages, our citizens to cherish the positive and healthy values ​​of politics. We must educate our fellow citizens in political life and culture [… and dispose of them] to put themselves resolutely at the service of others and to defend them for the sake of justice and charity. “

This political history of men is always and so the African world invited to read the Scriptures will discover that only mercy can meet the challenge of these political disasters. “Mercy is the source of hope in new heavens for man. Let the African man allow himself to be enlightened by God, let him listen to “that sublime voice, which can be heard in the law of nature. Respect and love the nature of everything […] If man does not respect his own nature, it will be difficult for him to respect the nature of other creatures. “

Michel Bonemaison sma
Rome le 8 octobre 2017