In 2024 Comboni Missionaries marked fifty years of their missionary work in Kenya after being expelled from Sudan in 1972. They settled down in West Pokot [North West side of Kenya]. In 1974 they built administration offices and a formation centre in Nairobi. This paper highlights key mission points that make the Comboni Missionaries unique in their people-centred methodology on social justice leading to social transformation. As a youth growing up in Nairobi the Comboni Missionaries were part of a wider team of missionaries that mentored us at the Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, Adam’s Arcade in our catechetical formation. Other missionary groups that were active at the parish and continue to mentor others alongside Guadalupe Fathers, were the Society of Jesus from Hekima University, Little Sisters of St Joseph, Consolata Sisters, Salesians of Don Bosco and others. I am currently working at Tangaza University, Nairobi, under the Institute for Social Transformation, sponsored and run by Comboni Missionaries. When Daniel Comboni was canonized in 2003 some of us were present to witness the occasion in Rome. The Church celebrates St Daniel Comboni’s Feast Day on 10th October.
Three questions were designed to guide this article using an integrated narrative inquiry approach. Questions were on: Who was Comboni? What continues to inspire two congregations of women and men? Who are followers who continue living and sharing the charism with its challenges? One gospel value that is like a virus of resilience shared among Comboni adherents is inspired by the letter of St Paul to the Philippians 3:7-8, the lines read as follows, ‘…But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things…’. The moment one encounters Christ like Paul did in his damascene experience, you can never be the same. Nothing else matters but Christ. So, Paulinspires Comboni, who in turn inspires his followers in their mission in Africa. It is from these experiences l learnt from different Comboni Missionaries that once you encounter Christ, like Paul, like Comboni, “Nothing Else Matters’’ but Christ. The Metallica Song, ‘Nothing Else Matters’, inspires one to look beyond what appears to be a problem.
Who was Comboni
Daniel Comboni was born on 15th March 1831 in Limone on Lake Garda, in the region of Brescia, Italy. He died on 10thOctober 1881 in Khartoum, Sudan. He made his commitment to Africa in 1849. Comboni was the fourth of eight children. His parents were poor but unified in faith and true Christian values. The family poverty forced Comboni to go to Verona and study there under the tutelage of Don Nicola Mazza. As he pursued his studies in Verona, Comboni discovered his calling to priesthood. He studied philosophy, theology and got ordained into priesthood in 1854. He opened himself up to mission into central Africa after hearing from returning missionaries of the Mazza Institute. After his ordination he spent three years in Italy before leaving for Khartoum with five other Mazza missionaries. His mother was happy for him and blessed him saying, “Go, Daniel, and may the Lord bless you.”
Comboni’s missionary journey to Khartoum
It took Comboni and his companions four months to arrive in Khartoum. The traveling, the impact with African reality taught him many lessons. The fatigue, unrelenting climate, strange illnesses leading to his youthful companions dying, and challenges local people were facing did not deter his determination to leave an indelible mark on Africa. The challenge energized him to keep going forward with enthusiasm. He also encountered humans in chains as slaves to be sold for hard labour. Comboni would be moved to buy the freedom of the slaves and send them to Verona at the Mazza Institute as free people for skills training. He wrote to his parents explaining the hardships he encountered, reminding them of Christ in His Gethsemane experience, ‘‘We will have to work hard, sweat, die, but the thought of the sweating and dying for the love of Jesus Christ and the health of the most abandoned souls in the world is too sweet to make us give up on this great undertaking.”
Instead of being discouraged by the hardships and death of his companions, Comboni felt the desert experience of gaining for Christ more souls rather than giving up. He wrote, “O Nigrizia, o morte,” Africa, or death. He created a missionary strategy after visiting the Vatican and praying at the tomb of St Peter in 1864. The striking inspiration while at the tomb guided him to come up with a prophetic Plan for the Regeneration of Africa, which gave fruit to two missionary congregations – one for men 1867 and one for women 1872. He coined a famous gladiatorial-like motto, “Save Africa with Africa,” by serving Africa with the unlimited human skills and religious abilities of transformation among the African people.
Daniel Comboni was invited to the First Vatican Council as a theologian from Verona in 1871. During the sitting, he lobbied 70 bishops to sign a petition in favour of evangelization in central Africa, under the title, Postulatum pro Nigris Africae Centralis. In 1877 on 2nd, July, he was appointed Apostolic Vicar of Central Africa and consecrated Bishop a month later for Central Africa which covered modern-day Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Central African Republic, Northern Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Sudan. At this First Vatican Council Africa was divided into regions according to dominant missionary influence and incursion on the continent then. For instance, the Vicariate of Egypt was put under Friars Minor of Observance, the Vicariate of Tunisia was put under the Capuchin Friars. The Holy Ghost Fathers were entrusted with many centres on the continent including Senegambia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. The Society of Jesus was entrusted with Mozambique and other centres, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate were given Natal.
Shared experiences on work of Comboni Missionaries in Kenya
When the Comboni Missionaries were marking fifty years of missionary work in Kenya, they wanted to review this history of their congregation and renew their commitment to the Plan of Comboni. They also wanted to evaluate their own response to needs of the people of Africa by hearing from those lay people they had served for over fifty years. This role was assigned to me. I prepared simple questions to help this paper for presentation during the sitting of Comboni Missionary leaders coming in to Nairobi for the General Assembly.
