The Church must “maintain a sacred distance from most of our African politicians who are corrupt, greedy, violent, sit-tight leaders”, a leading Catholic scholar has said.
“We have so many old sit-tight rulers in Africa who do not wish to give up on their stranglehold on their people and who are milking their countries dry,” said Fr Stan Chu Ilo, research professor at the Centre for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology, in Chicago’s DePaul University, and Coordinating Servant at the Pan African Catholic Theology and Pastoral Network (PACTPAN).
Six out of the ten longest-serving leaders in the world are in Africa, including Teodoro Obiang Nguema of impoverished Equatorial Guinea, at 45 years, Paul Biya of Cameroon at 42 years and Denis Sassou Nguesso of Gabon at 39 years.
Ilo said their systems of patronage and kleptocracy created a gulf between the rich and the poor, entrenching social inequalities.
“The state in Africa has suffered from what they call ‘state capture’ which became popularised in South Africa because a few families and a few thin top layer of the political and religious elites are swimming on top of a sea of wealth, while the majority of Africans are drowning in a sea of poverty,” Ilo told The Tablet.
He said this was destroying the lives of Africans, creating more poverty, and “is the main driver of social unrest, violence, and war. It is also the reason why political competition for offices in our continent has become so destructive and why those in power and their client base and reference group do not easily give up on power.”
Ilo said the African Church should call these leaders to account, and urged African theologians to move from “desk-top theology” to embrace advocacy theology addressing the needs and concerns of African people.
“The Catholic Church in Africa should stand up against this scandal of poverty in Africa in the midst of so much wealth,” he said.
“I think as an African theologian and scholar, I and my peers must admit our own failings in making these issues the central concern of our writing, teaching and advocacy. African Catholic scholars and their colleagues in the African academy need to embrace public theology that involves advocacy and social justice.
“Faced with the structural violence that is destroying our people's lives especially the poor and the vulnerable; struggling as we all do with rising violence and restiveness among our people, it is no longer possible to continue doing ‘desktop theology’.
“I believe that the time is ripe for a new historical consciousness to emerge in Africa that will trigger an evangelically driven theology and pastoral life that can bring about social transformation in Africa and give hope to our people who have suffered enough.”
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