“Young people with God, let us rebuild our beautiful country!”
Amazingly, war-torn Congo is taking up this slogan as it looks to the future.
It is the title of a book produced by CMS mission partner Judy Acheson and her colleagues in the Church of Congo youth department.
The book – a citizenship manual for young people – has been approved by the country’s minister for youth and will be used in schools throughout Congo.
Helping young people to discuss openly their responsibilities to their country, from a Christian perspective, is just part of the fruit of CMS’s long-term relationship with the church in DRC.
Overview
Factbox
Population
58.7 million
Capital
Kinshasa
Languages
French (official), Swahili, Tchiluba, Kikongo, Lingala
Life expectancy at birth
45.8 years (UK: 79)
Literacy
67.2% (age 15 and over)
GDP per capita (PPP US$)*
$714 (UK: $33,238)
*Purchasing Power Parity: PPP US$1 has the equivalent purchasing power of $1 in the US economy
Source: UN Human Development Reports 2007/8
One of Africa's largest countries, the Democratic Republic of Congo has the second-largest rainforest in the world and is rich in diamonds and many precious natural resources. But most people remain poor after years of dictatorship and a five year war. This conflict resulted in more deaths than any other since World War II.
Among the signs of hope is the Anglican Church. Most of its pastors stayed with their people throughout the conflict, either in their home villages, or as displaced people. CMS is seeing the fruit of long years' dedicated service by mission partners, as the Congolese they have worked with now emerge as leaders to help heal their people.
The Church in DR Congo
The Anglican Church in Congo is particularly strong in the east of the country - the area hardest hit by the recent war. Many pastors showed great courage as they served their people throughout the conflict, some even returning to their posts in disaster areas as thousands fled.
Now Christians are banding together to rebuild their churches and are finding imaginative ways to reach out to their fellow Congolese and work for reconciliation.
In Kalima, Archdeacon Mwenyemali has played a significant role in encouraging militia fighters to come out of the forest and lay down their arms.
In Kisangani the diocese has started a radio station. And throughout the region, the church has a vibrant youth movement, Agape, which was nurtured into being by CMS mission partner Judy Acheson.
Since 1900, the total number of Christians in DR Congo has grown so that now 80-90 per cent of people call themselves Christians.
The Anglican Church in Congo dates from 1896, when a Ugandan evangelist, Apolo Kivebulaya, came to the village of Soga. After initial resistance the village accepted the Gospel and Apolo trained evangelists to set up churches throughout the district, while he himself went into the forest to share the gospel.
CMS in DR Congo
After the death of Apolo in 1933, two CMS missionaries were sent to Soga to continue his work, and CMS has worked with the Anglican Church there ever since.
The CMS mission partners currently in Congo have worked there for almost 50 years between them.
Judy Acheson
is the provincial youth worker for the Anglican Church. She is based in Lubumbashi and oversees the Church's youth work throughout the country.
Francesca Elloway
is a doctor and has been co-ordinating the health work in Aru, Diocese of Boga since 1994. Her work includes giving consultations, overseeing health centres, AIDS education, and teaching Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the nurses training school.
Eric and Sandra Read, with children Peter and Atiyyah, work with Katanga diocese, based in Lubumbashi in the far south-east. They have started a grassroots community development programme called, in Swahili, “Continuing from the foundations”. The aim is for local churches to become instruments in bringing about God’s kingdom within their own communities.
Ian Harvey
is shortly to start work in Lubumbashi, helping to establish a project working with street children, in cooperation with the Anglican Church there. Ian is a social worker who has specialised in supporting children leaving care and young asylum seekers.
CMS financially supports the training of pastors, both in the dioceses and at the provincial theological college, I'Institut Superieur Theologique Anglican (ISThA).
Other recent initiatives supported include peace and reconciliation seminars throughout the east of the country, trauma counselling for victims of rape in the civil war, community development and of course the production of Judy Acheson’s youth manual.
History and Politics
In the late 15th century diplomatic and trade relations were established between the Kongo kingdom and Portugal. The kingdom sent representatives to the Vatican and adopted Roman Catholicism, soon afterwards producing the first black African Roman Catholic bishop.
In the 1870s Henry Stanley, financed by King Leopold II of Belgium, explored the interior of the Congo, which was later affirmed as Leopold’s personal property. It formally became a Belgian colony in 1908 and was renamed the Belgian Congo.
Since gaining independence from Belgium in 1960, DR Congo has been blighted by civil war and corruption. A military coup in 1965 brought General Mobutu to national leadership, and, supported by the West during the Cold War, he went on to rule as a dictator for 32 years, amassing huge wealth while the country's infrastructure and economy crumbled. (He renamed the country Zaire in 1973. This was changed, by his successor, to the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1997.)
Dissatisfaction among the population meant that the country was ready when Laurent Kabila led a rebel alliance that overthrew Mobutu in 1997. However, a devastating war began in 1998, when Rwanda and Uganda invaded, sponsoring a number of rebel groups.
Zimbabwe and Angola also joined the war, on the side of the government. Kabila was assassinated in January 2001; his son Joseph succeeded him.
The fighting continued, fuelled as much by greed for the country's natural riches as by political aims. A comprehensive peace deal was finally signed in December 2002 and since then the country has been edging towards the restoration of civil society, with elections held in 2005.
But peace is still not a reality in eastern Congo.
Economy
Congo is endowed with vast potential wealth in the form of its natural resources, including diamonds, copper, gold, cobalt, hardwoods and coltan (a rare mineral used in mobile phones). Despite this, the country remains very poor.
Under Mobutu, corruption and embezzlement were rife among a small elite led by the president. Hyperinflation became a major problem in the early 1990s, hitting a high of 10,000 per cent in 1994 before returning to 657 per cent In 1996. It is ironic that diamonds, potentially the country's largest source of revenue, fuelled the recent conflict, which in turn destroyed the economy and infrastructure.
As peace comes, bodies such as the World Bank are now making large grants to tackle issues from HIV/AIDS to the demobilisation of troops from the many rebel groups and the rebuilding of infrastructure.
If you would like to contribute financially to the life-changing work
of CMS in DR Congo then please click on the link below.
Alternatively, please send a cheque made payable to Church Mission Society to CMS, Income Team,
Watlington Road, Oxford, OX4 6BZ, clearly stating that this is how you
want your donation to be used.
For more information on specific mission partners highlighted here, please contact
julie.whitfield@cms-uk.org
and for project information, please contact
chris.woo@cms-uk.org. Thank you!