The methodology applied is called Integrated narrative inquiry. It exposes pluralism or multiple approaches to bring out a detailed and stimulating appreciation of social transformations by individuals, groups of people, or research teams when confronted by a social phenomenon. For example, the poor are affected by discussions on independence, freedom, human rights and others. The experience of the poor differs from community to community. Where there is pastoralism the experience of poverty comes in the form of cattle rustling, plunder and death. The methodology, requires an exploration of circumstances that deeply affect the responents, looking for tools and advocacy strategies to apply in addressing distributive rights, freedom and independence.
Examples from the respondents associated to the Comboni Missionaries.
Feedback
Judo Ongesa [not real name] sums up what Comboni Missionaries continue to do in Kenya and Africa. Ongesa came to Nairobi from Ejinja Parish, Mumias in Western Kenya before being introduced to Comboni Missionaries in Korogocho informal settlements in Nairobi. He said,
“Having imagined that Nairobi was a heaven of peace, I met very scary incidents which shaped and made me to be extra careful. Insecurity, muggings, drug and substance abuse, rape and rampant killings of innocent life, prostitution and wide spread HIV/AIDS among other social ills were rampant in Korogocho”.
Ongesa adds what the Comboni Missionaries did to change the narratives in Korogocho.
“Fortunately, Comboni Missionaries came and settled at the heart of all sorts of social evils. The location where there is St John’s Parish today is where the Combonis settled in Korogocho, Nairobi. Brother Peter Daino [SM] joined the Comboni team of Fr. Alex Zanotelli, the late Sister Martha Giterio, and the late Fr. John Nobil, to build the original centre’’. Fr Alex Zanotelli, a Comboni, started programmes to give an alternative transformative model to improve the social welfare of the people of Korogocho:
- a non-formal school at St John’s to cater for people without foundation in school and beyond school-going age in 1991.
- Pro-life movement (kutetea uhai project) to take care of girls and mothers who were involved in prostitution, abortion and teenage pregnancies.
- HIV/AIDS program and medical care, especially supporting referrals to Nazareth Hospital Kiambu
- Mukuru recycling center to cap the issue of insecurity caused by hardcore boys who were convinced to join and train on making brackets for economic empowerment.
- Constructed and sometime bought simple houses where poor were to stay for free and supplied with food, clothing and medical care.
- Prostitutes were mobilized by Fr. Alex, and initiated with skills empowerment in ‘viondo’ baskets making, tie and dye, beadwork, shoe making and named them Bege Kwa Bega women.
Therefore, we come to understand Comboni Missionaries as followers of St Daniel Comboni, who continuously and relentlessly encounter Christ in suffering with joy, with gratitude and great satisfaction, because in doing so they walk the same path their master Comboni walked while imitating the same journey Christ Himself followed. Once you are infected by the germ of Christ, you surrender everything to Christ.
Ministry to Parliament since 2012
The MPs behind the founding of Catholic members of parliament spiritual support initiative [CAMPSSI] picked this Gospel of John 1: 45-46, where Phillip found Nathaneal and said to him, “We have found the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth”. Then Nathanael wondered whether anything good come from there. “Come and see,” said Phillip. Some of the Catholic MPs though society had not understood what they did in Parliament. There was consolation among the founding MPs that the public knew 15 per cent among them genuinely work for the greater good of their country, Kenya.
On July 26th 2012 the ministry for Parliament started with mass celebrated at the professional centre very close to parliament. Fr Francesco Pierli, a Comboni priest and founder of the Institute of social transformation became their de facto spiritual director. He was ably assisted by Ms. Alice Muchiri and Reginald Nalugala. The readings would carefully select to reflect the mood in the country and their work to the nation. In the first mass two psalms were combined during the homily. Psalm 94 where it reads the rejected can rise and be used as instruments of God in transforming society. Psalm 74 opens with ‘O God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?’.
150 Years since the founding of the Comboni Missionaries
2019 Marked 150 years since the founding of Comboni Missionaries in 1869. It meant rebranding the Institute of Social Ministry in Mission (ISMM) to The Institute for Social Transformation. The institute provides tools for transformative learning and education to diploma, undergraduate students, masters and doctoral studies all focused on uplifting the human dignity and working for the common good everyone.
In 2024 the Institute graduated seven doctoral students whose work is spread across Kenya and Africa. For instance one student researched on lack of inclusive health care among pastoralists of Kajiado. Pastoralists are known to care about their animals even at times, more than humanbeings. When it comes to modern hospitals, they do not provide comprehensive and inclusive health care to animals owned by pastoralists.
Conclusion
I wish to thank the Comboni Missionaries and other religious who mentored me along the path of my growth in the faith. Two great Comboni Missionaries, we remember are Fr John Marengoni and Bishop Sisto Mazzoldi (both founders of Apostles of Jesus Congregation in 1968). I am also indebted to Fr Carlo Passinetti and Fr De Berti. From 1999 to 2024 I encountered resilient people like Fr Moschetti, Prof. Fr Francesco Pierli, Bro. Emilio Prevedello, Bro. Parise, Fr Andrew Bwalya and Dr Bro. Jonas, with whom I continue to work today. The Comboni Sisters continue promoting human development agenda among marginalized women, in various projects located at Kariobangi Parish, Nairobi, to the region. When they marked 150 years of their founding in 2022 fresh memories came through the editorial work of Sr Maria Ratti and Sr Christine Alindu, Sr Kevin at Huruma University [a university among slum dwellers using Freirean methodology], who continue to inspire us all. “O Nigrizia, O Morte,”, Africa or Death.